Jaclyn Victor

Jaclyn Victor
Background information
Birth name	Jaclyn A/P Joshua Thanaraj Victor
Also known as	Jaclyn Victor
Born	(1978-12-04) December 4, 1978
Origin	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Genres	Pop, pop rock, R&B
Occupations	Singer
Years active	2004–present
Labels	Sony Music Malaysia, KRU Studios
Website	http://www.jaclynvictor.com/

Jaclyn Joshua Thanaraj Victor (born December 4, 1978), popularly known as Jac, is a singer and actress who won the inaugural Malaysian Idol and Ikon Malaysia. As the winner of Malaysian Idol, she won a recording contract with Sony BMG Entertainment. She is under the management of The 8 Unit. She represented Malaysia in the first Asian Idol and Ikon Asean. She has been dubbed Asia's Divette for her vocal prowess.

Biography and music career

Early life

Victor is a Malaysian of Tamil descent. She was born in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, on December 4, 1978. She is the only daughter of Maggie Victor, a single mother of Indian descent. She has 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 includes songs co-written by Victor. There were attempts to promote this album including an appearance on the 8TV television show Latte @ 8.

Malaysian Idol

In 2004, her mother encouraged her to audition for Malaysian Idol, which she did along with ten thousand others. The judges Roslan Aziz, Fauziah Latiff and Paul Moss, put her through to the next round. Having secured 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 by the Indonesian diva Ruth Sahanaya, "Keliru". Coached by 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" and Michael Xavier Voon joined in as performance coach. Her performance 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 said 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 one of the final two contestants on Malaysian Idol, and on 9 October 2004, she took the title with 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 subsequently appeared on her first album Gemilang. The song's music video incorporated short scenes of Victor in Malaysian Idol.

Post-Idol career

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^{[citation needed]}. She won the "Best Newcomer Award" on Hitz. FM and "Best New Artist" in Anugerah Bintang Popular.

Victor has since 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, and has performed and recorded with international singers such as Peabo Bryson, Ramin Karimloo, Simon Bailey and Az Yet.

Victor received her first international award when she won gold at the Asia New Singer Competition at the Shanghai Music Festival in China on October 28, 2005, emerging as the champion with her winning song, "Gemilang". On January 21, 2006, she received RTM Hits 1 Best Song and Best Performance awards for "Gemilang". 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) but was beaten by Hazami who performed "Kata". Victor took 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 were 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 released on August 25, 2006, while 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 (with the singer-songwriter Juwita Suwito), and in Adelaide's Paradise Community Church (of which the inaugural Australian Idol winner, the Malaysian-born Guy Sebastian is a member, though Sebastian himself did not appear). While in Australia, Victor also did an interview for the Christian radio station HCJB.^[3]

In November 2006, she made her first proper music video (previously her videos were clips from studio recording sessions or footage from Malaysian Idol) when she filmed "Ceritera Cinta" with the male crooner Rio Febrian in his homeland in Indonesia.

2007 was a very busy year for Victor. She competed in the Ikon Malaysia 2007 (solo category) competition, getting to the final round with Dayang Nurfaizah and Mawi. In the final, she sang a medley of songs: "Impian" (hope) from her first album, "Cepat-cepat" from her second album and "Gemilang", to win the title.

Later that year, she competed in Ikon Asean and was defeated by the Philippines' Vina Morales. She also participated in the first Asian Idol which was won by Hady Mirza of Singapore Idol.

At the 14th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) Malaysia, on 28 April 2007, Victor was nominated for four 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. She won the "Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album" award. She also received two APM nominations, all of which are attributed to Inilah Jac.

Victor's music was used on the 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 Vince Chong, the season 1 winner of another singing reality-TV program, Akademi Fantasia. A music video and nationwide mall tour followed for fans 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, Victor was part of the "Live and Loud KL" concert series which featured international and local artists. This 10-day music extravaganza included a wide range of genres and more than fifty performers, with more than 45 hours of live music. The festival was held from 23rd November until 2 December, with each day giving festival-goers a different genre, a different theme, a different repertoire, a different venue and different stars, including Whitney Houston, Elliott Yamin, Shaggy, Project Pop, James Taylor Quartet, Joe Flizzow and Hannah Tan.

Before Christmas 2007, Victor flew to Moscow 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 almost a thousand people, the majority of them being Malaysian Medical Students studying in Moscow. She also performed during the 8TV's fourth birthday party in January 2008.

On 27 January 2008, the finals of the annual Anugerah Juara Lagu (Best Song) Awards were held in Kuala Lumpur. After a long and difficult competition, Victor won the Best Vocal Award with Lah from VE for their rendition of Victor's duet "Ceritera Cinta" (originally with the Indonesian singer, Rio Febrian). The song is on Victor's second Sony BMG album, Inilah Jac.

