The Merry Riana Show – featuring Sylvester Sim

With Sylvester Sim, Singapore Idol Season 1 Runner Up

Turning into an Idol

“American Idol”, “Britain Got Talent”, and “So You Think You can Dance”, all of which are familiar reality shows that became great hits and exceeds beyond the description of being popular in America. Everyone tune in to these reality shows is an indication of one thing – dreams of becoming an Idol. People are using this kind of channel to release their desire, showcase their talents, and realize their dreams.

And not only is this happening in America or Europe, this irresistible Idol “wind” has blown towards Asia, particularly in Singapore as well. “Project Superstar” and “Singapore Idol” are clear examples of such reality shows, and MediaCorp has successfully held seasons after seasons for these programs, attracting tens of thousands of people to go for the auditions in being part of the shows.

I was pleased to have Sylvester Sim, or widely known as Sly by his fans, to do this audio interview. If you are one of those budding talents, and would probably love to know more about the life of being an Idol contestant, you may want to hear from his sharing, learning more about life as Sylvester Sim of Singapore Idol Season 1.

Sly was the first runner-up of Singapore Idol Season 1 and he has also released his debut album “Take Flight” in April 2005. In this album, much of the production is handled by Sly, from singing to composing, and 9 out of the 11 tracks in this debut album actually came from Sly himself. It was tough in recording for his album, but hard work pays off as the album was sold more than 15,000 copies in Singapore.

Sly’s favourite song in the album is a mandarin song called “所以” where this is the song that he wrote solely by himself from composition of music to lyrics. “所以 is a very simple song which is really from my heart, and it’s just plain and easy. And surprisingly, the song is quite popular on the net as well,” he said. This song was also widely known and popular in China, where everywhere you can hear his song and even ringing in the phones of people in China.  

Born with an acute sense of musicality, Sly has already involved himself much in the music industry, doing stage performing as a band even before the competition. Thus, going for an audition for Idol wasn’t as nerve-wrecking for Sly. At the young age of merely 12, Sly has already started to pick up guitar. From there, he went on to compose his own songs and pick up singing as well.

Sly joined the Singapore Idol Competition with a desire of wanting to gain more exposure for his songs, wanting share his songs to more people and have them knowing what he is writing. Being in the top 2 of Idol Season 1 was an unexpected surprise for Sly.

Life being an Idol changed Sly’s lifestyle during the period of competition. He had to learn to cope with the sudden swarm of attention of the public and the sudden twist of turning into an overnight star. “It’s like today I might be going downstairs in my shorts eating Char Kway Teow, and the next day everyone is like saying ‘look at him’. So we got to learn how to handle this on our own in a quick way, and that’s the biggest change in my life” he said. However, being happy-go-lucky by nature, it makes it easier for Sly when bad publicities crossed his path, as he chose to handle it in a happier way.

Years after his competition in Idol, Sly is still following down the music path, where recently, he has changed his style from rocker, that everyone associates him with, to a more Hip-hop and R&B style. He is very much into dancing now, and is taking up dance classes. The reason for his change – It’s the trend in music. He said, “I believe everyone is not listening to rock anymore. It’s more into dance music, R&B. This is what is popular. So, even songs that I write nowadays are more R&B and Hip Hop, which is what people like to listen, because I think as a composer, I can’t write things that I like and others can’t accept. I have to go for what they like and make them accept. And when they like my songs, I can put a little more of my style inside so that that will make it more unique”.

In time to come, Sly would like to his own album more established to himself and maintaining a more stable life by writing songs for artiste, taking up a more supporting role in the entertainment industry.

Being in a ‘flowery’ world of entertainment industry, Sylvester’s definition of ‘gorgeous’ can be simply described as attractive. To him, the person may not be particularly good-looking, but he or she must possess the X-factor or charisma to attract people around him or her. “I like someone who really dares to showcase their talent, and maybe like someone who can sing, dance, who has a similar talent to me” Sly said. The kind of attractive girl that Sly is looking at? The answer is the talented Korean singer, BoA.

For those who are still hesitating whether to be part of the Idol series, Sly’s advice to you is to go ahead as we only lived once! Take a step out and begin to realize your dreams now. For the supporters of Sly, or even those who want to know more about Sylvester Sim, you can now contact him through St James, as Sly would be performing there every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

Click on the pucture below if you want to listen to Sly singing LIVE in my audio interview with him.

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