Another one bites the dust this week, and her name is… Rahimah Rahim. As if this isn’t shocking enough, the gritty rock chick tells us, “I’m kind of relieved to leave the competition.” What exactly does she mean by that?!



As we tarry towards our interview with the most recently eliminated Singapore Idol contestant this morning, we find the entire MediaCorp premise white-frozen over with thermal fogging to keep those pesky mozzies at bay.

Less than fifty metres away at the reception area — and bugged by something else altogether — is Rahimah Rahim, 16-year-old student nursing a crushed dream, as she gloomily chews on a wholemeal sandwich.

That performance
It was only two days ago that she opened her last performance show with Lindsay Lohan’s ode to her father, Confessions of a Broken Heart on Wednesday (also National Day), where she started off nearly veering off-tune and ended with a look that said it all: her dissatisfaction with her own performance. On Thursday night, she was sent home.

So emotional was she while belting out her song that a ditsy Jacintha — who looked like she was still high on patriotism — said after her performance, “Happy National Day!” by way of telling her to lighten up. We think.

Ken simply remarked, “I think you’re pretending to be a rocker again.” Rahimah would protest. “I wanted to put myself in the singer’s shoes... I was just imagining myself in that state and it overworked.”

She does, however offer a theory to what she would have done differently: carry a happier tune for the Home, Family & Friends theme night that was more — in her own words — “appropriate for National Day”. After all, no one goes to someone’s birthday party beating a dismal beat. Or have Woody Allen as the best man at a wedding, for that matter.

“Everybody was so happy after watching the fireworks. They were really proud to be Singaporean and suddenly, one contestant sings that kind of song! It sort of breaks everybody’s spirit.”

So unhappy was Rahimah with her own performance on Wednesday, that she was already saying her goodbyes to the others the following morning: “I could feel it. My performance was not up to par.”

But picking the wrong song wasn’t the reason for her getting sent home, she feels. The problem was far more deep rooted.

Not clean enough
Recounting to us on how she felt betrayed when a particular fan shut down a fansite of her (apparently, he used her to get tickets to the shows before giving her the bum’s rush to show his support to another contestant), Rahimah says her lack of interaction with her fans might have cost her some votes.

“I don’t like to suck up to people, as in go there and tell them, ‘Oh, did you wait very long? I’m really sorry to keep you waiting.’ I’m not that type lah. I will just say, ‘Thank you for supporting me.’ That’s the most I feel is appropriate for me ‘cos I’m not that type.

“I wasn’t all out to garner votes. I was just too much of being myself. But I’m glad that I left because I was myself. I wouldn’t want to be someone else.”

Add to that, Ken’s remark that she’s too intense to make it as the next Singapore Idol, which Rahimah says she agrees with. “I can never be an Idol. I’m too hardcore, I’m too rough… I’m not clean enough, not safe enough.”

Her idea of someone who is ‘safe’ in the competition, is Hady Mirza, who’s proven himself capable of bringing on terrifying female screams in the audience with his swoonsome voice and let’s face it, looks.

“His image is difficult not to accept. Even if people don’t like him, overall, they won’t hate him.”

For Rahimah, though, there’s no middle ground. None. Zilch. In her final moments at the results show, it was either Rahimah or Paul who would make it through. We apologise before drawing another comparison to her and Paul — remarking that he’s got that same ‘love me or hate me’ vibe about him too. Rahimah protests.

“The thing is, he’s a guy. When we go for roadshows, if you see properly, most of the fans are girls. We females really care about passion. So when the singers bring it out, we can feel it more. Guys only care about World Cup lah! Obviously the votes would go more towards the males.”

Unfortunately for Ken as well as local audiences, they might have gotten to see a mellower side of Rahimah had she not been lost in the voting fray yesterday night.

Next week’s theme is Rock the House, and the rock chick admits she’s a little bummed about getting axed just before she got to it as she had planned to break through on two levels for her next performance: sing in Malay, as well as do a heartfelt love ballad by Anuar Zain.

“I wanted so much to sing in my mother tongue,” sighs the moody one.

She’s all about the gritty truth
This rock chick, who stands for the honest truth, also confesses that she only smiles when she is truly happy, and not when a camera is stuck in front of her face.

“I only smile when I really feel happy. I won’t smile for fake stuff. I won’t go in front of a camera and go like, (flinging her arms like an excited schoolgirl) “HEY HI I’M RAHIMAH, HI!!!!” Ugh, I won’t do that. I hate lying to myself. ”

What can we say? Ken might have been too quick to judge Rahimah as pretending to be a rocker… when she’s all about rock. She replies us in a serious, sensible tone, with sudden surges of enthusiasm when she gets excited. Her constant concern with having to be true to herself is a mark of sincerity itself — unlike some of the other contestants.

“If I lie to myself, that’s when I really get pissed. That’s what I really don’t wanna do. I want to be me. What I seek, what I do, I wanna breathe me.”

In a quiet tone, she discloses that their smiley faces do get to her nerves at times. “I hope that the contestants would be a lot more sincere. All the love, the smiles and stuff, some of it may be strategic, some of it may be genuine… We mingle a lot, but somehow I feel that some of them aren’t exactly sincere about it. I hate the feeling.

“That’s why I’m kind of relieved to leave the competition also. I sincerely cannot take all this kind of act.”

Back to reality
Not all’s over for this gutsy babe though. Her immediate plans now are to go the way of the dragon: beef up and take up martial arts. Today she’s even suitably clad in a pugilist-like robe with turned up sleeves at the wrists.

“I’m aiming for pecs and biceps. I wanna enter a volleyball team and take up martial arts. I should have done this a long time ago when I was flexible… it’s gonna be difficult to start training!”

The aspiring fashion designer also her sights set on getting into Temasek Poly next year. Her idea of preparing for her creative studies ahead, she says, is to “hit the libraries and steal the books or something.” We think she’s joking.

But she won’t be giving up her singing dreams just yet, even though she acknowledges that the music industry is tough. “This business is really consuming.”

Closer to her train of thoughts for now are the Singapore Idol finals which will soon beam down at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in late September.

“I really hope that this year’s competition would end off with a big bang… a competition of talent. Vocals, VOCALS, okay?! That’s all I wanna say.”