I know CJ Crew's all about K-pop and all, but when I first saw them perform, the first thing that came to mind was Britney's first single 'Baby One More Time'. It must have been those school girl outfits and the fab dancing. CJ Crew's slick, hard-hitting moves and perfect synchrony wowed the crowd when they joined the show on Episode 11 School's Out.
The girls have been on the show for just a month, that's just one week longer than fellow Grand Finalist IFLY prodigy, so they're still fairly 'new'. So here's a little background about the girls and a quick one-by-one intro so you get to know them a bit better :)
The 'CJ' in 'CJ Crew' stands from Celine Jessandra. The girls are all from the Celine Jessandra School of Performing Arts where they offer training courses on K-pop dance and singing. Like Luminiq Crew, the actual number of members of CJ Crew is way more than the 7 girls that joined the show, their numbers go up to almost 20. But just for the show, these 7 were hand picked by Celine Jessandra herself. Originally meant to be made up of 2 guys and 5 girls, the dynamics had to change due to age and schedule restrictions. Which is how we ended up with these 7 lovely girls...
Samantha Mun a.k.a. Sam16 December 1988
Currently working, Sam is pretty much the leader of the troupe. She's the one that speaks up during interviews and generally leads the girls at rehearsals and events.
Josephine Hung a.k.a Jojo
6 April 1990
Currently working and also a talent at CJ, Jojo is easily the best dancer on the crew. Its a real joy to watch her cos she hits every move hard and sharp. Plus she's always got a ready smile. Just too cute and sometimes a total blur sotong, she's one of the most genuinely sweet people I've ever met.
Diyana Jamial a.k.a. Di
22 November 1990
The most petite member of the group, Diyana is the one who raps and is training to be singer at the school too. Chatty and outspoken, Di's usually the one that accompanies Sam on interviews. Imo she's also one of the better dancers in the group and is often spotlighted and placed right in front.
Evelyn Ong a.k.a. Evy
10 November 1988
Evy's the one with the cap, that's her trademark, you hardly ever see her without it unless the costume for the routine requires her to take it off. She looks like the tomboy of the group and is most likely the tomboy of the group, but she's as much girl as any of the other girls in the group and can totally rock a girly routine and a corset (as can be seen on Fright Night!) LOL!
8 November 1990
The fairest and tallest girl in the group, Yuzhen is all fair skin and big eyes and great cheekbones. But the girl can kick it with the best of them.
Joanna Lee
28 October 1991
The youngest in the group that's on OMG, Joanna is quiet but looks to me like a really hard worker. The other night at rehearsals when it was just her and Jun representing CJ Crew, she worked tirelessly for hours, filling in the gaps where CJ Crew would be performing.
Zhi Jun
4 December 1988
Unfortunately Jun had to pull out of the competition at the very last minute due to a back injury that has just recurred. She's been with CJ Crew on the show since they joined and its said to not see her be able to compete at the Grand Finals with the rest, so CJ Crew is now down to 6.
I managed to catch with the girls just after their OMG rehearsals on Sunday, just before they rushed off for another set of rehearsals, this time with their school!
What's the best part about being on OMG!?
The best part is the support we get. We get supporters coming out from everywhere to tell us that they love us and are behind us. Like old friends that you've lost touch with, or just people that you're just too busy to keep in touch with cos of school and work and of course the hectic schedule from this show. But because of the show, they're all stepping up to support us and its really great.
Whats been the saddest moment so far then?
Our lowest point was when we ourselves realised we didn't do as well as we had wanted. We got feedback that wasn't so good from our friends and fans that further confirmed what we kind of already knew. This was after our Fright Night! performance. We knew we hadn't done too well. But you know, we couldn't focus on that, we told ourselves that hey, we've still got the rest of the show to go. I guess what got us really down wast he pressure to stay on the show. And once we got through, we just had to focus on the next step.
Which do you think was your best performance on OMG?
It would have to be the one we did for School's Out! cos we had a lot more time to prepare, about two weeks. So the whole routine was tighter and better choreographed.
I'm guessing then that your worst performance would have to be the Fright Night! one?
Yes. I think that night we were just trying to do too much. We felt pressured to fulfil our idea of K-pop. Most K-pop acts can sing and dance. They rarely only sing or only dance. So we felt we needed to add the singing in, and showcase that we could do both like the general K-pop genre. But actually only a few of us are trained singers. But then, we didn't want to just highlight two singers and make the rest look like back up dancers, so we tried something new and it didn't really pay off. Onstage for us, it sounded ok, but we realised that on TV it didn't sound so good. Plus we couldn't hear ourselves at all when we were performing. So it wasn't as good a routine as we'd have liked it to be.
Most people will ask you who your biggest competition on the show is, I'm gonna ask you the reverse - who do you think you're least in competition with?
I think we'd have to say we probably feel least threatened by the singers, cos we're in a totally different genre. For the finals, we'll focusing on the dancing, we won't be singing, but Di will be rapping a little.
Hrm. (after a long pause) Time management. All of us have so much going on, so we've learned that we have to plan our time more carefully. Some days we feel like we need to dig a few more hours out of the day from somewhere, anywhere :)
Between, school/work, rehearsals for our dance school's recital plus rehearsals for OMG!, its been really crazy - its hard enough to find time for the schedules things much less actual time for rehearsals for ourselves.
So yea, we have to learn to manage our time even better.
1. CJ Crew joined OMG on Episode 11 School's Out!
2. CJ Crew Rankings :
Episode 11 : Judges ranking 2 / 5 ; Public - Not in Bottom 3
Episode 12 : Judges ranking 3 / 6 ; Public - In Bottom 3
They've only performed twice, and the its known that their second performance wasn't as strong as their first and it shows in the rankings. Will CJ Crew be able to up their game now that they are in the Grand Finals? And up it enough to clinch the $50,000?
Catch CJ Crew TONIGHT on the One Moment of Glory Grand Finals where they will battle it out against the other four to win the $50,000 grand prize.
Voting lines will open at the start of the show at 8pm. The Results will come to you LIVE the same night at 10pm.
To vote for IFLY prodigy :
Call 1900 112 1205 or sms '5' to 71199.
Good luck girls, and all the best for tonight!
xoxo, s.
