As I luxuriated in my post wake-up sleepiness, my cell unexpectedly rang at a very unusual 10 in the morning. It was Brent from Ripple Vox. I never thought that the opportunity to be on MTV would present itself all over again when I had to turn down the casting call for the interview with Ken Lim due to my examinations. Never mind the fact that I was a stand-in for Fadillah as she was tied up with a family emergency, I was only too happy to be given yet another chance; this time, with Singapore Idol, Taufik Batisah!
I had chasms of unanswered questions running through my mind. How was the interview going to be like? Is Taufik an antagonistic snob in person? I do not deny that I have an issue with opening up to strangers and doing the whole PR thing. This reclusive nature of mine buries itself deep within my DNA and it has since been excavated bit by bit throughout the years through tremendous "extroversion" therapy efforts. I worry. What if I get the jitters? Nevertheless, I brushed it out of my mind.
2.45pm at the Vocanic office, I met the Ripple Vox crew; Veron, Ian and Brent (again!). There and then, Veron gave a brief about what was going to happen with Taufik and us. I was also told that Shahirah and Francis will be in this MTV Pop Inc episode too. Basically, this gig is for Starhub's new service, i-mode. We were to use provided i-mode phones to interact with him on the messenger service installed in the phones and whilst doing this blind date thing with Taufik, he will inadvertently choose his desired date at the end of the session. The catch is; he wouldn't know that one of us is actually a guy in disguise! And who was it to be? That would undoubtedly be the funnyman, Francis!
The four of us, Veron, Francis, Shahirah and myself hopped into a cab and got to Hype Records pretty soon enough. The whole shoot was scheduled to be in the White Hype Room. Really cool hole; I say! Practically everything's white! From walls to floors, couches to chairs. Man, Hype Records certainly didn't scrimp on facilities as such!
The camera and production crew came strolling in a short while after. The Starhub marketing team was also present to teach us the basic functions of messaging on i-mode and stuff. Unexpectedly, we received news that Taufik was on his way and we had to quickly hide ourselves into one of the rooms as we were not allowed to let Taufik see us before he revealed his choice for a date.
Very soon, the interactions on i-mode flowed. I was the first to converse with Taufik and boy was I exhilarated! We talked about my obsession; (that would be music!) to which we had a consensus (he said "me too!"), the most embarrassing thing I have ever done; to which he commented "that's disgusting!" (sneezing on some guy's face during a date – of course, that wasn't true! I had to tell a white lie to get his attention) and other stuff.
Shahirah and Francis repeated the same procedures and poor Francis had to crack his head so hard to convince Taufik he was this really hot "belly dancer who has a fetish for bikinis!"
Finally, the moment of truth.
Taufik was due to reveal his choice for a date. He was given some time to interact with us in person and find out for himself who was who on i-mode. As all of us would have expected, he chose "Hunney b" Shahirah! Reason being; she was like him; came from a mixed heritage of Indian-Muslim-Chinese blood. Taufik then presented Shahirah with an autographed i-mode cushion and marched away on a date with her! Boo-Hoo! Nah, just kidding! Nonetheless, each of us got to take a picture with our very own Singapore Idol individually and walked home with i-mode goodies.
I guess my skeptical answers didn't work for him and instead "Hunney b" Shahirah would have been a much safer bet. After an up-close-personal experience with our Singapore Idol, I can now say that he is not one who sticks his nose high up in the air and instead is a very amicable and personable celebrity. Thank you, Ripple Vox! For this opportunity to meet up with our very own Singapore Idol, Taufik Batisah!