House Idol: Ming came out with a BANG!

By Hailey Sun

On April 3rd, the RCHK secondary community was treated to the exciting and highly anticipated musical event: the annual House IDOL competition. The four houses of the school - Ming, Qing, Song, and Tang, each put forth their best efforts to showcase their talents and dazzle the crowd with their performances.

Students from each house of different year levels came together to help with the production of the performance, putting in immense effort to support their house on top of their school work, spending hours after school rehearsing and managing logistics of the performance. “It was very stressful with the time crunches, but there were a lot of student leaders that stepped up to help and manage the rundown,” recalled an anonymous Song participant.

Student leaders were also responsible for leading the divisions in their house, such as instrumentals, vocals, and dance; though many of them mentioned the amount of work and stress they had to go through in particular. “House idol was an event that I spent a lot of time composing for; which interfered greatly with my academic life,” said one of the main instrumentalist leaders.

On the day of the competition, Song set the stage on fire with their electrifying performance to start off, sending the entire secondary community on a whirlwind journey through different eras and styles - from the ballet-inspired "Yellow" by Coldplay to the western-themed "Footloose" by Kenny Loggins, and everything in between, such as the funky beat of "Runaway Baby" by Bruno Mars and the swagger of "Edamame" by $bbno. One of the particular highlights was the emotional cover of "Someone to You" by Banners, which wrapped their showcase to a poignant close. The crowd was left with a lasting impression of the retro-inspired tunes, and it was evident that Song had made their mark on the competition.

Next on was Ming whose performance took the stage by storm, starting off with the iconic whistle-tune of "I Ain't Worried" by One Republic, which smoothly transitioned into their dreamy and languid rendition of "Dandelions" by Ruth B. Ming switched between different genres and styles with ease. Although the energy of the atmosphere was already high, they managed to up the energy level even further with the catchy and uplifting "New Rules" by Dua Lipa. Then, they transported everyone back in time with a feel-good rendition of "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry that had most of the secondary community reminiscing about their early years, followed up by the hyped-up "GDFR" by Flo Rida. Finally, Ming closed the show with an extremely impactful rendition of "Bang Bang" by Jessi J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj, impressing everyone with their powerful vocals and stage presence.

Continuing the flow, Qing dazzled the crowd with their creative performances, starting off with a dynamic rendition of popular hits; starting off with "Shut Down" by BLACKPINK, which featured a seamless blend of Paginini's La Campanella's theme and hip hop beats, then continued with the introspective and emotional "Kill Bill" by SZA, followed by the iconic "Toxic" by Britney Spears. The transition from high-energy hits to the rap-infused "7 rings" by Ariana Grande was marked by the unforgettable melody on the marimba, followed by "Anti Hero" by Taylor Swift featuring the vocals of students and Ms. Bennett. Finally, Qing closed off the show with a lively and engaging performance of "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin that showcased a collaborative performance featuring every Qing performer. All the performances were a unique blend of energy, emotion, and creativity, with the additional collaboration of certain teachers such as Ms. Bennett and Ms. Sanker.

Tang took the stage next, immediately transporting everyone to a world of romance with the dreamy melodies of "Mia & Sebastian's theme" from La la land, and then on a nostalgia-filled journey with "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran; continuing to build the energy, Tang brought out covers of "Bloodline" by Ariana Grande and "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys. The final act was a high-energy, impactful rendition of "I’m Still Standing" by Elton John, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats. Their exceptional stage presence and energy left a lasting impression on the audience, who were left in awe of Tang's talent and skill.

After careful deliberation by the judges of the year: people from outside the school and the primary

House Captains –– based on the marking scheme in which they ranked their musicality, cohesiveness, and overall involvement, results were announced. Ming emerged as the winner, closely followed by Tang in second place, Song in third place, and Qing in last place. Despite the competition, all four houses put forth their best efforts and showed their incredible talent; the amount of creativity, involvement, and effort put in this year into perfecting the routines, arrangements and performance was truly remarkable.

Most people thought that the ranking of the houses this year was fairer than last year, and were in line with the amount of effort each of the houses put in.

One of the Year 13s had particularly strong opinions on the subject, having witnessed many of the rankings from previous years. “I feel like Idol has been rigged from day one of it starting like last year; I’m sure everyone has seen the last year Idol but something about that when it’s a music competition and you’re not judging on music [but] instead judging on every single thing else, it is a pretty rigged competition.” They also expressed their opinion on how “[The competition] was just not music-based enough” and the point that “No matter how well you do, it’s all judged on all the pretty appearances.”

“I think that because of the competitive nature of the houses this year, each of the houses came back stronger and better than before,” commented Judy Cheung, an audience member of the winning house, “The performances this year were particularly exceptional due to it.”

Ultimately, this event was a huge success and a memorable experience for many students. The RCHK Truth hopes that more people will join next year to showcase their talents and continue the tradition of House IDOL.