Chapter 304: He’s Exactly Who He Thinks He Is (3)
The rest of the evaluation went pretty smoothly, and overall, Ari thought he had done really well during the evaluation.
He had sang exactly the way he wanted to, the rapping portion had gone well, and the dance was quite flawless if he said so himself.
To add icing on the cake, Jelissa had somehow come back to be a judge, so the previous weight that he would be fighting against Larry Jackson and possibly Jaywalk’s biases against him was gone as well, because Jelissa had always been fair and always spoke up to give contestants points for the things they did well.
Now it was all left to the judges.
As he left the room with the remaining contestants, he gave Jelissa a bright smile before walking quickly to grab Daniel Kim by his hoodie.
"Oi, Daniel. Let’s talk. Privately."
The Korean boy took one look at Ari’s face and began to hiccup with teary eyes.
"...please don’t hit me hic. And if you hit me not in the face, hic."
Ari: ಠ_ಠ
What is wrong with you people?
I’ve only hit one person!
One!
You act like I go around bashing people upside the head every single day.
Holding back a sigh, Ari just dragged Daniel away while ignoring his pleading expression.
*********
And in the recently vacated room, the judges were having a surprisingly mild discussion on how to rank the contestants.
Within the three categories: vocals, rap, and dance, the bottom 20 were easily decided as there was truly insurmountable, clear difference in skill.
But when it got to those within the top 10, arguments could be made depending on stylistic preferences, little mistakes that had to be weighed against each other, and other little metrics, which made the previously calm argument get much more intense.
"For contestant Ariel, vocally hmm, while it was an okay performance and not complete rubbish, maybe 5th-" Larry Jackson started speaking, but Jelissa quickly cut in, not in the mood to deal with his nonsense.
"First."
"FIRST?"
"I didn’t stutter. First." Jelissa doubled down.
"Over Carlos? The boy with the angelic vocals?"
"Yes!" Jelissa insisted firmly.
"Have you lost it, or is this your bias speaking?"
At the insinuation that she couldn’t separate her duty as an impartial judge from her personal preference, Jelissa leveled a surprisingly stern look at Larry Jackson, causing him to look a bit taken aback.
"...sorry."
Jelissa ignored the halfhearted apology.
"This is not to put down Carlos by any means. I think he is a phenomenal vocalist for his age. His voice is special; he knows how to use it well and knows exactly what works for him and what types of songs people often praise him for. But to me, he hasn’t shown the growth that I want to see, and I’ve been his vocal coach since the beginning."
"How so?" Larry Jackson looked completely unconvinced.
To him, Carlos was undoubtedly the best singer, and even William and Jamie couldn’t compare.
He had a voice that many male singers would be jealous of, and could reach soaring high notes, comparable with female singers, without straining his vocal cords.
"If I put Carlos audition song, the song he chose for this evaluation, up, and any of the song parts he has sung, you would realize that they’re all in the same vein. They all emphasize the highness and clarity of his angelic voice, but that’s really it. All the other techniques that I’ve tried to teach, he’s learned and executed them in class, but when put to the test, he quickly falls back into what he’s comfortable with because it’s worked so far, and he gets praised for it. And normally that would be okay, but when you have other contestants who are hungry to improve, it makes his lack of improvement stand out even more."
"Well...according to the PD, they only had 2 days to decide what song to sing. And they’re also preparing for a performance. There simply wasn’t a lot of time."
"Well, that’s stupid, and you should have pushed back on the PD and given the contestants more time to prepare. But even so, it makes it worse, especially when Jamie, someone who is also in my vocal class and has extensive vocal training and knows what he’s comfortable with, pivoted from his usual song choice into something more difficult, and sang it almost flawlessly. He’s been absorbing any technique I teach him, implementing it with his previous knowledge, and has grown, even if it’s not as apparent, because he started on such a high level when compared to the others. His performance today was great."
Thinking through Jelissa’s points and realizing she was right, but not wanting to give Ariel first place, Larry Jackson began pointing out the flaws.
"Even though you’re praising Jamie, I don’t see you pushing for him to be first. You want contestant Ariel to be first."
"I actually wouldn’t mind if either Contestant Jamie or Contestant Ariel gets first place because I think they both did phenomenally and pushed themselves out of the safe zone. I just think in this evaluation, Ariel edged Jamie out simply because of the song choice."
"Why do you say that?"
"When he came in, you could tell that Ariel was self-taught and was just singing and trying things out. Thankfully, he has a good ear, but that’s not enough in a room full of talented people who have been singing longer than you have with professional aid. But he’s been working hard; he’s absorbed everything I taught him like a sponge, and I can tell he’s been practicing with Jamie, and vice versa, because they’re slowly picking up each other’s habits. And today, with that song. That is not a song I expected him to sing. Ever. That song is on an entirely different level of difficulty than anything sang by anyone today. That is a song you expect a seasoned female vocalist to sing because it’s difficult. You need a wide vocal range to handle it, and most males can’t do it without lowering the key. The transition from the low notes to the high, from chest voice to head voice and back again, is rough, and he’s nailed it effortlessly. He didn’t run out of breath. His voice didn’t crack; he didn’t miss a single note. You could feel the emotion behind each word. It was phenomenal and brought a tear to my eye. I don’t think I could have sang it better, and if you close your eyes, listen again, without judgment, I think you’ll agree that without a doubt, with that song, Ariel is the number 1 vocalist of this evaluation."
