Folk music takes back seat
A CONTEST aimed at promoting folk music among young people ended up as a mini-pop concert accompanied by deafening cheers and screams of the teenage audience.
The Joint School Folk Song Singing Contest, in its second year, had attracted hundreds of teenagers who jammed the Queen's College auditorium.
However, its main objective took a back seat when pop stars came on stage and turned it into a mini-concert.
''I'm here because of my idol Dicky Cheung. I am his fan. When Dicky attends public functions, my friends and I will turn up and wait for him,'' said third-former Ann Law.
A Form 4 student, Teresa Fong, told Young Post that her reason for coming was to catch a glimpse of her idol, Lam Man-lung. But she added that she also came to support her schoolmates, who were taking part in the folk contest.
The pop stars performers were Dicky Cheung, Lam Man-lung and Luk Ka-chun and each sang two of their hit songs.
During their performance, the hall was filled with loud cheers and screams as the audience became excited and sang along with the stars.
Meanwhile, some students came forward to the stage and struggled to shake hands with their idols and take photographs.
However, organising committee secretary Irene Leung said: ''The function meets a two-fold purpose; one is the promotion of folk music and the other to entertain the audience.'' Sixth-form classmate Winnie Wong added that teenagers today were pop music lovers and showed less interest in folk music. Hence the competition at least could give them a chance to come into contact with such songs.
The competition was divided into three categories - English, Chinese and Creative.
Students of Ho Lap College stole the limelight by winning in the English section. Their group, ''Skylark'', comprised sixth-formers Chan Yee-kai, Samina Khan and Sharon Lau Suet-wan and third-former Lee Ying-chi.
The girls were very pleased with the victory and their performance. They did not devote much time to preparing for the contest, but said they were familiar with the song - ''Perhaps Love''.
St Paul's Convent School students came second with ''Mockin' Bird Hill'' while third place went to Wah Yan College Hongkong, who sang ''More Than Words''.
In the Chinese section, Rebecca Law of St Paul's Secondary School was first and second and third places went to St Paul's School (Lam Tin) Choir and Janet Au Yeung of St Paul's Convent respectively.
Third-former Vincent Chow Bing-fai of Queen's College won the Creative Section.
