The first season of The Final 1 premiered on MediaCorp Channel 5 on 24 April 2013. It is a Singaporean reality-singing competition programme created by the director of Hype Records Ken Lim. The judges were singer-songwriter Taufik Batisah, singer-actress Kit Chan and Ken Lim. Fly Entertainment artiste Vanessa Vanderstraaten was employed as the host of the show. Class 95FM radio personality Mike Kasem later joined the show as the second host, and hosted the finals together with Vanderstraaten.
The show is also the first in Singapore's history to produce a female winner from an English-based major reality-singing competition programme. The past winners from Singapore Idol, a similar programme which has already ended its run in 2009, were all males.
On 21 August 2013, Farisha Ishak was announced the winner of the first season of The Final 1, beating Shaun Jansen, the recipient of the Wild Card save. She received a $50,000 record deal from Hype Records and a cash prize of $50,000.
Farisha, as the winner, signed to a record label. Ken Lim originally stated he had no plans to sign any of the other finalists from the competition. However, on 23 September, it was announced Hype Records also signed Jansen to its label.
Online auditions The show is open to all citizens and permanent residents of Singapore aged 16 to 32 as of 1 January 2013.http://www2.meradio.sg/thefinalone/The-Final-1-Terms-and-Conditions.pdf The online auditions began on 11 January 2013 and ended on 15 February 2013. To participate in the auditions, all contestants must register themselves at the official website of the show and submit an audition video of no more than five minutes long. Over 1,000 audition clips were submitted for the competition. Out of all auditionees, 60 were selected by the judges as the top 60 contestants and they were invited to perform in front of them at the top 60 round.
Top 60 round The top 60 round were held in W Singapore Sentosa Cove where the 60 contestants that were handpicked by the judges from the online auditions competed for a place in the top 40 rounds. Although 60 online auditionees were chosen, only 56 of them turned up for this round of the competition. Hence, four of the top 60 finalists eliminated themselves from the competition prior to the start of the top 60 round. The contestants first emerged on stage in groups but performed individually with a backing track or by playing with a musical instrument. At the end of all performances, 16 contestants who did not impress the judges were eliminated, and the remaining top 40 contestants advanced to the next round.
Top 40 finalists
The following is a list of top 40 finalists who failed to reach the top 20 live rounds:
Contestant Age at time of show Occupation Audition song Top 60 round songHarris Baba21National serviceman"Let Me Love You"Zarinah Bahtiar28Freelancer"Use Somebody""Titanium"Boon Hui Lu19Student"Pumped Up Kicks"Not airedJoey Chua18Student"The Voice Within"Farah Erfina21Student"Forget You""Thinking of You"Fathin Amira20Self-employed"Put Your Records On"Trella Goh19Student"If I Ain't Got You"Not airedAlex Hong23Student"Sunday Morning""Like I Love You"Hydir Idris20Student"One in a Million""The Last Time"Kamsani Jumahat22Student"Mercy" / "I Believe I Can Fly""Mercy"
Contestant Age at time of show Occupation Audition song Top 60 round songHariz Maloy19Student"It's Time""Brokenhearted"Mohamed Amirul20Student"Feeling Good""Mercy"Mohammad Sufie22Musician-songwriter"Faithfully"Khim Ng20Performer"Nobody's Perfect"Sherly Ng20Student"...Baby One More Time" / "This Love""Fallin'"Charmaine Pelaez26Musician"You Oughta Know"Danial Razak21Student"We Found Love"Not airedKassandra Sulastri21Freelance performer"Rolling in the Deep"Maggie Syazana18Student"Video Games"Marc Than28Banker"I Don't Want to Be"Not aired
Top 40 rounds The top 40 performance rounds started on 1 May and took place at a venue sponsored by The P' Club Group while the results were shown live from MediaCorp TV Theatre. The forty contestants who made it competed in this round and only twenty moved on. The contestants were divided into four groups of ten. Each week, the top 5 vote-getters of the week were revealed during the live results show but it was not a guarantee that they were able to advance to the next round. At the end of all top 40 rounds, all contestants were ranked and the twenty contestants with the most public votes advanced to the next round while the remaining twenty contestants were eliminated. Each group performed in front of the judges and was accompanied by a live band. From this round onwards, the results were solely based on the public votes. The viewers were able to cast their votes via telephone, SMS text voting and the show's Facebook application. Votes cast via the telephone and SMS text voting made up 60% of the total votes, while the remaining 40% was determined by the number of votes received from the show's Facebook application.
