Astro Star Quest (Chinese: Astro新秀大賽), also formerly known as Astro Talent Quest is an annual Chinese singing competition in Malaysia organized by ASTRO Wah Lai Toi, which was first held in 1997. The first winner in 1997 was 刘燕燕 Crystal[1] and the most current winner in 2016 is 黄雯俐 Wengdyy. In 2017, it was replaced by the Singapore-Malaysia version of 決戰好聲 The Voice and has since been discontinued and entered history.
Due to the provisions of the competition contract, starting from 2005, the winner, 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up will then represent Malaysia at the TVB全球华人新秀歌唱大賽 TVB International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship (from 1997 to 1999 and 2001, only the winner was sent to the competition. In 2000 and 2002 to 2004, the winner and 1st runner-up were sent out to the competition).
Astro Star Quest is one of the most popular Chinese singing competitions in Malaysia. In 2009, the organizers of the Astro Star Quest specially joined the "Creation Competition" for the first time. The "Best Original Song Award" not only realizes the dreams of emerging singers, but also discovers local emerging talents with creative talents, contributes to the promotion of local creations, and realizes the original dreams of local creators. "2009 Astro Star Quest Creative Group", the competition attracted nearly 2,000 submissions from all over Malaysia. After screening, the conference selected the top 5 talents to enter the top 10 competition of the Astro Star Quest. This second round of the Astro Star Quest successfully attracted public attention and response.
Note 1: There were 10 contestants in the finals from 1997 to 2005, the competition format was changed in 2006 with 6 in the finals, and 5 in the finals from 2007 to 2016.
Note 2: ( )The original name in brackets is the winner’s original name at the time of the competition, which has been changed.
Note 1: Astro collaborated with the most prominent in the world of Chinese music One Million Star. Starting from 2011, the top five contestants will be directly advanced to Taiwan's Chinese Million Star 100-person preliminary round
Notable Contestants
While many talents have been birthed through this competition, it also boasts of many contestants who have gone on to become successful artistes in their own path.
Notable local (Malaysia) examples would be Eric Lim (2001 Winner), 朱浩仁（朱豪仁) (2008 2nd Runner-Up) 许佳麟 Danny (2008 Top 5), 曾潔鈺 Yoke (2009 2nd Runner-Up), 颜慧萍 Geraldine (Winner 2011) and 赖淞凤 Nicole (Winner 2012).
Notable local (Malaysia) that crossed to other languages entertainment industry examples would be Vincent Chong (2002 1st Runner-Up), 许亮宇Henley Hii (2004 Contestant) and 钟瑾桦Alvin Chong (2009 Top 5).
Notable local (Malaysia) radio DJs that were or currently still are examples would be 叶朝明 Jack Yap (2002 Finalist), 庄靖毅 Jym Chong (2006 Finalist), 曾耀祖 Joe Chang (2010 Top 5) and Jie Ying Tha (2011 1st Runner-Up).
Competition Requirements
This competition is aimed at showcasing and unearthing talents among young Malaysian between ages 18 to 28 (age upper limit varies over the years) who are able to converse in Mandarin or Cantonese.
The competition started with audition where it is also open to all former finalists of Astro Talent Quest & Astro Star Quest (except former winners). The contestant must not be a recording artiste where he/she has released or in the process of releasing any solo and/or group album after the age of 12 years; or has intention to release a solo and/or group album within six months from the date of the finals of the contest;
For the first round of audition,
(Requirements differs over the years)
The contestant has to sing a song in any language or any Chinese dialects with a minimum duration of 90 seconds recorded into a video clip format for competition entry.
OR
The Contestant must sing from a selection of Chinese/Mandarin pop songs. The contestants have to perform a song with no instrumental accompaniment.
Selected contestants will enter the second round audition.
For the second round of audition, the contestant then must prepare his/her own CD/VCD/DVD minus one version containing the selected songs (one fast and one slow number) to be performed and will be judged before qualifying for the next round of competition. The contestants are required to use their own costumes and make-up as well.
Competition Format
In the initial format, the final ten contestants are selected by judges who will battle it out for the title on one night performing one song and a talent time performance each. The top three will then be chosen by a panel of judges, where after they would be subjected to a series of tests which assesses various aspects of their vocal and singing ability, such as vocal range, musical timing, vocal flexibility to adapt to different music styles, etc. The judges then determine the winner, first runner-up and second runner-up. The talent time performance was eliminated as of year 2005.
As of 2006, with the change of name from Astro Talent Quest to Astro Star Quest a new format was introduced whereby all contestants would go through vocal, body gesture, hosting, speech management and dance trainings in addition to other challenges along the way to reach the finals with 6 contestants. The following year in 2007 onward, the finals narrowed to 5 contestants instead. Although SMS voting was introduced (for the popularity award), the judges still held absolute decision in the contestants' fate.
From year 2008 onward, the contestants were facing more challenges with the introduction of a "Player Kill" (PK) session among the contestants, with past winners, secondary school students or stars.
In 2011 onward, Astro collaborated with CTV (China Television Company, Ltd) where top 5 finalist will then represent Malaysia at the 華人星光大道 Chinese Million Star. Contestants were sponsored for their flight ticket to Taiwan.
The competition reaches its 20th anniversary in 2016 with the Final happening in the New Year's Eve on 31 December 2016 at Desa Park City.[6] This particular year, the contestants were required to produce MTV as one of the competition segments. In the MTV production, the contestants were obligated to cover the selected songs with new improvisation (music arrangement improvisation) and different interpretation, with an aim in their unique portrayal as a new artist.