PETALING JAYA: A Taiping girl, aged only 11, has done the nation proud by capturing the hearts of the judges and audience at a TV talent show for children in Hunan, China, earlier this month.
Singing a ballad by Taiwanese singer Lin Yu-Chun in the reality show called “Let’s Sing, Kids”, Adinda Tasya Mansor delivered a performance that got a standing ovation and praise from all three judges of the show, The New Paper (TNP) in Singapore reported recently.
One of the judges, Malaysian-born singer Gary Chaw was seen getting up and encouraging Adinda even before the song ended.
He later told her in Mandarin: “I have goose bumps. Your performance was excellent.”
Adinda, who studies at the Sin Min Primary School, a Chinese-vernacular school in Taiping, was performing on the first episode of the show’s fourth season, which aired on July 2. Only children aged under 14 are allowed to take part.
According to the Singapore tabloid, Adinda had delivered the song “Next Stop In The Future” in well-enunciated Mandarin.
“I was so surprised and happy. I want to thank the judges, the audience and my teacher,” Adinda told TNP in an email interview, referring to her vocal training coach Jacob Teo, 36, who runs a singing school in Kuala Lumpur.
She added that she was flattered by the attention, with the YouTube videos of her performance going viral, having collectively garnered more than 750,000 views since they were uploaded two weeks ago.
“I started vocal training because I wanted to learn more and sing well, rather than just singing on my own,” Adinda said.
TNP also reported that despite learning Mandarin since she was seven years old, Adinda found it a challenge to sing in the language.
“My Mandarin is okay and my sister speaks it, too. (But) I got a lot of help from my teacher.
“I sometimes needed him to explain the song’s meaning to me and to help me with the lyrics,” she was quoted as saying by the daily.
Adinda had auditioned for “Let’s Sing, Kids” by submitting a video of her singing.
She then flew to Hunan with her mother on July 1 for the first round, making her the first Malay contestant from Malaysia to compete.
According to TNP, Adinda has been competing in talent shows for four years and came in fifth on Astro’s singing competition for children, Ceria Popstar, last year.
Despite having experienced performing in front of judges, a live audience and for TV, Adinda said she was still nervous when taking part in “Let’s Sing, Kids”, which was her first singing competition outside of Malaysia.
On the show, Adinda was allowed to sing another song by the judges and she chose “Let It Go” from Frozen, and performed it with Chaw.
“Gary Chaw is a fellow Malaysian and I wanted to take the opportunity to sing with him. We enjoyed ourselves on stage together,” she said, according to TNP.
Adinda and her mother have returned to Hunan for the next round of competition on “Let’s Sing, Kids” this week.
Meanwhile, Adinda’s popularity as a Malay singing a song in Mandarin has also drawn comparisons with Shila Amzah, who participated in another Hunan-based TV talent show called “I Am A Singer” in early 2014.
Shila’s video then went viral and she has more than 2.5 million fans on the Chinese social media site Weibo. She was also picked to be a mentor on the “Let’s Sing, Kids” show later the same year.
Shila is a 26-year-old Malaysian and daughter of one-time popular Malaysian artiste, ND Lala.