After weeks of practice amidst tough competitors, the nine grand finalists of Asia’s Got Talent gave it their all in the Grand Finals – their last-shot at impressing the audience with their talent. Needless to say, all nine finalists pulled off an impressive performance that surpassed the audience’s and judges’ expectations. As the nine grand finalists await the voting results that will be announced this Thursday, 11 April 2019, we caught up with some of the finalists to talk about their performance in the Grand Finals.
Junior Good Vibes
Formed in 2015, Junior Good Vibes is a hip hop and street dance crew from the Philippines, comprising of 16 members aged between 17 to 25 years old. For those who avidly watch Britain’s Got Talent as well, the crew’s unique style of dancing is akin to Diversity – a dance crew that won Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.
Their baseball-themed dance sequence, as well as acrobatic “cheerleader” moves, during the Finals won them a full-house standing ovation. To the crew, that single moment made everything worthwhile. “To get that standing ovation – especially (for a dance act) – in the Grand Finals made all our hardships and challenges we went through really worth it. Everything paid off when we saw that the people liked our performance…and when the judges stood up (as well), we felt like winners.”
Eric Chien
Eric Chien’s poetic sleight of hand is what sets him apart from other Asia’s Got Talent performers. Eric, whose magic journey began in high school, recently emerged as the winner of the Close-up Magic category of Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Magiques – also referred to as the World Championships of Magic – in 2018.
His auditions and semi-finals acts saw him perform sleight of hand with coins, but he took it up a notch by using chocolate for his act in the Grand Finals. Eric astounded the crowd by transforming chocolate into Rubik’s cubes and even confetti! Despite being lauded as one of the ‘wow’ moments in the show by judges, Eric admitted that he was unsure of his act at first. “I wasn’t sure if people would like it – it’s new (and) it has not been done before. So, I was a little scared that (they) might not like my act. But I’m really glad that people enjoyed it.”
NAMA
NAMA is a talented hijab-clad girl group who blew the audience away with their rendition of Lady Gaga’s hit “Bad Romance” during the auditions. Their feminine yet strong performance impressed Anggun and Jay Park so much that they were likened to the legendary vocal group The Supremes. The group performed ‘Freedom’ by George Michael during the Grand Finals, garnering praise from David Foster.
The girls from NAMA were elated when David mentioned that there was a new outlet for them and that they had a lot of potential. “We feel so happy! It feels amazing, hearing from (David) especially. We certainly won’t waste the opportunity. After Asia’s Got Talent, we need to do a lot of things…we don’t want to let the judges down”.
All nine acts portrayed the true spirit of showmanship when asked who they felt their biggest competition was. Yaashwin Sarawanan – a “human calculator” from Malaysia, said that Asia’s Got Talent is far from being a competition. “I don’t think there’s any competition as this is a talent show – this is not specific (to a single form of entertainment) …this is a friendly reality show”, to which Taiwanese Cyr Wheel dancer Yang Shih Hao chimed in, “It’s a party!” The camaraderie among the finalists was apparent; and they have also revealed that all of them will be performing together during the Results Show.
Public voting for the finalists of Asia’s Got Talent will stay open till Wednesday, 10 April 2019, 11:59pm; and fans can vote via Google Search and Facebook Messenger. Do remember to catch the Results Show on Thursday, 11 April 2019, at 8:30pm (7:30pm JKT/BKK) on AXN channel!
For more information on voting, visit www.AXN-Asia.com/AGTVote
Quotes from Junior Good Vibes were translated from Tagalog. Visuals courtesy of AXN Asia.