Group 1 Order Contestant Song Result Group 1 Overall 1 Khim Ng "Oh! Darling" Bottom 5 (6th–9th)Eliminated 2 Joey Chua "How Do I Live"Bottom 5 (6th–9th)Eliminated 3 Farisha Ishak "Rumour Has It"Top 5 (2nd–3rd)Advanced 4 Hariz Maloy "It's Time"Bottom 5 (6th–9th)Eliminated 5 Gail Belmonte "If I Ain't Got You"Top 5 (2nd–3rd)Advanced 6 Marc Than "Zombie" Bottom 5 (6th–9th)Eliminated 7 Zarinah Bahtiar "Only So Much Oil in the Ground"Top 5 (4th–5th)Eliminated 8 Viveck Raam "Lips of an Angel"Top 5 (1st)Advanced 9 Trella Goh "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" Bottom (10th)Eliminated 10 Mohammad Sufie "Rolling in the Deep"Top 5 (4th–5th)Eliminated Best Vocal Performance (Kit Chan's choice): Gail Belmonte, Farisha Ishak & Marc Than Best Individual Style (Taufik Batisah's choice): Farisha Ishak, Khim Ng & Marc Than Most Marketability (Ken Lim's choice): None
Group 2 Order Contestant Song Result Group 2 Overall 1Shanice Hedger"Torn"Top 5 (2nd–4th)Advanced 2Boon Hui Lu"Speechless"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 3Mohamed Amirul"Halo" / "Sweet Dreams"Top 5 (5th)Eliminated 4Kamsani Jumahat"Superstition"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 5Sherly Ng"(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 6Raina Sum"I (Who Have Nothing)"Top 5 (2nd–4th)Advanced 7Hydir Idris"The Last Time"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 8Jean Kyaw"Moves like Jagger"Top 5 (2nd–4th)Advanced 9Yuresh Balakrishnan"Skinny Love"Top 5 (1st)Advanced 10Alex Hong"Like I Love You"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated Best Vocal Performance (Kit Chan's choice): Yuresh Balakrishnan, Hydir Idris & Kamsani Jumahat Best Individual Style (Taufik Batisah's choice): Yuresh Balakrishnan & Alex Hong Most Marketability (Ken Lim's choice): None
Group 3 Order Contestant Song Result Group 3 Overall 1Glen Wee"High Hopes"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 2Meryl Joan Lee"Big Spender"Top 5 (1st)Advanced 3Enriquo Garcia"Harder to Breathe"Bottom 5 (6th–8th)Advanced 4Kassandra Sulastri"Domino"Bottom 5 (9th–10th)Eliminated 5Cyril Toh"A Moment Like This"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 6Laraine Lam"This Love"Bottom 5 (6th–8th)Advanced 7D.J. Borries"Who's Lovin' You"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 8Fathin Amira"If I Were a Boy"Bottom 5 (9th–10th)Eliminated 9Hashy Yusof"Black and Gold"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 10Debbi Koh"Decode"Bottom 5 (6th–8th)Advanced Best Individual Style (Taufik Batisah's choice): Glen Wee & Hashy Yusof Best Vocal Performance (Kit Chan's choice): Glen Wee & Hashy Yusof Most Marketability (Ken Lim's choice): Glen Wee & Hashy Yusof
Group 4 Order Contestant Song Result Group 4 Overall 1Cheryl K"Mamma Knows Best"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 2Danial Razak"Little Things"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 3E.T. Ong"Toxic"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 4Charmaine Pelaez"Billie Jean"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 5Farah Erfina"Wings"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 6Louisa Kan"When I Was Your Man"Top 5 (1st)Advanced 7Harris Baba"Torn"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 8Faith Ng"...Baby One More Time"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced 9Maggie Syazana"Valerie"Bottom 5 (6th–10th)Eliminated 10Shaun Jansen"I Don't Love You"Top 5 (2nd–5th)Advanced Best Vocal Performance (Kit Chan's choice): Shaun Jansen, Cheryl K, Louisa Kan & Danial Razak Best Individual Style (Taufik Batisah's choice): Shaun Jansen & Danial Razak Most Marketability (Ken Lim's choice): Shaun Jansen
