| Jaclyn Victor | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jaclyn A/P Joshua Thanaraj Victor |
| Also known as | Jac |
| Born | December 4, 1978 |
| Origin | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| Genres | Pop, pop rock, R&B |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Labels | Sony Music Malaysia |
| Website | http://www.jaclynvictor.com/ |
Jaclyn Joshua Thanaraj Victor (born December 4, 1978) is a singer and actress, popularly known as Jac, who won the inaugural Malaysian Idol and Ikon Malaysia. For being the winner of Malaysian Idol, she won a recording contract under Sony BMG Entertainment. She is under the management of The 8 Unit. She represented Malaysia in the first Asian Idol and Ikon Asean. She is also dubbed as Asia's Divette for her vocal prowess.
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Victor is a Malaysian of Tamil descent. She was born in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 4, 1978. She is the eldest and only daughter of Maggie Victor, a single mother of Indian descent. Her siblings include three younger brothers. When Victor was nine years old, her father died, prompting her mother to take on three jobs simultaneously to support her four children.[1] At the age of eighteen, Victor started singing in clubs and hotel lounges.
With the support of friends and family, Victor and her friend, Ravi recorded an album, titled Dream. This self-produced album features songs co-written by Victor as well. There are attempts to promote this album including an appearance on the 8TV show Latte @ 8.
In 2004, her mother encouraged her to audition for Malaysian Idol. Along with ten thousand others, Victor auditioned for Malaysian Idol. The judges Roslan Aziz, Fauziah Latiff and Paul Moss put her through to the next round. Upon landing a final thirty-third spot, Victor performed "Superwoman" live, becoming the seventh person to reach the top twelve.
In the first spectacular show, the theme for the week was "Song from your Pop Idol". Victor choose a song from Indonesian diva Ruth Sahanaya, "Keliru". Coached under Aubrey Suwito, Juwita Suwito along with Elaine Pedley, her performance took her through to the next round. The second theme was "Song from your Classic Idol". Victor's choice was When I Fall in Love where Michael Xavier Voon joined in as performance coach. It gained resounding praise. After another double elimination sending off Fahmy and Rydee, Victor was back the following week performing a "Song from the 80s", Chaka Khan’s I Feel For You. She went on to the "Rock Show" with a performance of Sweet Child O’ Mine.
The last six contestants included Nikki, Dina, Vick, Andrew, and Saipul. Victor performed an effortless Lady Marmalade, but received a less favourable comment from Roslan, who expressed that "she is a super singer but not an idol", and he felt bored week by week of her performances thus far. On the results show, she found herself in the bottom two for the first time (with Nikki, who performed Emotion), but she survived the elimination. After reaching the last three, her chances were improved by her performance of Alicia Keys' If I Ain’t Got You.
Victor had become the final two contestants on Malaysian Idol, and on 9 October 2004, she took the title of Malaysian Idol, earning 76% of audience votes over Dina.[2] In tears, Victor performed the ballad Gemilang (Glory), the song written for the winner of Malaysian Idol, which would subsequently appear on her début album Gemilang. The song's music video incorporated short scenes of Victor through her journey in Malaysian Idol.
Victor's album achieved gold status within weeks of going on sale. Her previously-released album Dream, sold out within days, despite the sudden increase in price. She won the "Best Newcomer Award" on Hitz. FM and "Best New Artist" in Anugerah Bintang Popular.
Since winning, Victor has appeared in numerous television and talk shows such as Pillow Talk and Muzik-Muzik. She has also performed "Gemilang" at a Tsunami Concert held to aid victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. She has performed in duets with Hazami, Taufik Batisah, Akademi Fantasia's second winner, Zahid, Delon Thamrin, and Misha Omar.
Victor first received her international award when she won 'Golden Voice', the grand prize at Shanghai Music Festival, in China on October 28, 2005.
Victor emerged as the champion during the Asian Music Festival in Shanghai with her winning song, "Gemilang". On January 21, 2006, Victor walked away with RTM Hits 1 Best Song and Best Performance awards for Gemilang. Later, on February 5 the same year, the song earned her and its composer Aubrey Suwito and lyricist Azmin Mudin the "Juara Lagu" (Champion of Songs) and "Best Ballad Song" awards in TV3's 20th edition of the Anugerah Juara Lagu. She was expected to win the TV3's "Anugerah Vokal Terbaik" (Best Vocal Award). However, she lost the title to Hazami who performed "Kata". Victor grabbed the Best Female Artiste award at the Anugerah Planet Muzik (Music Planet Awards) in Singapore on March 24.
On April 29, 2006, Victor won four of seven nominations from the Malaysian music scene's biggest night, the 13th Anugerah Industri Muzik. They are Best New Artist, Best Musical Arrangement in a Song, Best Pop Album and Best Album.
After a series of delays, Victor's second album, Inilah Jac, was launched on August 25, 2006. Around the time it was launched, she was on a trip to Australia for both leisure and business purposes, including visiting Mount Buller, and performing in two concerts in Melbourne's Australia for Christ Fellowship Church (alongside singer-songwriter Juwita Suwito), and in Adelaide's Paradise Community Church (which inaugural Australian Idol winner, Malaysian-born Guy Sebastian is a member of; though Sebastian himself did not appear). While in Australia, Victor also did an interview for Christian radio station HCJB.[3]
In November 2006, she finally landed her first "proper" music video (previously her videos are snippets from studio recording sessions or footage from her Malaysian Idol days) when she filmed Ceritera Cinta with male crooner Rio Febrian in his homeland in Indonesia.