"Hmmmm....well..."
As Larry Jackson tried to figure out how to disagree to Jelissa’s sudden passionate speech, agreement came from Kim Young-woo, who was discussing the dance evaluation off to the side.
"I agree."
"Pardon?" He turned to look at the Korean choreographer who had randomly interjected.
"I said I agree. I’m not a vocalist, but if you ask me which performance was the best, which one made me feel something, and which performance I would pay money to see in a theater, in an arena, in a stadium, out of all the vocal performances today, it would be contestant Ariel’s performance today. It was really, really good and just brought me back to the time when I was an underground dancer trying to choreograph for others and trying to get recognized for my skills, yet being turned down at every avenue. It felt like everyone hated me, like I was constantly being shot down at anything I attempted, and somehow, through grit, luck, and hard work, I made it to where I am today. Hearing that song today really reminded me of when I was that age, working hard, so for me, it was the number 1 performance."
When he finished speaking, everyone stared in silence at Kim Young-woo since this was the most words he had ever spoken in one sitting.
"Same here," Jaywalk added quietly.
Seeing that he was outnumbered, Larry let out a groan.
"Agh, fine, fine. Let him be first, let Jamie be second, and let Carlos be third. Just stop nagging!"
"Thank you!" Giving Larry a bright smile, Jelissa quickly marked Ari’s position down in ink.
"Since you have so much to say about his vocals, what did you think about his dancing, Young-woo?"
The Korean choreographer, who looked as cool as usual, tapped his fingers on the table several times before answering slowly.
"I think he did well. My only complaint about his performance is that his dance style is inconsistent. When he has time to really practice a dance, you can tell that he infuses that smooth, almost effortless vibe into his dance style and makes the choreography completely his own. But when he’s short on time, it’s like his body memorized the moves and he’s just spitting them out as is. There’s no emotion or personal flair. It’s almost robotic. From a technical standpoint, I would give him a 90, from a stylistic dancer’s standpoint..." Kim Young-woo paused for a moment, "even if I don’t like it, he technically made no mistakes, so he gets a high mark from me as well. I think we agreed on 3rd place?"
Kim Young-woo glanced at Jaywalk, who nodded in agreement.
"And you?" Larry Jackson turned to look at X-Ponent, the solo rapper here.
He was expecting him to be around 5 or 6 since Ariel’s rap had a completely different, almost jazz-like vibe from the others, instead of the expected hip hop beat.
But to his shock, a completely different rank came from X-Ponent’s mouth.
"First place."
"FIRST?!?" Larry Jackson turned to look at the rapper incredulously, his eyes bulging in his face, but X-Ponent simply laughed.
"That song was originally a phenomenal diss track performed by a contestant toward a producer for a rap show. I had to check, but it seemed Ariel used that as a base, changed some words, and performed it as a diss track toward the show’s producer. He didn’t curse at the man, but he dissected his alleged actions, his alleged attitude, and his alleged moral failings without missing a beat. Even though this was an evaluation, Ariel made it a personal freestyle and wove it in seamlessly with the original song. Battling, dissing someone, writing your own bars. That’s the real definition of rap. How can I not give him a full score? It was a phenomenal performance from contestant Ariel."
"Huh. Well fine. Nothing I can do about it."
X-Ponent wrote his score on the sheet that had to be turned into the PD before glancing at the other scores lined up beside his.
"First place. First place, third place." X-Ponent let out a whistle before continuing.
"It’s always mentioned that Contestant Ariel is bold, that he’s cocky, or has an overinflated ego and evaluation of his self and his skills. But looking at the results, this is probably the first all-rounder of the show. Rather than thinking he’s a prideful youngster, we probably need to start admitting that he’s exactly who he thinks he is. He has the looks, the charisma, the talent, and that bold personality that will fight against god himself, and if he continues on this trajectory, he’s going to be a humongous star. He might end up being number one."
"With the people he’s offended and the current public outcry, I highly doubt that. In fact, I’m willing to put money on the fact that he gets eliminated next." Larry Jackson grumbled, but X-ponent only shook his head.
"One thing that I’ve learned about being, and I quote, a ’celebrity’ is that public opinion is fickle and can change in a heartbeat. If you’re at the bottom of the garbage heap today, you can be king of the mountain top tomorrow. It all depends on how the wind blows. Regardless, I’ll go turn this into the PD and head out."
"Got it. See you in a couple of days?"
"Right. I’ll see you at the performance."