tonight!!!

Last year, I discovered one of my students had been singing on TV.  But, because I didn't have cable, I only watched a few of the videos of her on YouTube.  I told her I had seen her singing and was impressed.  It was then that I found that what I had watched was small potatoes . . . . and that she had sung at other times on other shows too--as recently as just that past weekend.  But, she didn't tell me exactly what or brag or go into details. 

So, fast forward to this summer when I moved to Tainan and a typhoon blew through at the same time.  As I sat in my friend's apartment locked safely inside and utterly exhausted, I flipped through the channels . . . and I SAW HER ON TV!!!  I was shocked.  I mentioned it to my friend and found out that my student entered a "Taiwanese Idol" show on a major TV network. 

There are currently three different "Taiwanese idol" shows on prime time right now here in Taiwan.  My student is on the one called 星光大道 in Chinese.  They call it "Million Star" in English but a better translation of the show's name would be "Path to Stardom" or "Avenue of the Stars." 

So, ever since August of last year, I've faithfully watched this "Taiwanese Idol" show on TV each weekend.  It starts on Fridays at 9:30 and lasts till midnight.  Good thing for me they replay the last two weeks of shows back-to-back again on Saturday and Sunday.  So, in total I have four extra chances to see each show in case I miss the Friday night one or if I fall asleep on the couch before Rachel, my former student sings (she graduated last year).  (By the way, if you remember Judy from this summer, Rachel and Judy are best friends.)

Well, they have it down to the top five and tonight the show is live as they determine the ranking of the top five and declare a winner.  Rachel has consistently received high scores throughout the show.  And currently is in first place from the last 3 weeks of "top 6" competitions when they started adding the scores together for the top 6 and not just kicking off the low achievers! 

So, no doubt that tonight I will be watching this show and cheering on my former student!!! 

Here she is in a couple of her most recent performances on the show (the first one she is in a duet with one of the judges in a fun song called "it doesn't matter"):