Wednesday, November 01, 2006
the moment i knew that LingZhi, one of my favourite 933 DJs had left, i was immediately engulfed by a 失落感.
I was flipping the chinese newspaper on monday, when a small column caught my attention. That was when i knew it. And it was already too late. Her last show had ended last Friday morning. It was quite a sudden departure, she would not be continuing her contract with mediacorp.
She entered 933 in year 1999, which was around the time that i started listening to radio programmes. She was the one who kickstarted the highly-rated and one of the longest running 933 programmes, "Music Diary". Aired every weeknight, she would be reading out personal stories of listeners, with her emotion-filled voice. More often than not, her personal touch to these stories made them touching and moving. Slowly and gradually, ratings for this programme went up, and she became well known for her success as the helms of this show, which was listened widely by students and working adults.
The craze of Music Diary continued for many years. I've known people who stayed by the radio at 8pm every night to listen to how LingZhi unfolds each new story. There seems to be no second person who can assume this role other than LingZhi herself. At the end of each story, there's also a segment where she will share a quote that leaves listener with food for thought. Sometimes, she would give her insights about 'love' and all these were helpful to listeners who had troubles in their relationships. Some listeners see her as a 'love expert' in that sense.
But, i admit i wasn't a diehard fan of Music Diary. Cos listening to radio at 8pm wasn't the practice for me, in both sec sch and jc. I know i would have missed out alot. But once in a while, i would make sure that i would tune in to the programme to satisfy the occasional desire.
Music Diary was so successful that LingZhi helped to release "Music Diary CD", which comprised of some of the more meaningful and moving stories sent in by listeners. It was a sold-out effort. "Music Diary CD2" came out 2 or 3 years later, and it too, garnered great support. Music Diary was also awarded the Best Radio Programme in 2005.
For me, I was more drawn to another of her programme a few years back. It was "2300 寂寞有人陪". From 11pm to 2am on weeknights, she would accompany 'night-owl' students like me. It was my all-time favourite late night show. I can't describe to you why, but i juz felt that the silence that comes with the late night has to be complemented with LingZhi's 感性 voice. Late night listening experience hadn't been so enjoyable before. For countless nights, i would listen all the way till 2am. Sometimes i would give myself the excuse that i would be studying, but it soon became less clear, whether it was LingZhi who accompanied me, or was it the other way round.
Then after a year or so, or it could be longer, 933 wanted a major shake-up in the programme line-up. New schedules, new pairing-up of DJs etc. "2300" had to end its run on a fateful Friday Night. I remembered it was a teary night. Lingzhi said that she couldnt bear to leave that programme, and also the late-night listeners. She was scheduled to be a morning DJ. For that night, she played all the trailers that she had made for '2300', and all the memories came flooding back. She welcomed listeners to call in for the last time in her night show, and all of them were so emotional that it was obvious that they were tearing as well. I stayed until my all-time favourite late-night show ended its last minute of air-time, after she gave her touching thank-you speech. She asked us to wait patiently for her return to late-night shows.
DJ Peifen took over the late-night show and right from the first day of the new show, i could sense the vast difference. Albeit peifen was bubbly, and sometimes gentle, it was a far cry from the experience that LingZhi could give. That feeling was gone and i no longer stayed until 2am. In fact, for a period of time, i even switched to ufm1003.
Another 933 major-shake up came after 1 year, but Lingzhi didnt return to late-night shows. i was a little disappointed. And peifen continued to entertain the night owls. After that, the next person to take over late-night was zhiyong, who was really entertaining, in my honest opinion.
Lingzhi continued to be a daytime DJ and also continued to be in the hot seat as host for Music Diary, until not too long ago, Music Diary was split between LingZhi and Peifen. it was quite a disappointing arrangement. Peifen was undoubtedly emotional when reading the stories, but im sure most agree that Lingzhi was stronger.
Then just 2 months ago, came the news that Music Diary's 5 times-a-week programme would be cut to just twice a week, with the other 3 days replaced by Peifen's "大头芬的世界". It was an even bigger disappointment. The latter programme was utterly meaningless, just a blog-ged story about a made-up character. One of 933's longest surviving programmes and one of its popular golden programme has now been plagued with a bleak future. Will Music Diary be axed soon? Can it continue to command interest with the departure of Lingzhi? Nobody knows.