Top 20 finalists
The following is a list of top 20 finalists who failed to reach the finals: Contestant Age at time of show Occupation Audition song Top 60 round song D.J. Borries22Model"If I Ain't Got You"Not aired Enriquo Garcia21Pyrotechnician"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"Not aired Shanice Hedger17Student"Titanium" Cheryl K17Student"Trouble" / "I Knew You Were Trouble" Laraine Lam19Student"She Left Me""I Can't Make You Love Me"
Contestant Age at time of show Occupation Audition song Top 60 round song E.T. Ong25Full-time performer"Impossible""Grace Kelly" Viveck Raam20National serviceman"Last Request" Raina Sum18Student"Nobody's Perfect" Cyril Toh20Student"Try"
Top 20 live rounds The top 20 live rounds started on 29 May. The top 20 finalists performed live at the MediaCorp TV Theatre from this round onwards, and the results were also shown live from the same venue. The remaining contestants were once again divided into groups of ten to perform on two separate nights. Similar to the top 40 rounds, each week the weekly top 4 vote-getters were revealed during the live results show but it was not a guarantee that they were able to advance to the next round. At the end of both top 20 live rounds, all contestants were ranked and the eight contestants with the most public votes advanced to the top 10 live rounds. The remaining twelve contestants were put through to the wild card round on 12 June to compete for the final two spots in the top 10. Each group performed live in front of the judges and studio audience, and was accompanied by dancers and stage props.
Group 1 Order Contestant Song Result Group 1 Overall 1Meryl Joan Lee"Tainted Love"Top 4 Advanced 2Shanice Hedger"Love the Way You Lie (Part II)"Bottom 6 Wild Card 3Gail Belmonte"Skyscraper"Top 4 Advanced 4Jean Kyaw"I Turn to You"Top 4 Advanced 5Viveck Raam"I Saw Her Standing There"Bottom 6 Wild Card 6Cyril Toh"If I Lose Myself"Bottom 6 Wild Card 7D.J. Borries"Kiss" / "Brokenhearted"Bottom 6 Wild Card 8Hashy Yusof"Heartbreaker"Bottom 6 Wild Card 9Yuresh Balakrishnan"We All Try"Bottom 6 Wild Card 10Farisha Ishak"Ordinary People"Top 4 Advanced Most Relatability (Taufik Batisah's choice): Yuresh Balakrishnan & Farisha Ishak Best Stage Presence (Kit Chan's choice): Yuresh Balakrishnan, Farisha Ishak & Meryl Joan Lee Most Sustainability (Ken Lim's choice): Meryl Joan Lee
Group 2 Order Contestant Song Result Group 2 Overall 1Raina Sum"Crazy"Bottom 6 Wild Card 2Laraine Lam"Safe & Sound"Bottom 6 Wild Card 3Debbi Koh"Suit & Tie"Top 4 Advanced 4Cheryl K"One Night Only"Bottom 6 Wild Card 5E.T. Ong"Locked Out of Heaven"Bottom 6 Wild Card 6Glen Wee"Mirrors"Top 4 Advanced 7Louisa Kan"Forget You"Top 4 Advanced 8Faith Ng"Chasing Pavements"Top 4 Advanced 9Enriquo Garcia"Marry You"Bottom 6 Wild Card 10Shaun Jansen"Mr. Brightside"Bottom 6 Wild Card Best Stage Presence (Kit Chan's choice): Shaun Jansen & Glen Wee Most Relatability (Taufik Batisah's choice): Shaun Jansen & Glen Wee Most Sustainability (Ken Lim's choice): Cheryl K & Glen Wee
Wild Card round – Ethnic Songs Following those eight contestants advancing on 5 June, the remaining twelve top 20 finalists competed in the Wild Card round for the final two spots in the top 10. All contestants performed an ethnic song of their choice. Following another performance by each Wild Card contender, the judges selected two contestants to advance to the final group of 10.