Week 2 - Results Night: Surprise, surprise!

The disappointment that I felt upon learning that Mark was part of the bottom two was the same disappointment that I felt after the upset that had happened during the Brazil-Russia Men's Volleyball match. Brazil had it on the bag after winning the first two sets but Russia staged a comeback and won the gold medal. Burr. As the old saying goes, "bilog ang bola" - contests and games alike.

I knew Mark had it on the bag as well - looks, vocal chops. So what went wrong? I seriously do not know. As for TakeOff, after their final disastrous note that surely left a bad taste to the mouths of the viewers, it did not surprise me at all that they were not lucky to avoid the bottom 2.

So here's my review on the last chance performances:

Mark Mabasa - "There's No Easy Way" by James Ingram - This performance proved that the viewers made a wrong move on putting him in the bottom spot. His range was superb, the emotions were clearly depicted and the notes were right on the spot. Rating: A+

TakeOff - "Fall For You" by Secondhand Serenade - After hearing their great harmony that was full of emotions on the first part of the song, I told myself that they were putting up a good fight against the fantastic performance of Mark. However, first impression surely does not last. They went ballistic on the chorus where they oversang the rock part and lost their harmony. Rating: B+

If I were one of the judge, I would surely base my vote on their last chance performance and it was clearly a knockout round in favor of Mark. But Charice played it safe and instead of relying to the performance, proceeded to the "deadlock". I thought it would be payback time for Charice's team after Gary cast the decisive vote and chose to eliminate Jerianne over Joan last week. But that did not happen. Seniority? Maybe.

But it was not only Charice who played it safe last night. Sadly, Mark's fans were also complacent. Like how Jessica Sanchez was almost booted out after her stellar performance of Stuttering, the fans did not bother to vote presuming that many people would panic to grab their phones after hearing a great rendition of Gotta Get You Into My Life.

My jaw dropped after learning that TakeOff edged Mark by a matter of 0.18% of votes (3.90-3.72) hence, eliminating Mark on the early stage of the competition.  

Surprise, surprise! Was it staged? I don't think so. A third party tabulator is always there to verify the results. Was it because Mark is rumored gay that's why voters turned their back? I don't know. But if that would be the case, it would be a disheartening news because Filipinos chose gender preference instead of talent as their bases.

Nevertheless, Mark is a heck of a talented guy. With his looks and talents, given the right break, this guy would surely go far.


Indeed, we have learned a very important thing for this week's competition:
Vote! It can be anybody's game if we do not do our part to vote. And this might sound cliche but please, vote wisely.