Last friday was the last day of Lingzhi's journey as a DJ. Her decision to leave all of a sudden caught many by surprise, as can be seen by the 200++++ comments left on her co-host zhiyong's blog. So many listeners were 'shocked' and expressed that they couldnt bear her departure, and that she would certainly be missed.
Of course, i will miss her voice on air as well.
Listening may never be the same again.
人生是黑白的.
10:45 PM <3
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
S.H.E at PAYM concert 29/10/06
This is a free concert, as long as u r a member of PA. Thanks to jinxiong's membership card, i was able to attend it without having to spend $10 for the 3-yr membership. The concert showcases 6 Singaporean singers plus 1 S.H.E. And it was obvious that 70% of the audience was made up of S.H.E fans. THough throughout the 2-hour concert, there were cheers and claps, nothing could be compared to the thunderous screams when S.H.E appeared. Guess what, after the 6th singaporean ended his last song, the entire hall was CHANTING 'S.H.E', and everyone was stamping their feet on the ground, thereby causing rhythmic rocks.
And when S.H.E came out with their first song, the entire hall STOOD UP. Throughout the S.H.E segment, the audience was standing. And, everyone else was singing together with them, and moving naturally using the issued lightsticks. This was really the climax and the audience was brought to a 'high'.
Amazing. This makes me look forward more, to their actual concert on 27Jan2007.
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The concert progamme line-up:
1. 蔡礼莲
-关怀方式
-细水长流
2. 周崇庆
-洒脱
-冲动
3. 潘嘉丽
-Love me again
-遗失的美好
-被爱的女人
-爱无力
4. Jonathan Leong with 2 English songs
5. 龚诗嘉
-再一次拥有
-放不下
-my island home
6. Hady Mirza with 2 English songs
7. S.H.E
-5-year anniversary special video
-触电
-我们怎么了
-不想长大
-Superstar
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My top 3 played songs last week:
1. 我们怎么了 (S.H.E)
2. 紫藤花 (S.H.E)
3. 暖暖 (粱静茹)
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Anyway here are some photos from the concert, but photos are hard to take..
人生是黑白的.
10:33 PM <3
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S.H.E Tong Le Hui 29/10/06These are some of the photos i took. It was quite a fun event, lasting more than an hour. Although its a closed-door event, meaning only ppl with tickets can enter, there were hundreds of fans (without tickets) watching from outside. And i managed to take 3 videos, but each one is more than 100mb, so i couldnt upload to youtube to share here. Pity Pity. And there's a short birthday celebration for Selina..
人生是黑白的.
9:15 PM <3
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Photos from 6th Global Chinese Music Awards. Some are taken by myself, but obviously those of higher quality are taken from the net.
FIRSTLY......
Red Carpet Segment. We reached at around 6pm, and managed to catch all the stars coming one by one on designated cars and walked on the 'Xing guang da dao'. We were really lucky to get a not-bad spot, cos we were standing opposite the media camera-men, and so all the singers who came had to stop IN FRONT of us for their photos taken. So in a short frame of time, we caught more than 30 groups of the region's best and popular singers. I have to mention, that i've left a great lot of photos out, so the singers you see here are really a small number of the actual who turned up.
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Next.. the ceremony. Similarly, these are just peanuts to the actual ceremony. I only included those more popular singers though.
(P.S. after seeing the first 4 photos, if you think i've been to a horror movie screening, its not! Look on! LOL!)
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It's worth mentioning that....
1. It was really a damn great bargain. Imagine paying just $25 for a supposedly $68seat, and you get to catch 30++ singers UP CLOSE at the red carpet, and thereafter, catch all of them in a 4-hour event. Plus listening to countless songs. Plus the excitement and the live atmosphere together with 8000 others. Plus other exclusive performance like "Bian Lian" of china, MalayDrumming of malaysia, 5 stones of Singapore, Kungfu of china etc. ALso, the satisfying feel of WATCHING the entire event LIVE physically, while 11 BILLION other ethnic chinese are hearing it all over the region.
