Jaclyn d/o Joshua Thanaraj Victor (born December 4 1978) is a singer who won the first season of "Malaysian Idol". Victor, popularly known as Jac, was the first to gain the title of "Malaysian Idol". As a result, she won a recording contract under Sony BMG Entertainment. She is under the management of The 8 Unit.She also participated in the first Asian Idol, losing to Hady Mirza of Singapore Idol.
Biography and music career
Early life
Victor is an Indian-Malaysian. 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 includes 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 [" [http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/Sunpeople/Sunday/Features/20060722110745/Article/index2_html Music: Girl behind the voice] ". Retrieved October 4 2007.] . 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. Attempts to promote this album includes an appearance on TV show "Latte @ 8".
"Malaysian Idol"
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, Jac performed "Superwoman" live, becoming the seventh person to reach the top twelve.
In the first spectacular, the theme for the week was "Song from your Pop Idol". Victor chose a song in Malay, "Keliru". 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". After another double elimination sending off Fahmy and Rydee, Victor was back next 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 October 16, she took the title of "Malaysian Idol", earning 76% of audience votes over Dina. [" [http://www.malaysianidol.com.my/MalaysianIdol2004/idolNews_view.asp?AID=73 The Jaclyn Victor Hour] ". MalaysianIdol.com.my. Retrieved March 12 2006.] 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.
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 priceFact|date=September 2007. 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 emerged as the champion during the Asian Music Festival in Shanghai with her winning song, "Gemilang". On 21 January 2006, Victor walked away with RTM "Hits 1" Best Song and Best Performance awards for "Gemilang". Later, on 5 February 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 24 March.
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 25 August 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 Guy Sebastian is a member of; though Sebastian himself did not appear). While in Australia, Victor also did an interview for gospel radio station HCJB [ [http://audio.hcjb.org/english/asiafocus/MtBullerVideo.wmv Jaclyn Victor @ Mount Buller, Australia] ] .
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 breezed through to the Semi-Finals and made it to the Final round along 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 competed in Ikon Asean then to be defeated by Philippines' Vina Morales.
Later that year, she participated in "Asian Idol" which was won by Singapore's Hady Mirza.
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, Elliot Yamin (Americal Idol), Shaggy, Project Pop, James Taylor Quartet, Joe Flizzow and Hannah Tan (Malaysia) where just some of the many acts to shine - alongside Jaclyn herself.
Prior to Christmas 2007, Jac flew to Moscow, Russia for a number of tour dates there. Once again, she wowed her audiences who were constantly demanding copies of her albums. This proved that her talents can cross borders, regardless of different languages or cultures. Jac is an artiste of international standing.
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 27th, 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").
Fan club
The current official fan club of Jaclyn Victor is [http://www.jaclynvictor.net jaclynvictor.net] , which was opened in August 2007, having taken over from Jacsville which was launched in 2004, shortly after Victor won Malaysian Idol.
Current developments
She has also reportedly been invited to star in a film by Mamat Khalid [cite web|url=http://www.murai.com.my/article/default.asp?article_id=438&c=Berita&s=Tempatan|title=Mamat Khalid lamar Jac berlakon filem|author=Ellyna Ali|date=2007-11-02|publisher= [http://www.murai.com.my] ] but declined; she also landed a cameo appearance in upcoming local horror film "Susuk".
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