Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant 2018: Talent and Swimwear Showcase

Hello everyone!! 

It's been a year since I've blogged for ERM Singapore, and I'm so glad to be back!! It feels good being among familiar and friendly faces! So, it brings me great joy to be back, covering another pageant for them. As the title says, it's time for the the Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant again! As always, a vlog will follow soon, so keep a lookout for that. 

This year's titles are slightly different, instead of the 4 titles, we're down to three!
Miss Singapore Chinatown 2018
Miss Global Beauty Queen 2018
Miss Singapore Tourism Queen 2018

So yes, instead of 18 finalists fighting for 4 titles, they'll be fighting over 3 titles! Can't get any more exciting than that huh? Well, it sort of can because this year marks the 30th Anniversary of Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant! This year, they've partnered with the Handicap Welfare Association!

On an unfortunate note, I won't be able to go for the preview party this week at Neverland, where they will crown Miss Neverland Popularity 2018! Goodluck girls! ;)

Oh yes, Rachel's back too ^^

As always, they did the talent and fashions & swimwear showcase at OneKM mall! 

Our emcee for the day, Jackie See!

And a few new opening words from Jasmine Chye!

Another thing I noticed this year was an unconventional choice of finalists (I'll explain a while in a bit) but I'm incredibly delighted to see that ERM is taking 'Beauty with a Heart' to a new level and they're working towards busting the stereotype of all beauty queens having to be skinny. 

Still lost? Hang in there, just keep reading! Keep guessing ;)

And the talent round begins!!! 

Side note: Just look at Christina and Queenie's faces. HAHA. #whysoserious?

If you don't remember them, they were from last year's Miss Singapore Beauty Pageant! Christina won Miss Chinatown and Queenie was the First Runner-up! They did super well during the talent round last year (check out my blogpost and vlog hehe) and are amazing dancers, so it's no wonder they're on the judging panel this year! 

Okok. Let's meet the contestants!

In case you're confused, Jasmine sung and danced for her item! 

The 20 year old student loves singing and dancing, as she showed us in her item! Personally, I thought it was nice she made effort to do both, and gave ample time for each element, but I did wish she wore something more blingy? Also, she's actually quite tiny, but don't underestimate her ;) I've no guts to do anything on stage like she did, so even if she said she isn't the best, she definitely did her very best and I'm proud that she put on a brave front and put herself on stage!

Hani did a singing item!

She's also a student, and in her free time, she enjoys cooking, kickboxing and horse riding! If I remember right, it was 'No One' by Alicia Keys! I did wish she stood up or something because she was wearing a pretty dress! 

Jackie made it a point to tell everyone that NO ONE else could touch the gu zheng except her hahaahah! 

I quite liked Qian Yi's performance! 

She's currently an undergrad, her hobbies include reading and playing the guzheng! Evidently, she has a passion for this instrument! I'm terrible with the song names, so I can't remember the title of the song she did but it was definitely interesting. 

I've never seen anyone play the guzheng on the MSBP stage, it was very refreshing for me , even though I felt there's a bit of room for improvement. I loved the whole aesthetic of it for sure! It all gelled pretty well in my opinion!  

Jerlyn did a singing and dance cover of a song by Twice! 

In her spare time, the undergraduate loves to catch up on her favourite dramas! Don't we all? ;D Not our first ever kpop item on the MSBP stage, but I think it's the first one I've seen that covered both the singing and dancing. I thought it was great effort but I think she got a little tired towards the end, but hey, doing both elements by yourself when the group has 9 members will never be easy!

No guys, not a picnic..

A MAGIC SHOWWWWWW

I was so excited when Jackie said Jasavelle was going to perform some magic for us. You guys know I LOVE magic so I was very very intrigued. I think she was pretty nervous and there was a little hiccup (not 100% sure until she mentioned it),  but she carried on anyway and that's pretty commendable I suppose! The show must always go on! 

Needless to say, Regina did a belly dancing item! 

I realised belly dancing has always been a very common choice for contestants, I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. I love shiny costumes and she looks confident which is always great! Apparently she's been learning it for a very short time too so I think that's pretty darn crazy. 

Velda sang her version of JJ Lin's 当你 (Dang Ni)

In her spare time, she enjoys music writing and reading. It took me a while to find the title of this song cuz I'm not the best versed with Chinese pop (lol pls no hate). But I think it sparked off a conversation about JJLin's concert haha. 

She is also an avid volunteer and is currently working on a mental health advocay project known as "Conversations without Borders". I think it's good that people in my generation are trying to work towards promoting good mental health as well as raising awareness of the issues we all may be facing, but are too scared to speak up about! Good on you, Velda!

Yes, BALLET!!! Finally! 

I haven't seen a contestant do ballet in the talent round before, so thank you Anna, for fulfilling one of my dreams. Need I say that her hobbies include ballet? I did wish her tutu had a better 'pancake' but it was nice to watch for sure! To be honest, I think it's good that she didn't do any pointe work, I think the floor would have been a hazard for that! Smart move using the soft shoes, but I supposed it would have looked better overall if she used demi-pointes? haha. 

Does Megan look familiar? haha

What about now?

