blessed

.. blessed are those who dwell in Your house.. they are ever praising You..

Lately, by an absolute spring of chance, I've been hooked on Malaysian Idol - which I missed out on realtime - because I was over here in the UK. I stumbled upon it by visiting some links that my friend put up in a message on my bulletin board on Friendster. I watched all of the hilarious audition videos of Malaysian Idol "rejects" who failed the first round of auditions. I visited the site that was hosting the videos, and downloaded a video of Jaclyn Victor's audition, which I thought was absolutely incredible. At this point, I didn't realise she was the winner of Malaysian Idol, until Roy told me a couple days later. I decided that I wanted to listen to more of her singing, and searched the internet for days to find other Malaysian Idol videos, and was able to follow it till the end.

Having watched the videos of her singing in the finals at the Genting Arena of Stars, I could have guessed she would have won by a gigantic margin, and as it turned out, she won almost 80% of the votes. She is a truly incredible singer, and through this wild chance of me watching Malaysian Idol, she's got yet another fan. =)

I did a little research and found out that she's not had an easy life. A common phrase used on a few web pages went like this :

The first Malaysian Idol winner, Jaclyn Victor, has not had an easy life. She was just 18 when she started singing at clubs, hotel lounge and gigs to support her family.Her dad died when she was just 9 and her housewife-mum, Mrs Maggie Victor, had to go out to work.She juggled three jobs to raise Jaclyn and her three younger brothers.

As it turns out, Jaclyn (now 25) had been "freelance" singing with her band right up to the time when her mum told her to quit her job and try out for Malaysian Idol, all these years having helped to put her younger brothers through school. By God's grace, she developed a near-flawless singing voice with her superb talent and experience through the years.

I can't begin to express how happy I am for her that she won the competition, became the 1st ever Malaysian Idol, and secured a recording contract with BMG. In my opinion, no one else deserved it more than she did.

Upon a bit of reflection, I've realised (once again) how blessed I am, with family, friends, and how God has provided for me all these years. My dad, mum, brother, and sister are the most amazing people in the world, and I wouldn't trade them for anything, as it is with the friends I have in church and otherwise.

Jaclyn's life was not easy, but God still provided for her, and at the same time, prepared her for what she has become now, a superstar. It is easy to see through her interviews that she is a very modest person, yet having beaten over 10,000 contenders for Malaysian Idol.

In similar respects, I must say I've had a pretty comfortable life. My dad, from humble beginnings, was blessed with a scholarship and then a great career, and was able to provide for my family. I've never been short of what I need, and yet have been blessed enough to come to the UK to study, and even after failing to complete one degree, able to pursue another one. I've also been blessed with a wonderful job that pays my bills, travel, for my books and food. I really could not ask for more.

God's grace really knows NO bounds.

Thanks for being my wonderful friends, and may God continue to bless you more and more.

Jaclyn, congratulations and may God continue to enrich you as you embark on this spectacular journey.