Going by the celebrities walking down the red carpet and the loud catcalls and cheers they received, the m:idea Youth Choice Awards organised to salute Singaporean youth’s favorite personalities and brands was a “Boomz” effort by Singapore’s first youth-run media conglomerate m:idea (pronounced “media”).
Without using mainstream media to publicise the voting, the organisers brought in an impressive 10,000 votes from the public in just over a month between Nov 19 and Dec 24 to come up with the list of winners. The nominees were first shortlisted through a poll of 600 youths. In this short span of time, youth voted for 12 categories ranging from who they admire and care about, to their favourite mobile phone brand and hangout places.
The award show, held at the Atrium in Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) on Jan 9, hosted some 100 seated guests and attracted about 300 bystanders gathered around the outdoor tent. Nominees such as MTV VJ Utt, former Miss Singapore World Ris Low, Rai from music duo Jack and Rai, Muttons (Radio DJs Justin Ang and Vernon A.) from 987FM and ESPN Star Sports presenter Jamie Yeo were among those who made a grand entrance with a walk down the red carpet in front of a backdrop featuring the names of 10 sponsors literally from A (Active Red) to Z (Zuji.com).
The 100 invited guests were each given goodie bags with vouchers from the likes of Zuji.com, egg3 and Yami Yogurt worth more than $200, and the 3 top voters walked away with prizes totalling several thousands of dollars, including 3 of Sapura Synergy (authorised education reseller of Apple)’s 8GB iPod Touch, holiday packages in Bintan courtesy of Nirwana Gardens, kickboxing lessons by Active Red, and cold hard cash from Broadcast Communications International.
Shaun David Martin and Candice Miller, DJs from RadioHeatwave.com, displayed great chemistry as the event’s hosts. The show was kickstarted by NP’s reputed percussion group Baracuda Batucada, whose animated drumming and rhythms brought the atmosphere up another level.
To keep the programme short, the only other performer for m:idea Youth Choice Awards was “Magic Babe” Ning, Singapore’s only female professional magician and one of Ngee Ann’s and the School of Film & Media Studies’ alumna, who attended with her manager J C Sum. She spiced things up with a fiery hot performance of illusions! Who wouldn’t be drawn in by this gorgeous and sexy lady who was also featured on the cover of FHM Singapore last October?
She, ESPN presenter Jamie Yeo and popular Muttons deejay Justin Ang were also in competition for the Star Graduate Award conferred by Ngee Ann Polytechnic, as all 3 are alumni of the School of Film & Media Studies (FMS), which owns m:idea.
m:idea, Singapore’s first student-run media conglomerate, which has been running the campus radio and TV station, newspaper, magazine and theurbanwire.com, as well as doing media consultancy projects for external clients such as Lien Aid, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, online gaming publisher Infocomm Asia Holdings Games and many others was launched using this awards ceremony.
It was strongly evident that the m:idea team made the whole event “very creative”, in the words of Ris Low, who garnered some of the loudest cheers from the crowds. The design of the award, a framed black frisbee signifying the unfettered, carefree life of youths, and the various original trailers that introduced nominees of each category and cracked up the audience were examples of these. After earning 2 nominations under Best OMG! Moment of 2009 category, Ris Low garnered the most votes with her coined word “Boomz”. How shingz is that. Simply unforgettable.
When Utt went up to receive his prize as the Cutest Male Personality I Wanna Bring Home, he took out his video recorder, which he was making full use of the moment he stepped onto campus, and said candidly, on stage, “Wait a moment, I need to document my moment… Are you feeling my moment right now? You feel it right? Aura… aura!” The well loved Thai-American host and actor seemed really happy to know that he’s still winning hearts of girls, and even jokingly asked Director of NP’s FMS Ms Anita Kuan, who presented him the specially-mounted frisbee, to bring him home. Check out the expression on Ms Kuan’s face (right) in this photo when Utt was making his thank-you speech:
Fauzi Rassull, sporting a women’s cropped fur vest, stood out from the crowd as he made his way on stage as the Coolest Blogger I Wanna Gossip With. When asked if he was comfortable with the many stares thrown at him, Fauzi says that he’s used to people staring at him, and that he’s very confident of himself, and very importantly, being himself.
Invited guests were ushered to a private reception catered by The Garden Slug at the Lien Ying Chow Library one floor above the stage. There the lucky voters got to mingle with their favourite celebrities and pose for photos with them.
Danny Loong, Deputy Managing Director of Timbre, winner of Favourite Nightspot, commented that he was very happy that this awards show happened because he thinks that more Singaporeans should appreciate other Singaporeans who make an effort to either start a club or band.
“It’s great that it started with the youth because you guys set a good example for Singaporeans to start saying that a local band is good, a bookshop is good and a café is good,” said Danny.
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List of winners
Band I Wanna Throw Myself At: Jack & Rai
Coolest Blogger I Wanna Gossip With (xoxo): Fauzi Rassull
Best OMG! Moment: Ris Low – Boomz
Favourite Hangout Spot: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Favourite Bookstore: Borders
Favourite Mobile Phone Brand: Apple
Favourite Apparel: Topshop/Topman
Favourite Nightspot: Timbre
Hottest Female Personality I Wanna Date: Denise Keller
Cutest Male Personality I Wanna Bring Home: Utt
Celebrity Duo I Wanna Chill With: Muttons (DJs Justin Ang & Vernon A. from MediaCorp Radio 987FM)
