A celebration of local mandarin music, C’ING 2011 Finale Concert took place on 7th August 2011, Saturday, at Dragonfly, St James Power Station. The afternoon event saw a full house of supporters cheering on the finalists of C’ING 2011 Songwriting Competition, who battled it out for top honors, as well as performances by an entourage of local musicians and bands.

Ms Sim Ann, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Law graced the event. 

The concert was planned and executed by three final year students from Diploma in Chinese Media & Communication (CMC), Isaac Lim, Jessica Shen and Zhou Jingyi. C’ING (pronounced “sing”), represented the on-going process of creating and composing good, original music distinctive of Singapore, and also that the Chinese language can better appreciated through music. Building everything from scratch, the three students independently organized the competition and concert, and even set up a business, JIJ Productions, to run the campaign. They took up the various challenges, from searching for possible with partners and sponsors, to liaising with performing and record companies, as well as designing and producing print and video advertorials. 

The C'ING 2011 songwriting competition, which ran for 7 weeks from late May to mid July, saw an overwhelming response, with more than 50 entries received. The original compositions were posted on video sharing site YouTube as well as social networking site Facebook for the public to view and vote. 5 selected entries were then decided for the finals event. The pieces were then performed “live”, and the afternoon’s guest judges, including renowned songwriters Jim Lim and Tat Tong, then gave critic to the contestants. At the end of it all, “Growing Up” by Nelson Tan, took home the top honors, winning for himself cash and prizes worth over $2000, including a music production course, as well as a publishing contract with SOMA Productions and Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group. The afternoon's concert also saw a most exciting line up of local music acts coming together to celebrate. Creative arts group The Mainworks, rock band Black Forest and Shuang Zi Zuo, winner of the Channel 8’s Power Duet took to the stage, performing a series of Made-in-Singapore songs. They were joined by Nic Lee, lead vocalist of Mi Lu Bing, who sang a tune from the band’s past album, and also premiered a song from his up-coming solo effort due next year. One of the show’s highlights was the segment by Jim Lim, where he belted out his own compositions that he wrote for various singers. Teresa Tseng, a current student of CMC, and female champion of Channel U’s Campus Superstar, also performed alongside Jim.  C’ING 2011 Finale Concert finished with a bang, and won the praise from performers and audiences alike. Nic Lee commented, “It was awesome” and “kudos to the fantastic team behind the project”, while guest judge Tat Tong said, “It’s amazing this event was completed by three students. I wish to be back to be a part again in future!” Mr. Chia Mia Chiang, Principal of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, who was also at the event, rounded up that “the event was put together very creatively, and the audience had a great time.”

Black Forest rocking the stage