<h4>Chapter 1650: Call of the Spotlight (Part III)</h4>
"Sing this part for me," Iris Long instructed the second contestant.
The woman did so before Iris stopped her.
"Try doing it like this instead," Iris said before increasing her notes half an octave.
The woman followed suit.
Iris nodded while murmuring, "Not bad."
She continued guiding the female contestant to sing another half an octave higher. About two minutester, the contestant finally managed to stably sing without her voice sounding strained.
"Very good," Iris said with a satisfied smile.
The contestant’s eyes sparkled. She looked at Iris as if she were a genie who granted wishes.
"Thank you, Ma’am Iris!"
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Iris chuckled. She stood up and returned to the judges’ table. Albert Alc and Dina Bendita watched her with awed expressions.
"Three minutes and you managed to make her sound like a recording studio-ready artist instead of an amateur!" Albert eximed.
"She was already talented to begin with," Iris said. "I just helped her utilize some proper techniques suitable for her."
"What a master ss," Dina muttered under her breath, still looking somewhat stunned by Iris Long’s impromptu vocal lessons.
Master Beauty and the hosts praised the female contestant, chatting with her before introducing the final contestant of the day.
The third contestant was male. He was a farmer in an extremely rural mountainous province. He was the firstborn son among many siblings with an elderly, widowed mother. Their family could barely make ends meet. Indeed, his build suggested malnutrition. He was so skinny that he almost looked like a skeleton.
When Iris read about his brief information, her eyes widened. "What?! He’s only twenty-one years old?!"
Even Dina looked shocked, but she refrained frommenting. She only sighed. Her eyes, however, were now filled with pity as she looked at the contestant.
Iris still wanted toment, but Dom poked her in the back in a silent warning. More often than not, shecked filter and would say whatever was on her mind. In her home country, her fans and the industry were already used to her frankness. This time, however, she was just a visitor in another country. Thanks to Dom’s prompt warning, she was able to stop herself from saying something that might unintentionally offend the Filipino people.
Just as she nodded a silent thanks to Dom behind her, Master Beauty made an exaggerated exmation.
"Huh?! You’re only twenty-one?! You look like you’re in your forties or even fifties! You look even older than Sir Albert!"
Albert Alc grimaced at being mentioned. Dina Bendita shook her head.
Iris began to feel nervous and sorry for the contestant. Then the audience allughed.
"Huh?" Iris looked around and saw that everyone seemed to find Master Beauty’s words funny, except for her and her fellow judges.
Then she saw how a masteredian—ahem, ahem—edienne" skillfully used what should have been offensive words to make everyoneugh.
"Wow, this is talent that I don’t have," Iris muttered under her breath. "I don’t think I want to have this kind of talent."
Dina gave Iris’ hand a gentle pat.
Iris had to give it to Master Beauty. The host was able to pull out the elephant in the room for everyone to see, stating the obvious while making it so that everything sounded funny.
Even the contestant who should’ve been the most offended wasughing so much that his stomach started hurting.
"Huh." Iris couldn’t rte to this kind of humour.
Nevertheless, thanks to Master Beauty’s maniptions, the atmosphere lightened considerably. The sad life story of a poor farmer didn’t leave the viewers’ hearts too heavy. Indeed, "Ready, Set, Lunch Party" was supposed to be a fun-filled noon-time program, not a tear-filled drama show.
Iris didn’t think about it too much anymore. As long as the butt of the joke, namely the contestant, didn’t feel offended, then everything should be fine.
Finally, the awkward-but-not-really-awkward moment passed. The third contestant began performing.
As soon as Iris heard the song, her eyes lit up. It was a very popr English song. She was extremely familiar with it. The song was one of her music mentor Enrique Valdez’s biggest hit songs with his band back in the day.
The melody was legendary. The high notes were even more of a legend.
The song was one of the most technically difficult songs to sing in the era of contemporary music. ording to Dom, however, it was also one of the favourite songs that Filipinos loved to sing in the karaoke.
Iris became serious as she focused on judging the contestant’s performance. In her mind, she had to give it to the contestant for having the guts to sing an Enrique Valdez song in front of her.
The male contestant had quite a unique tone of voice. It was raspy but also sounded clean at the same time. He hit the high notes, but most of his runs weren’t as smooth as the original song.
When the performance ended, almost everyone gave a standing ovation. Among the judges, only Dina Bendita stood up. Both Iris Long and Albert Alc remained seated, although they also pped like everyone else.
Behind Iris, Dom also couldn’t help but stand up. The contestant really sounded good!
Master Beauty led the other hosts into hyping up the audience even more. It was clear that they all liked the third contestant’s performance.
"Now let’s hear what the judges have to say," Master Beauty said.
This time, it was Iris Long who spoke first.
"This is one of the most technically difficult songs to sing," she said. "My mentor, Enrique Valdez, wrote this song at the height of his band’s career. It is a legendary song. And in my opinion, there is not a single cover, recorded or otherwise, that has justified it. Yours included."
Master Beauty was whispering what she meant to the contestant whose expression fell. Everyone nced at him, worried that he would feel discouraged in pursuing his dreams.
Albert Alc wanted to interject, but Dina Bendita stopped him with a warning look.