My Road To American Idol 2009 Part 1: Fate or Luck?

A few people have asked me to blog about my experience going to the American Idol 2009 Finals, and I've always just asked them to follow it on Facebook and Twitter, since I didn't have a blog.

Well, since now I do, I'm just gonna put what I can remember down for posterity. Hopefully it'll give some insight to you as to what isn't shown on TV every week.

But before that, I'll start with how I won the ticket to watch the finals in the first place! This was the performance that started it all!

Now here's the story behind the video...

My family and I were at Cineleisure Damansara on 3rd May 2009 to check out the sales (think it was a Massimo Dutti warehouse sale) and while walking back to The Curve, we noticed something happening at center court - It was JJ and Ean from Hitz.FM hosting Star World's Golden Ticket To American Idol finals.

We stopped by to have a look and my wife, Futaba, dared me to try and win a goody bag (which I won) and I decided to throw my name into the lucky draw for the additional 3 wildcard entries into this Monopoly-like game they were playing - not knowing that the main prize was a trip to Los Angeles.

When they pulled the 3rd wildcard number and it wasn't mine, we started making our way out of the building. But the owner of the 3rd wildcard number wasn't there! We paused... They pulled another number. The guy was there... Darn... We start walking away. The guy couldn't answer the question to qualify to enter the game... But we continue walking... They did the 3rd try for the 3rd and final wildcard...

Futaba starts shouting at me saying its our number! I make a record 100m dash (for me anyway) back into the building, waving my hands like a mad man. Answered the questions and BAM - I'm in the game!

The Board: If only they gave RM200 when you pass GO...

Anyway, to cut a long story short - I played the Monopoly-like game (with my son Rei sleeping in my arms for the most of it) and ended up with a tie to determine the winner. Rules state that we must do a performance as a tie breaker and let the crowd decide the winner. Up until now, Futaba still doesn't believe that I was playing for a trip to the Finals... =)

Lily sang Endless Love and I sang I'm Yours. And with a little (a lot of?) help from Rei, I got the popular vote and that set me off for an experience of a lifetime in LA to watch the finals.

Rei: "Erm... Daddy, what's all the fuss about?"

Thanks to Star World and Hitz.FM for the opportunity!