Starmaker: Rizuan The Musical

Guess who went for Starmaker this year? Transit did. (Mr Sean "Jesusdasan" got to be announced on camera as VIP guest... wooo) Starmaker is an annual intiative by the Christian music community to encourage the Christian music industry. It's basically a songwriting competition to showcase the many talented homegrown musicians we have in churches all around Malaysia. Entry is open to all.

This year's culmination event was the prize giving ceremony held at City Harvest Church in Subang Jaya. The twelve shortlisted songs were weaved into a musical, making it a melodious, colorful, and dramatic extravaganza.

The lead actress part was played by none other than Transit's very own Eunice Jesudasan. Yes, our female footballer is also a singer and a dancer too. Hooray to multi-talented Transiters!

Here she is with Samuel Oh, from Grace PJ, who also featured in as a guest performer with his band LIGHTS in our Breakthru Worship Workshop. Sam, as this Life collegian is popularly known as, plays the title character (Rizuan) in this musical about love, heartbreak, and second chances.

Among the cast was our very own Liew Men Dee (as seen on the extreme left) and of course none other than our resident dance maestro/ guru/ instructor, Mr Sydney a.k.a Yap Che Siong. I only wish I could post a video of his solo part. (Anyone out there can help me?)

The musical was power-packed, filled with high-energy dances, dramatic tension, and some pretty awesome light play. The crowd was really hyped up. The suspense made them even more eager to know the winners of the songwriting competition. Among hundreds of entries from all over Malaysia, several Transiters songs were selected.

Joni's song made the cut (we weren't surprised at all) but unfortunately she couldnt be present to sing it herself. She asked Joshua to croon in her stead. However, nobody explained to the crowd why a boy was on the stage singing when the screen displayed the caption "Joanna Lynne". Anyway, confusion aside, Josh was a hit, the previous year's winner named him as her favourite, and many of us overhead encouraging comments from the crowd. One of them was a man who couldnt help complimenting Joshua's singing to his neighbour. As it turned out, the person sitting beside him was Joshua's grandfather.

Also shortlisted was our Lydia Tan. All our finalists made us proud.

It was a night of stirring performances from all genres across the board. The panel was more inclusive this year and chose to recognize different types of songs including Bahasa Malaysia songs. In the end, Diana Wee walked away with the top prize for her song 'In Awe', and we were all in awe of the goodness of God as displayed in all the songs.