Where's the magic?

This is the fourth time that I missed the annual song competition by TV3 i.e. Anugerah Juara Lagu (AJL). The first three were in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Nevertheless, thanks to the technology I managed to watched it online from my cozy room in Fallowfield.


This year's AJL is supposed to be the one that I'm looking forward to because I like all the songs. Plus, some of my favourite artistes are competing too. All three in the etnik kreatif category are my favourites - Nora, Ramlah Ram and Aishah. I'm also a big fan of Sahri and Lah Ahmad, who are in the balada category and Mawi, Misha Omar and Andi Flop Poppy in the pop rock category. In addition, my favourite composers Azlan Abu Hassan, Lin Li Zhen and Audi Mok are competing with AJL's darlings, namely, M. Nasir and Adnan Abu Hassan.

Unfortunately, after watching it on http://www.tv3.com.my/, I'm far from feeling all satisfied. In fact, I'm very disappointed with most of the performances, especially the heavyweights. Only three performances have had caught my attention and they are Janjiku by Sofaz, Ceritera Cinta by Jaclyn Victor and Lah Ahmad, and Angan dan Sedar by Mawi

The big four, namely, Dato' Siti Nurhaliza, Nora, Ramlah Ram and Aishah gave us the ketinggalan zaman performances. What I mean by ketinggalan zaman is that we've seen these kind of performances so many times in Anugerah Juara Lagu. And vocally, only Dato' Siti Nurhaliza and Nora slightly met the bar, while Ramlah Ram and Aishah sounded very out of place. Is this one of the signs that they are aging? Anyhow, these two singers still remain close to my heart.

Fazli Zainal, Fiq, Sahri and Bob showed promising performances but lack of X factor. Among these four newcomers, I prefer the renditions of Sahri and Fiq. To me, theirs reflected simple singing but full of emotion. I've to admit that I was very worried watching Fazli Zainal belting his heart out for the melancholic song, Harapan. He looked like he was in pain while singing this song by Hazami. On the other hand, Bob looked very relaxed singing Kasih Tercipta. However, his rendition, to me, was lack of feel and weight.

Talking about emotion, for the first time, I really enjoyed listening to Jaclyn Victor's live performance. And thank to Lah Ahmad for a smoothing vocal arrangement. They were both singing harmoniously, full of chemistry and moving too. And of course, Jaclyn Victor sounded very, very good when she sings, rather than screams. You go girl!

Undeniably, Itu Kamu is a good song. The melody is catchy and its musical arrangement is contemporary. Nevertheless, I hardly understand the words that came out from Rich's mouth. If he could polish his vocal a little bit, at least at par with the lead singer of Sofaz, they can be the best performance of the night. Anyhow, congratulations to Estranged and other subsidiary winners and thank you to Ramli M.S. for those beautiful musical arrangements. You're the best!

note: The pictures are taken from www.gua.com.my