Alright, with that aside, I was glad that someone did a contemporary performance. She did have a second half that was a sort of cha cha (?) which was quite refreshing, but I was hoping the entire performance was going to be contemporary all the way through. I heard her mention that she does gymnastics as well, I was totally hoping she would have showed us some of her gymnastics skills on stage! That would have been pretty cool!

Don't know if you can tell but, Katie is very very tall. 

I was lucky to see them in rehearsal (sneaks will come to you in the vlog, no spoilers here!!!) and Katie's height is really amazing. In her heels, she looks like a fashion model! She sang her version of one of my favourite Disney songs: A Whole New World! She didn't look the most 'Princess Jasmine'-esq, but it's alright because honestly, who doesn't love a Disney tribute!

Secretly waiting for someone to do a cover of Part of Your World lol.

Alavie did a kind of traditional festive dance for us!

I think it was very unique and interesting, but her performance was actually very short! I've never seen a performance like that before so it was also refreshing to see something new on the MSBP stage! ^^ I wonder what got her interested in such a hobby! She enjoys traveling and photography, so she must have been able to experience many cultures too which sounds pretty cool! 

Firstly, I want to say that I admire Sarah Kate very much.

The 27 year old used to be a Pepsi Commercial Girl, and had weight gain due to a hormonal imbalance. I admire her courage to put herself in a beauty pageant, and I'm so proud that she is where she is right now because we can finally have our eyes opened. I genuinely hope she does well in the next few events, simply because of the image of beauty that all of us (myself included) have in our heads. 

Personally, confidence is absolute key. I'm not talking about over-confidence, I'm talking about accepting yourself for who you are, embracing the things you can't change and focusing on what you can to be the best version of yourself. 

So, obviously this doesn't have too much to do with Sarah's performance. She sang her version of Sway by the Pussycat Dolls. I love that song and I enjoyed her performance as well. It was also nice to see a singing act using the stage as well instead of just standing there with hand movements.

I'll bet you guys wouldn't have guessed Candice did some skipping for her talent round.

The 19 year old law student enjoys badminton, swimming and reading in her spare time! I honestly was not sure on how to feel about her performance since she was skipping rope and I've literally never seen or heard of such a talent. I suppose the world has ways of surprising you? 

Shantini said she makes a good martini! ;)

I don't think she mentioned where she worked, but I'm guessing we'll all find out sooner or later. She performed an Indian dance for us for her item. I tend to enjoy all these traditional/ethnic dances during pageants! I realised its not something I was too exposed to when I was younger - I was so obsessed with Brit Pop and Kpop and I never got to appreciate more local artforms until I went to poly and was exposed to it. So yes, I definitely enjoyed her item!

As much as I've seen other contestants do a bit of Indian dance and Chinese dances in previous years, I come to find that I remember them more because I'm around contemporary and urban dances more often.

Michelle did a freestyle dance item for us!

Always love a good shiny costume! I've never really known anyone to perform a freestyle item, usually it's choreographed or at least pre-planned, so I was pretty interested to just watch how her whole item panned out!

Our last contestant of the day, Corrine! With a dance item!

I remembered her item included a little bit of wushu, I was definitely gutted that it took up less than half her item. I think it's safe to say that a lot of us were super engaged during that bit, more so than when she was actually dancing. Not that she wasn't a bad dancer, but doing wushu as talent would thaven' been quite a standout! 

Also, props to her for dancing in JEANS!!!! 

We did have two contestants that weren't able to join us, so I'll see you ladies at the finals! (:

Break time before the swimwear and fashion showcases!! ^^

Blurry, but I really liked this shot of Qian Yi haha *self praise*

Apparel by Blumix by Blum.co! 

My personal favouriteswere the floral prints! I know I didn't feature every single one of the ladies, but honestly, they were all walking really fast so half the photos I took were blur. I need more photo ops :')

Up next was their swimwear showcase! This year they were all wearing the same piece, and this year it was also a simple one piece instead of a bikini! 

Okay, I managed to get almost everyone! 

Missing some of them, I'm so sorry! I really didn't want to post bad blurry photos :'( Also, my camera had conveniently run out of battery so I was relying on my iphone at this point (much to my dismay), it's a recurring problem I have every year - SOMETHING has to run out of battery at almost every event and it really really gives me unnecessary anxiety.

All the ladies are back on stage!!

We were so close to the stage this year that I had to do a little panorama shot. Let's be real, there were so many photographers this year (behind the barricade) and I was honestly too shy to just stand in front of them to snap my pictures. 

OUR TOP 4 FOR THE TALENT ROUND!!! 

Left to Right:
Contestant No. 9: Megan Chong

Contestant No. 6: Regina Chew
Contestant No. 3: Chan Qian Yi
Contestant No. 12: Sarah Kate Chang

Congratulations ladies!! These 4 ladies will be performing another item during the grand finals on the 1st of September! Super excited to see what else these ladies have to offer and I hope everyone will be giving them their support too (:

And to end off the blogpost, a group photo with our judges! 

I'd like to thank ERM again for having me as always, it feels goo to be back after a year! I'm definitely lookinf forward to the grand finals! Shame that I might more or less miss the preview party this Thursday, but I did get to pop by their rehearsal yesterday at the ERM office (look forward to the vlog for some sneaks!) and that was pretty fun!

I hope you guys enjoyed this blogpost, the vlog will be coming out next week, so please be patient ^^ I'll see you guys in my next blogpost! :D


xx
Shayne