Two of her songs have been used as opening themes for Malaysian television series, Fara ("Cepat-Cepat") and Manjalara ("Satu Harapan").

Acting career

She starred in the film Talentime, directed by Yasmin Ahmad, in 2009. She received the award for Best Promising Actress at the 22nd Malaysian Film Festival.^[5] She was reportedly invited to star in a film by Mamat Khalid^[6] but declined. She made a cameo appearance in a local horror fiction, Susuk. Victor also appeared in a local Tamil film, Appalam, directed by Afdlin Shauki.

She has also appeared in musical theatre, in Cuci The Musical Season 2 in 2010.^[7]

Controversy

A song titled "Harapan Bangsa"^[8] sung by Victor in 2007 for the churches in Sabah and Sarawak caused controversy in certain sections of the Muslim community, which is predominantly Malay-speaking people, in Peninsular Malaysia when a YouTube clip of the song using Christian images was uploaded five years later by a fan ^[9]

Perkasa, a non-governmental Malay supremacy organization which was formed in the aftermath of the Malaysian general elections in 2008, has called for a blanket boycott of Victor by Muslims nationwide over the song, which it claims is an insult to Islam.^[10]

Voice

Victor's voice is noted for its brilliant upper register, "smoky" middle and lower registers, flowing phrasing and wide dynamic range. 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.

• Voice type : Spinto soprano
• Low/mid notes : Tunggu Sekejap (D3), Ceritera Cinta (F3), Wajah (G3)
• High notes (belts) : Satu Harapan (D#5), Cinta Tiada Akhirnya (F#5), Dambaran Cinta (G5), Gemilang (G5-Bb5), Jagalah Diri
• Vocal range : 3.5 octaves

Filmography

Films
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2008	Susuk	Herself	Cameo appearance as herself
2009	Talentime	Bhavani	List of Malaysian films
2010	Appalam	Nalaini	Malaysian Tamil language movie

Discography

Studio albums

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 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.
2013	Ikut Rentakku[11]	KRU Music	Winner of Best Vocal Performance, Ikut Rentakku also nominated for Best Song at the 28th Anugerah Juara Lagu, 2014

EPs

• Malaysian Idol CD Single: Jac (2004, Sony BMG)
• Wajah (2005, Sony BMG)
• Satu Harapan (2007, Sony BMG)

Compilations

• Malaysian Idol Karaoke (with Danell Lee) (2005, Karaoke CD/VCD, Sony BMG)
• Jubilee (compilation Christian album) (2007, AION Music)
• Keunggulan Jaclyn Victor (compilation of her well known hits) (2011, 2CD/1VCD Sony Music)

Singles

• "In a Dream'" (2002, released only in independent music circles)
• "Gemilang" (2004)
• "Di Bawah Pohon Asmara" (2005)
• "Tiada Lagi Indah" (2005)
• "Cuma Setia" (2005)
• "Wajah" (2005, theme song for Bersamamu TV3)
• "Getaran Rinduku" (2005)
• "Cepat Cepat" (2006)
• "Ceritera Cinta" (2006, duet with Rio Febrian)
• "Without You" (2006, duet with Same Same)
• "Jealous" (2007)
• "Satu Harapan" (2007)
• "Cinta Tiada Akhirnya" (2007)
• "Kau Muzik di hatiku" (2007, duet with Vince Chong) (OST of High School Musical 2 - Asian edition)
• "You're the Music in Me" (2007, duet with Vince Chong) (OST of High School Musical 2 - Asian edition)
• "Dambaran Cinta" (2008, theme song for Apa Kata Hati)
• "Bertamu Di Kalbu" (2009)
• "Cinta Ada" (a collaboration with Dato' Sheila Majid & Karen Kong) (2009)
• "Inilah Malaysia" (2009, featuring Arch Little Danielle) (for the Lagu 1Malaysia Kita Song Competition)
• "Ku Tak Bisa" (2010)
• "Di Mana Di Mana" (a collaboration with Ning Baizura and Shila) (2011)
• "Beribu Sesalan" (a collaboration with Ning Baizura and Shila) (2011)
• "Sebelah Jiwaku" (first single under the KRU Studios label)

Music videos

• "Gemilang"
• "Wajah"
• "Cinta" (duet with Misha Omar)
• "Without You" (duet with Same Same)
• "Cepat-Cepat"
• "Ceritera Cinta" (duet with Rio Febrian)
• "Ipoh Mali" (as featuring artiste)
• "Satu Harapan"
• "You're the Music in Me" (2007, duet with Vince Chong)
• "Bertamu di Kalbu" (2009)
• "Koleksi Gemilang" (2009)
• "Beribu Sesalan" (2011, a collaboration with Ning Baizura & Shila Amzah)
• "Jagalah Diri" 2012 OST 29 Februari

