11-year-old singing sensation Jarrell Huang makes it into the top
10 of Taiwanese reality singing competition “One …
Renowned Taiwanese
TV host Matilda
Tao calls him "Singapore's pride" and "Singapore's child
prodigy".
And 11-year-old
singing sensation Jarrell
Huang looks set to live up to the title.
Huang will be the
sole Singaporean among the 10 finalists from Taiwan, China and U.S.
in this Sunday's episode of Taiwanese reality singing
competition "One
Million Star".
The winner will
snag a contract with a major record label and a cash prize of NT$3
million (S$150,000).
The weekly
programme, which airs over E City on Starhub Ch 825, is now in its
eighth season and has kicked off the musical careers of prominent
Mandopop artists such as Yoga
Lin and Jam
Hsiao.
Homegrown
songbirds Wong
Jinglun and Sugie
Phua, both in their 20s, also finished fifth and seventh
respectively in the third season three years ago.
Since this year's
competition began five months ago, Huang has won much praise and
countless fans for his pristine vocals.
YouTube video
clips of the rising star's performances on the show have also
garnered over tens of thousands of views, with one of Huang singing
and dancing to his idol Justin
Bieber's hit 'Baby' amassing more than 77, 000 hits.
See videos of his
performances:
According
to The New Paper, Huang's journey to stardom started
in January when his father first accompanied him to Taipei to give
the first-round auditions a shot.
"I didn't expect
myself to make it past the first audition round in January,"
admitted a humble Huang to the same paper. "I wasn't confident as
there were a lot of other strong singers."
Since the
televised studio rounds in Taipei began in June, Huang has been
busy shuttling between both countries, flying over once every two
weeks and staying up to five days each round.
Also accompanying
father and son on the trips is Huang's vocal coach,
producer-songwriter Terrence Ng.
Ng, who is in his
late 20s, believes it is Huang's "determination and down-to-earth
personality" that has allowed him to come this far.
"You can sense
Jarrell's sincerity when he sings… plus, he really works very
hard," he added.
His father,
Lincoln Ng, 38, who works in the oil and gas industry, said that
his son displayed a natural talent for singing from as young as two
and a half years old.
"I remember we
were watching the Taiwanese idol drama Meteor
Garden and Jarrell would surprise us by singing the show's
entire theme song, with accurate lyrics. He couldn't read and
didn't know any words then," Ng was quoted by the paper as
saying.
"Subsequently, we
discovered that melodies came quite easily to him. At three years
old, he could even sing Thai songs."
Not surprisingly,
the child prodigy, who counts Show
Luo, Jay
Chou, Wilber
Pan and Justin Bieber as his idols, aspires to be a singer
one day.
But while his
dream is not one too distant, the Primary Five pupil at Maha Bodhi
School is in no hurry at all.
"I'm taking my
PSLE next year, so I want to concentrate on my studies," he
told TNP.
"On when I should
become a singer, I think the older I am, the better."
))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Yahoo left
out mentioning about the other contestant Wang Ling Pei who also
got in to the top 10. Pretty gal!
Have been watching
this programme did not know this little boy is from Singapore.
He is very impressive, a rare talent! His
Mandarin does not sound Singapore sort of Mandarin so is Wang Ling
Pei. They both speak good Mandarin.