Never mind if 11 other teary Idol contestants piped him to the votes. First in line for the axe, 18-year-old poly student Norman Then, insists that while his performance wasn’t exactly stellar, some other folks deserved to get sent home instead. Who are they? Find out!



View Norman’s farewell video to his fans!

He may have been voted off in the first Spectacular show on Singapore Idol 2 last night, but 18-year-old Ngee Ann Polytechnic student Norman Then hasn’t lost his cheerful disposition and healthy appetite. Literally.

When we met him at the MediaCorp canteen this morning, he helps himself to a big breakfast of iced Milo, sandwich toast, runny yolky eggs PLUS a hot plate of hokkien mee with cut luncheon meat, fish cake and a huge dollop of sambal chili.

“Now that I don’t have to take care of my voice, I can eat chili!”

He’s grinning that Cheshire cat grin, the same grin he wore on television last night even as he was placed among the bottom three with the least votes. Positioned in between Nurul Maideen and Jonathan Leong, he huddled his increasingly antsy pals towards him with outstretched arms and mouthed something into their ears: “Don’t worry, you will beat me.”

Within the next few minutes, host Gurmit Singh announced that Norman was out.

Never mind that, prior to the results show, Norman had joked to one reporter, “I will beat Jonathan Leong.”

Stumbling at the first block up the Top 12 hill is the most disappointed he’s ever been in his life. “It was the highest point in my life because I’m so young,” Norman says in all somberness to us. “But, like they say, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. I’m happy I made it quite far.”

After the results were revealed, Norman betrayed only a slight slip of disappointment as he cheerily belted out Jamie Cullum’s These are the Days. It was a moving moment as the other contestants broke into tears around him and stayed on the stage after the show was over, singing the song Lean on Me.

Even his well-meaning father — who went up on stage with his sister to join him on his last performance for Singapore Idol 2— said to him, “Never mind. Next season I will join and win it (Singapore Idol) for you!”

You didn’t see it on the show, but if Norman wanted to display a tough front at first, he couldn’t help but eventually turn on those dejected tears too.

“They (the Idol contestants) were all in tears. It was a very touching moment. I was feeling all right… but then I turned around and saw them crying. I saw Jay crying again. It was really like I’ve died!”

Following the results show, Norman picked himself up and went to his short-lived-in secret Idol hideout to pack his belongings before heading home, talking to his folks and falling asleep in his jeans at 2am.

After watching himself perform Radiohead’s wailing ballad High and Dry on Wednesday, he already had a hunch that he’d be the first to go home. Then again, many other contestants were just as self-effacing on their performances.

“I knew I could have done much better. I think I did much better in the rehearsals. Maybe with the mike, I couldn’t really hear myself. Or maybe I’m just inexperienced…”

Next week’s theme is No 1 Hits, and Norman says he would have picked Evanescence’s My Immortal to perform had he made it through to the next round. Still, he might just turn up to support the good buds he’s made on the show, even though he pretends to get all uppity-diva with the playful exhort, “See my mood how!”

“No solo in the finale? I won’t sing!”

When we probe if anyone else deserved to go home instead of him, Norman looks like he’s hit a pile of jackpot gold before grinning, “I think the producers should have gone home. They looked very tired.”

So was tough judges Dick Lee and Ken Lim spot on in their assessment that Norman didn’t put in enough effort for his first — and last — Spectacular?

“They can see it. They’re professionals. Maybe I could have worked a little bit harder or practiced a little bit more…”

The Ngee Ann Polytechnic student, who deferred his studies this semester for the competition, says that he will be taking some hard-earned time off to place his life in perspective, think about what’s next and catch up on ‘sleep and play’.

“I’ll probably get a job soon, so it’ll be like hero to zero. Okay, I’ll be taking your orders soon, like 'Welcome to McDonalds'!"

One thing he doesn’t look set to do in the near future is joining another reality singing competition. Norman shoots us a ‘No way!’ look as soon as we even suggest the possibility.

"It’s not just the long hours... You’re just not yourself sometimes. There’s always a camera in your face. You can’t say or do the wrong things.”

“I just want to live for the moment and enjoy it.”