(This post was actually meant to be blogged on Saturday night, but I didn't have time so here it is.)

Campus Superstar 2 (CSS2) is all screwed up. Once again it was more of a popularity contest rather than an actual serious singing contest based on judging. I understand that votes contribute to only 30% of the final score, reduced from the 70% as in the first CSS, but still, there was something wrong in deciding the actual CSS2 winner.^[*]

I am doubting the voting system. The way of tabulating the final scores was never revealed. You don't know how heavy the votes may constitute, even though you know it is at 30% of the final score. Let me show you an example:

X scores 90% from the judges. He received 200 votes.
Y scores 80% from the judges. He received 250 votes.

Superficially, if I give you the additional information that scores from the judges constitute to 70% of the total score, then you will say X is definitely the winner. But two of the many cases may occur:

X
Judges: 90% --> 63%
Votes: 200/250 --> 80% --> 24%
Total: 87%

Y
Judges: 80% --> 56%
Votes: 250/250 --> 100% --> 30%
Total: 86%

X wins

OR

X
Judges: 90% --> 63%
Votes: 75%^[1] --> 22.5%
Total: 85.5%

Y
Judges: 80% --> 56%
Votes: 100% --> 30%
Total: 86%

Y wins


Even if you may argue that the second voting system is unfair, I may argue that the first is unfair too, and subsequently none are fair. For example, what if we have 5 contestants, receiving different number of votes...
P: 5000^[2]
Q: 500
R: 499
S: 400
T: 300

If we use the first voting system, then P may win the competition straightaway (unless he sings really poorly and the judges failed him) because the other contestants' scores were all being pushed down. If we use the second system, then R may not be able to win Q even if he scores better than Q from the judges. In both cases, the voting systems are unfair to some extent (although unfair to different groups of people).

We are actually not looking at the possibility that the judges scores may be twisted to fit the way as it would be in the voting part of the second example. Meaning to say that I am using the score from the judges based on the total percentage they give. The system may change it such that the person with the highest score from the judges gets 100% of the 70%, the second highest gets 90%, next highest gets 80% etc.

Even though the system must be kept constant throughout every round to ensure that there is no biasness, there are still some problems with the system as seen in the above examples. It will be difficult to find a exemplary system such that it will be fair to every contestant. In some way this may contribute to Shawn's success in obtaining the overall CSS2 champion.

Okay enough about voting systems, lest I digress further into the conflict over voting systems between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland prior to 1968. Okay sorry that was random. But whatever the case, looking at Saturday's competition, I can only conclude that Singapore does not know how to vote.

Benjamin should win Shawn due to his singing. Maybe because Benjamin has less supporters than Shawn, he lost. I admit that this is quite a crucial factor in deciding a superstar. It won't help if you have a best voice on Earth, if you don't have supporters, you're useless.

How about Keely? Keely and Shawn scored nearly the same score from the judges (32 and 33 respectively if I'm not wrong, both upon 50). I strong feel that Keely should win the competition rather than Shawn. How can an "aircon" and "someone who forgets his lyrics on stage" win? Furthermore, Shawn has an unfair advantage: his balls haven't descend his voice hasn't broken. Actually, I'd rather see it as a reason for elimination, since 1) he cannot sing low notes, and 2) he may not be able to sing well and sing high^[3] after his ba.. voice breaks.

Some people may say that Shawn is cute. OMG lah this is totally bullshit. Singaporeans should learn how to vote. Based on SINGING, not sympathy like how you see Chen Weilian or a cute puppy on the street. The puppy may carry diseases. Come on, there are many secondary 1s in my school who are much cuter than Shawn. Furthermore, many people in my school think Keely is cute. And Keely shares the same surname as me! That's another reason why I think Keely should win.

If you look at it from a more general point of view, who do you think should win the CSS2 competition? You definitely want a student who is mature and can set an example in singing to all other Singapore students, right? Well, sad to say, Shawn lacks both of the qualities.

All in all, even though I seldom watch CSS2, and I only happened to watch a little bit on Saturday, I could straightaway tell that Shawn does not deserve to win the competition. Not his fault, I would say, but Singapore's fault. Come on, to those people who spent 3-digit, 4-digit and 5-digit sums of money on voting, think about it, aren't you deceiving yourselves?

Footnotes:
1) Person with highest votes gets 100%, next person gets 75%, next 50% (if there are). This is just a suggested example.
2) Due to some crazy people who anyhow vote.
3) Most male singers make it because they can sing high, and conversely, those who cannot sing high usually cannot make it. There are very few mature males who can actually sing very high.

[*] Update: Just read from wikipedia that it was back to the old allocation of percentage from the semi finals onwards (70% votes, 30% judges).