Olivia's New Crush - 苏醒

Ever since I found 陈楚生 on TV, I have been watching 2007 快乐男声 (a Chinese version of “American Idol” but only for guys and it has a cheesy English name: Super Boy). Olivia has always been interested in shows about music or dancing so she’s got hooked up and immediately developed a crush for one contestant 苏醒.

苏醒 came from Australia (went there when he was 17) and has this beautiful silky voice. His specialty is R & B and is nicknamed “Prince of R & B” in this competition. His singing skills especially the 转音 (not sure how to translate) skill received compliments from the judges such as “Impeccable!” “You are the master of voice!” He is also a good dancer too. But to me, he outstands the most, probably benefited from being abroad, is his self confidence and eloquence. He is the one who has the 明星风范(star style) .

For some reason, Olivia “fell in love” with 苏醒 right away. I think mainly because he sings quite a bit English songs which she can understand. But according to her, it is because he is a very good singer and he is cute!

Olivia would cheer whenever 苏醒 is on the screen and she would worry to tears whenever he had to PK with others even if it is not the final PK. She would keep on asking me: “Mom, mom, what did they say about 苏醒?” Olivia does not like to learn and speak Chinese, but not understanding what the judges and hosts say about her idol did bother her so sometimes she would ask: “Mom, what does 非常 (very) mean? They are saying 苏醒非常 what?” Me, of course, grasp the opportunity and give her the lesson: “See Olivia, if you study hard on Chinese, you will be able to understand what they are saying about him. And you can sing in both Chinese and English just like 苏醒 does. Isn’t that cool?”

One day she dragged Daddy to see her idol on TV and Daddy asked her what the hosts were saying about 苏醒 (I was not at the scene). According to Daddy, Olivia made up a bunch of things and explained to him: “Basically, they said no one can beat 苏醒. 苏醒 is the greatest!”

Last week, 苏醒 had a great opening performance with an established girl singer singing a love song. They sang beautifully together. Olivia had that envy look in her eyes (her dream is to be on TV) and commented: “They are so good together, they should be married.” When she learned that 苏醒 is 23 now, she asked how old he would be when she turns 23. We did the math and an “Oh” was all she said after she found out 苏醒 would be 39 when she turns 23. You could tell she was a little disappointed as she realized 苏醒 would probably not wait for her for that longJ.

苏醒 went into the final PK last night but secured his spot in the final three by receiving 1.2 million votes within a 15 minutes time frame. Olivia tried to stick through the entire competition but fell to sleep and missed what would have been a nerve wracking time for her. After she learned last night that the final three contestants would fly to Beijing today and meet up with their fans, she immediately asked me: “Mom, can we go to 外婆 (grandmother)’s tomorrow? I want to see 苏醒 in Beijing!”

“Honey, we can’t. Do you remember it takes us almost a day just to fly there?” Olivia has not been back to Beijing for almost two years that she forgot how long the trip was. But she did make us promise that if 苏醒 wins the competition we have to buy her his CD as a gift when we visit China next time.