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2. Ever heard of the 3 top China Supergirls? THey are the red hot winners of China version of "project superstar". INdeed red hot, cos the entire china watched the process and it swept the country with an unprecedented craze, with record votes cast. The winner was even featured on Times Magazine, and her name's a top search on websites. But even so, Singaporeans don't know about them yet. And yet, at the ceremony, there were SO MANY SUPPORTERS OF THEM!!! Yes, that whole whole huge crowd of fans actually came from china lor. See that craze, even after the 2nd season of Supergals had concluded last month?
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3. The widely predicted winner of "Singapore's Talented singer" (新加坡地区杰出歌手奖) was Chen Wei Lian. Cos for the voting segment (60%), his votes actually thrashed other singers hands-down. But when the results came, it was Stefanie Sun. And this incurred the wrath of Weilian's supporters, who had since jointly protested against the results.
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4. It seemed that ALL THOSE who came from overseas eventually got an award. This had always been the case for Singapore Hit Award, and so it became quite predictable, regarding the winners. Which shouldn't be the case for a really solid awards ceremony. But it turned out that such a big event in chinese music, when its held in singapore this time round, became yet another "分猪肉" event. And it is obviously obvious.
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5. But still, this Singapore leg of the rotating event was still nicely organised. Special cultural performances were put in between, showcasing the specialties of each area of the region. ANd, the production cost was the highest so far. And coincidentally, this year's total votes cast was also a record high.
人生是黑白的.
12:06 PM <3
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第六届全球华语歌曲排行榜年度颁奖礼获奖名单
北京地区杰出歌手奖： 水木年华
广东地区杰出歌手奖： 周笔畅
香港地区杰出歌手奖： 刘德华
上海地区杰出歌手奖： 胡彦斌
台湾地区杰出歌手奖： 蔡依林
马来西亚地区杰出歌手奖： 曹格
新加坡地区杰出歌手奖： 孙燕姿
最佳作曲奖： 蔡健雅《障眼法》
最佳作词奖： 五月天阿信《丝路》
最佳编曲奖： 周杰伦《夜曲》
二十大最受欢迎金曲：
侧田 《VOLAR》
羽泉 《哪一站》
陈奕迅 《对不起，谢谢》
何耀珊 《飘洋过海》
周杰伦 《夜曲》
胡彦斌 《一年前》
刘德华《再说一次我爱你》
张敬轩 《过云雨》
金莎 《不可思议》
蔡依林《舞娘》
蔡健雅 《Beautiful Love》
李宇春 《冬天快乐》
TWINS 《80块环游世界》
S.H.E 《不想长大》
王力宏 《KISS GOODBYE》
容祖儿 《爱情复兴》
梁静茹 《丝路》
林俊杰 《曹操》
孙燕姿 《完美的一天》
光良 《约定》
最受欢迎对唱金曲：
张敬轩 王菀之 《手望》
TANK SELINA 《独唱情歌》
周杰伦 LARA 《珊瑚海》
最受欢迎女新人： 周笔畅 卫兰 杨丞琳 郭美美
最受欢迎男新人： 林宇中 薛之谦 侧田 TANK
全能艺人奖： 周笔畅 杨丞琳
最受欢迎组合奖： 羽泉 Twins S.H.E
传媒推荐奖： 李宇春
最佳舞台演绎奖： 张靓颖
最受欢迎创作歌手/组合奖： 张敬轩 林俊杰 光良 水木年华 五月天
最受欢迎男歌手-五强： 孙楠 周杰伦 陈奕迅 刘德华 光良
最受欢迎女歌手-五强： 李宇春 蔡依林 梁静茹 容祖儿 孙燕姿
最佳专辑奖：
羽泉 《三十》
陈奕迅 《怎么样》
刘德华 《再说一次我爱你》
孙燕姿 《完美的一天》
最佳男歌手： 陈奕迅
最佳女歌手： 容祖儿
最受欢迎男歌手奖： 刘德华
最受欢迎女歌手奖： 孙燕姿
最佳制作人奖： 王力宏
人生是黑白的.
10:27 AM <3
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