The geek in pink and soul man progress in Idol


Jeanine Tan
jeanine@newstoday.com.sg

IN THE end, it was the singer who judge Dick Lee dubbed "a performing monkey" and the soul man who made it through to the next round of Singapore Idol.
.
Joakim Gomez, 18, who gave an energetic performance of the Jason Mraz pop ditty Geek in the Pink and Hady Mirza Amir, 26, who put a R&B spin to Bryan Adam's ballad Heaven, got the most audience votes.
.
Hady, a singer in local R&B group Raw Energy, was the strongest vocalist by far, with all the judges except Ken Lim praising him for his singing on Wednesday night's show. "It's a good thing you started off the show because you started it really well," said Lee.
.
Gomez, on the other hand, got mixed reviews for his performance. He was the only contestant who danced as he sang and managed to work up the crowd, but his vocals were occasionally shaky.
.
Lim's scathing verdict of his performance was: "Ability to distract the audience, 10. Ability to sing, 0."

However, Florence Lian defended Gomez. "Hello, I liked the performing monkey a lot," she said jokingly, referring to Lee calling Gomez a performing monkey.
.
Hady and Gomez will now perform on July 12, when the Top 12 round of the competition kicks off.
.
Next Wednesday will see the second batch of seven females take to the stage on MediaCorp TV Channel 5 at 8pm.