The Singapore Street Festival 2007 (SSF2007) organisers came up with Wow! – The Street Festival Singing Competition for Singaporeans, Malaysians and Permanent Residents (PR) of all ages. The competition, into its 4th year, was held outside Orchard Cathay Cineleisure, the official venue for this year’s Street Festival, between 7:30pm to 9:30pm on the selected dates.

What’s different this year, other than its selected panel of judges (including LIME magazine editor Stella Tng, chairman of 77th Street Elim Chew and Singapore Idol vocal instructor Babes Conde), was the 15% allocation for audience participation.

The initial 21 competitors at the preliminaries on May 29 became 14 for the semi-finals on Jun 1, before it was down to the final 10 to vie for the trophy, as well as $2,000 in cash and prizes sponsored by 77th Street and Crocodile on June 8. Tay Sia Yeun, 32, took the crown, sweeping the crowd away with her very own rendition of Zhang Hui Mei’s “Ku Bu Chu Lai”.

Mohammad Faliq, 21, and Sharezan Dollah, 19, were the second and third runner-ups.

This year’s singing competition turned out to be a disappointment for most of the judges during the finals. With only the occasional encouraging comments by Khor Ai Meng, one of the most popular local contemporary music vocalists, the rest of the judges had many discouraging words regarding the competition this year.

“Hearing the finalists for the first time, I think all of them have the potential to go far in singing. However, they need to work the hardest on their microphone techniques. That is what makes the difference,” Ai Meng suggested.

One of the guest judges for the Finals was Tama Goh, arguably Singapore’s most successful drummers, begged to differ and said, “I had a really high expectation. I am very disappointed by the performance of the finalists. Not only did they not put in efforts in their outfit, almost all of them have a wrong choice of song.”

Similarly, Elim Chew felt the participants, “chose a way too difficult song during the semi-finals and songs that were too safe for the finals”. She was also repeatedly let down by the participants’ “lack of effort in dressing up” despite numerous reminders that she had made from the beginning.

Among the 3 finalists who didn’t make the final cut was Glen Liew, a final-year student in Ngee Ann Polytechnic. This 20-year-old, who has taken part in numerous singing competitions and public performances before, used this year’s exposure not only as another notch in his musical pursuits, but also to express his love for his beau standing among the crowd. He melted the audience’s hearts with an a capella version of “Truly” by Lionel Richie.

Everyone’s hearts except the judges’, that is.

The other 2 finalists -Deborah Fernando, 17, performing “Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae and Elliot Miranda, 16, with “Singing Again” by Janet Jackson– had their own army of supporters screaming and cheering for them. Unfortunately, they didn’t manage to wow the judges with their voices either.

So with this year’s competition regarded as a virtual letdown, Elim Chew closed this year’s competition with a plea to everyone present at the finals.

“I hope Singaporeans with the passion to perform would join our singing competition next year. This is the first time I judged a competition where the preliminaries and semi-finals were much more enjoyable than the finals. I will certainly expect a lot more from the participants next year.”