Awards

• Hitz. FM Best Newcomer Award - 12 March 2005
• Anugerah Bintang Popular Berita Harian - Most Popular New Female Artist - 13 April 2005
• Malaysia's Global Chinese Recommended Golden Arts Award (Music Category) - 16 July 2005
• XIII Shanghai Asian Music Festival Golden Prize - October 2005
• RTM Hits 1 - 21 January 2006
  • Best Song Award - "Gemilang"
  • Best Performance Award
• TV3 Anugerah Juara Lagu - 5 February 2006
  • Juara Lagu Best Ballad Award - "Gemilang"
  • Song Of The Year Award - "Gemilang"
• Anugerah Planet Muzik (Singapore) - 24 March 2006
  • Best Female Artist
• 13th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) Malaysia - 29 April 2006
  • Best New Artist
  • Best Arrangement in a Song
  • Best Pop Album
  • Album of the Year
• URS Magazine Award
  • Non-Malay glamour artist
• 14th Anugerah Industri Muzik (AIM) Malaysia - 28 April 2007
  • Best Female Vocal Performance in an Album
• IKON MALAYSIA
  • Winner of Ikon Malaysia - Solo
• Anugerah Era 2007
  • Chosen Local English Artiste - Ipoh Mali/Point Blanc
• Anugerah Juara Lagu 27 January 2008
  • Best Vocal Performance "Ceritera Cinta" (duet with Lah, from VE)
• Red Box Karaoke Chart 2008 Awards
  • No. 6 - Ceritera Cinta
• Shout! Awards 2009
  • Power Vocal Award
• Festival Filem Malaysia ke-22
  • Most Promising Actress (Talentime)
• Anugerah Skrin 2009
  • Special Jury Award - Anugerah Yasmin Ahmad (Talentime)
• Anugerah Planet Muzik 2011
  • Best Vocal Performance in a Group (collaboration with Ning Baizura & Shila Amzah)
• Anugerah Industri Muzik 18
  • Best Vocal In A Song - Beribu Sesalan 2012
• Anugerah Bintang Bintang Popular 2011
  • Most Popular Gorup
• Anugerah Juara Lagu 26
  • 1st Runner Up - Beribu Sesalan
• Anugerah Industri Muzik 19
  • Best Vocal - Female. Song : "Counting Days"
  • Best Music Arrangement. Song : "Counting Days" by Aubrey Suwito
  • Best English Song . Song : "Counting Days" by Aubrey Suwito
• Anugerah Juara Lagu 28
  • Best Vocal- Ikut Rentakku

Concerts

• Zoom in with Jaclyn Victor (2005)
• Konsert Fenomena Jaclyn Victor & Misha Omar (2005)
• Sunday Nite Live at Planet Hollywood (2006)
• Zoom in with Jaclyn Victor (2006)
• Konsert Fenomena Jaclyn Victor & Dayang Nurfaizah (2006)
• Down Memory Lane with Jaclyn Victor (2007)
• Malam Gemilang Ekslusif bersama Jaclyn Victor @ Planet Hollywood (2007)
• Hard Rock Cafe's Pinktober LIVE (Special Showcase) (2010)
• WEST END STARS in Concert ( with Ramin Karimloo, Simon Bailey & Stephen Rahman Hughes
• Konsert 3 Permata 2012 @ Esplanade Singapore ( with Adibah Noor & Misha Omar )

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jaclyn Victor

• Jaclyn Victor on Myspace
• Complete MP3 Database
• The 8 Unit (Management)

Preceded by None	Malaysian Idol Winner Season 1 (2004)	Succeeded by Danell Lee

v t e Jaclyn Victor Studio albums Inilah Jac Gemilang Dream Singles "Cepat-cepat" "In a Dream" "Wajah" "Gemilang" "Tiada Lagi Indah" "Di Bawah Pohon Asmara"

v t e Malaysian Idol Contestants Season 1 (2004) Jaclyn Victor Faradina Mohd. Nadzir Mavick Teo Hui Mau Andrew Tan Saipul Bakeri Nicolette Palikat Ahmad Zamil Idris Victor Lee Choon Keat Rydiana Rahim Fahmy Zakaria Sufiah Mohamed Noor Fazdli Zainal Contestants Season 2 (2005) Danell Lee Chieh Hun Norhanita Binte Hamzah Farah Asyikin binti Zulkifli Faizull Herman Bin Mohamad Yahya Ashvin Nair Adam Bin Alli Tengku Hamisah Zaharah Binti Tengku Zaimi Wong Shau Fui Azam Bin Yakob Atilia Binti Sarani Tricia Priscilla D'Cruz Hosts Soo Kui Jien Sharifah Aleya (Season 1) Cheryl Samad (Season 2) Judges Paul Moss Roslan Aziz Fauziah Latiff

Persondata
Name	Victor, Jaclyn
Alternative names	Jac
Short description	Malaysian singer; Malaysian Idol winner
Date of birth	December 4, 1978
Place of birth	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Date of death
Place of death