AKADEMI FANTASIA – Wining Fantasy…For Women

Last Saturday was the Akademi Fantasia 4 (AF4) final. I didn’t watch the whole show because as most people who are familiar with this reality series, this season was not as interesting as the previous ones.

Furthermore, it’s getting more and more irritating to know the results of who made it and who didn’t. There’s a difference between wanting to infuse an air of suspense and irritating the audience/viewers. There is no reason to waste precious time in taking what feels like an hour to bring out a contestant’s suitcase, neither is it suspenseful to take 30 minutes to announce who’s going home.

But like the other seasons, the winner this time for the fourth cycle is a man. Will a woman ever win this show – the kind where the winner is totally determined by the votes from the Malaysian viewers tuning in? I doubt it.

I say this because, it is in my opinion that most Malaysians are unable to spot talent and will probably vote based on the character and background of the contestant rather that whatever talent is possessed.

In the case of having a female contestant win, this would perhaps be possible only if the male contestants are ugly, aren’t nice, and if they are from comfortable backgrounds. Even something like this might work, “he’s cute and comes from Felda, let’s give him a chance and vote for him” or “let’s vote for this contestant who is a single parent”.

This had led me to think that some Malaysian audiences/viewers who follow shows like this vote based on the “Kesian Factor”. In addition to this, my gut feeling tells me that most of the voters are female. Who won the 2nd Malaysian idol? I rest my case.

But hopefully with more channels like 8TV plus the affordability of subscribing to Astro, Malaysians will be able to experience singers and musicians of various genres from around the world, and not just the wedding “kugiran” bands, ghazal bands or even “Pertanding Karaoke Peringkat Daerah Parit Sulong” (village karaoke contest) or Chinese opera.

At this moment, I feel if there are 10 contestants participating in AF, all of which are female and a singular male contestant who has the “looks” and “talents” of William Hung (The guy who shot to fame with a very bad rendition of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on American Idol), I’ll not be surprised if this male contestants wins.




William Hung was furious after he found out he was not eligible to take part in Akademi Fantasia.




Click here for Akademi Fantasia Entry Requirements & Eligibility