2007 was a very busy year for Jaclyn. She competed in the Ikon Malaysia 2007 (solo category) competition. Victor made it to the Semi-Finals and Final round together with Dayang Nurfaizah and Mawi. In the final, Jac sang a medley of songs which is "Impian" (hope) from her first album, "Cepat-cepat" in her second album and her third song "Gemilang", and won the title Ikon Malaysia.
Later that year, she competed in Ikon Asean only to be defeated by the Philippines' Vina Morales. She also participated in first Asian Idol which was won by Hady Mirza of Singapore Idol.
At the 14th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) Malaysia, on the 28th of April 2007, Jac was nominated for 4 awards - Best Vocal Performance in an Album - Female; Best Music Arrangement in a song - Inilah Masanya; Best Pop Album - Inilah Jac; Ceritera Cinta - Song of the year. Jac won the "Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album" award. Jac also received two APM nominations, all of which are attributed to Inilah Jac.
Jac was featured on the highly-anticipated Special Edition of Disney studio's High School Musical 2 soundtrack. She sang the duet "You Are The Music In Me" in both English and Bahasa Malaysia with another singing reality-tv program "Akademi Fantasia" season 1 Winner, Vince Chong. A music video and nationwide mall tour followed for fans - both young and old - of the High School Musical franchise. The video of their version of the song is now on the Special Edition DVD of High School Musical 2 (2008).
As part of the year-long "50 Years of Malaysian Independence" celebrations, Jac was part of the "Live and Loud KL" concert series which featured international and local artists. This 10-day jam-packed music extravaganza featured a wide range of genres and over 50 of the planet’s hottest artistes, with more than 45 hours of live music. The festival was held from the 23rd of November until the 2nd of December, where each passing day gave festival-goers a different genre, a different theme, a different repertoire, a different venue and most definitely different stars. Whitney Houston, Elliott Yamin, Shaggy, Project Pop, James Taylor Quartet, Joe Flizzow and Hannah Tan were just some of the many acts to shine - alongside Jaclyn herself.
Prior to Christmas 2007, Jac flew to Moscow, Russia for a charity Christmas concert named Christmas Bash 2007,[4] co-organized by the Sechenov Malaysian Student Association and Malaysian Fellowship Moscow after an invitation by the organizing committee. The concert was attended by close to a thousand people(majority of them being Malaysian Medical Students studying in Moscow). Her performance resulted in the audience's interests in her album though, it can't prove she's been accepted there as an artist due to the majority of Malaysians that make up the audience.
Jac also performed during the 8TV (Malaysia) 4th birthday bash in January 2008 to a very large crowd of cheering fans - and her talents were a true highlight of the event.
On January 27, 2008 the finals of the annual Anugerah Juara Lagu (Best Song) Awards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were held. After a long and difficult competition, Jac won the coveted Best Vocal Award - (along with Lah from VE) for their rendition of Jac's beautiful duet "Ceritera Cinta" (originally with Indonesian singer, Rio Febrian). The song can be found on Jac's Second Sony BMG album - Inilah Jac.
Thus far, two of her songs have been used as opening themes for two Malaysian television series, Fara (Cepat-Cepat) and Manjalara (Satu Harapan).
She starred in the film Talentime by Yasmin Ahmad in 2009. She received the award for Best Promising Actress for the film at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival.[5] She has also reportedly been invited to star in a film by Mamat Khalid[6] but declined; she also landed a cameo appearance in local horror fiction, Susuk.Jac also starred in a local Tamil film, Appalam, a film directed by Afdlin Shauki.
Jac also tried her hand in a musical theatre, Cuci The Musical Season 2 in 2010.[7]
The current official fan club of Jaclyn Victor is jaclynvictor.com (under construction), which was opened in August 2007, having taken over from Jacsville which was launched in 2004, shortly after Victor won Malaysian Idol.
Jac's voice was noted for its brilliant upper register, "smoky" middle and lower registers, flowing phrasing, and wide dynamic range. She was well suited to the high belted song. Her voice ranged from lower D (D3) below Middle C to the B (B5) above High C and the capabilities to reach high C(C6) effortlessly.
| Year | Album | Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Dream | Independent | - |
| 2004 | Gemilang | Sony BMG | 20,000 units sold. The album won "Best Pop Album" & "Album of the Year" awards in Anugerah Industri Muzik 2005.The song Gemilang won the prestigious Anugerah Juara Lagu 2005. |
| 2006 | Inilah Jac | Sony BMG | She won "Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album" award at the Anugerah Industri Muzik 2006. |
| 2007 | Inilah Jac - Edisi Terhad | Sony BMG | re-released with new tracks and music videos. |
| 2009 | Jaclyn Victor III | Sony Music | She was nominated for Best Vocal In Song (Female) at the 17th Anugerah Industri Muzik, 2010. |
| 2011 | 3 Suara | Sony Music | A collaboration with Ning Baizura and Shila. |
| Preceded by None |
Malaysian Idol Winner Season 1 (2004) |
Succeeded by Danell Lee |
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