The times of their lives

THE TENSION WAS palpable inside Centrepoint Studio in Soi Lasalle last Sunday as Chiang Mai Rajabhat University student Thitinan “Best” Aonpan went up against the more-seasoned and no-less-talented Anchuleeon “Kai” Buageaw in the “Live Show” final of Season 4 of Thailand’s “The Voice”. 

Best, 25, finally won the competition, beating Kai, a former winner of the Siam Kolkarn competition and a voice instructor at KPN Music Academy, to take home the title and a generous Bt3 million prize.

The young man’s coach Joey Boy said afterwards that he was satisfied with Best’s excellent groove and soulful voice while Singto Numchok expressed surprise at how good his low tone sounded.

 “A folk singer can hear and control his voice and doesn’t compete with the instruments on the backing track,” Jennifer Kim added.

Best put on a very different performance in the love round, moving away from his signature folk to sing a medley of two luk thung hits, including Sornpetch Sornsuphan’s “Jai Ja Khad”, but with a pop arrangement.

“I was initially worried about singing it well. But Joey Boy told me not to stick to the original singing style but just to be myself. So, I played the medley on a folk guitar with new chords and recorded it for my coach. ‘Jai Ja Khad’ has a catchy hook and I thought long and hard about how I could convey the emotions of its lyrics,” says the Chiang Mai native, whose influences include Thailand’s Bakery Music sound of the 1990s as well as contemporary Western performers like Michael Buble and Jason Mraz.

Best, who performed Christina Aguilar’s “Jai Khor Ma” in the final round, won Bt3 million and a Toyota Corolla Altis Esport. He tells XP that he will use the cash to pay off debts and buy a home for his mother.

The youngster has come a long way since 2009 when he attempted to enter the fifth series of “The Star” but didn’t pass the audition. He more or less gave up the TV-talent-show route after that and instead stuck to playing in pubs. He only put his name up for “The Voice” after being pushed by his friends.

 “I was confident I would get through ‘The Star’ audition as I’d been working hard on my delivery at gigs and was absolutely shattered when I was rejected,” he recalls. “So I didn’t bother preparing for ‘The Voice’, deciding to sing a song in my own style. Amazingly it worked!” 

That song was Greasy Cafe’s “Sing Lao Nee” and when Best sang it for the Blind Audition, both Joey Boy and Jennifer Kim turned their “I Want You” chairs to him.

“I conveyed my own emotions and they were not the same as the original version. It’s a song about love but one that ends in darkness. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever been disappointed in love but I imagined what it would be like. 

“Before I went out on stage, one of the show’s officials suggested that I just get in my stride and not worry about whether a coach would turn his or her chair to me. He told me to close my eyes and breathe deeply. The difference between 2009 and now is that I’ve been able to develop both my voice and technique from watching my fellow singers at the pubs in Chiang Mai,” says Best, who came to Bangkok with his elder brother and girlfriend.

After completing his vocational certificate, Best went into the army for two years then became a monk. Today he is in his third year of business-computer studies at university.

In the Battle Round, he duetted with Nattha “Khaopoad” Intasao on Jennifer Kim’s “Mai Yom Mod Wang” and gave a soulful performance of Autobahn’s “Thon Dai Thon Pai” in the Knockout round.

“I didn’t know this song so it was fortunate that Nong Khaopoad knew it well. I listened to it several times and memorised the key notes. It’s a number written for a female singer so some of the notes are very high. We set the song at a lower key that was suitable for both of us. 

For ‘Thon Dai Thon Pai’, I sang what I was feeling but I know my voice was stressed,” says Best.

Kai, who won the Siam Kollakarn competition in 1989 during the heyday of vocalists Siriporn “Tuck” Yooyod and Saovanit “Kob” Navapan, also impressed on the judges and the audience. She was in Saharat “Kong” Sangkhapreecha’s team.

In the Blind Audition, Kai stunned the coaches with her powerful pitch on Ella Fitzgerald’s “Summertime” but it was her breathtaking performance of the Bee Gees’ “Too Much Heaven” while battling with contestant Thanida “Nok” Hiranyapruek that won her the loudest applause.

“As a mother, I love the lyrics of ‘Summertime’. They hold true for the way I feel about my son. For ‘Too Much Heaven’, I controlled my wider vocal range so as to harmonise with Nok. We are both professional singers and single mums, so we agreed to make this song as melodious as we could for our show,” says Kai.

In the Knockout round, Kai sang Nadda Viyakarn’s “Jeb Nee Jam Jon Tai”, a soundtrack of Channel 3’s popular TV drama “Sud Kaen Saen Ruk” while in the live show, she again showcased her powerful pitch through Rang Rockestra’s “Khid Thueng” (“Miss You”), which is one of her favourite songs.

“I sang it for my son and my younger brother, who died in a motorbike accident just after my parents. I think of them both all the time and I really miss my kid brother,” she tells XP.

Her final round song was another barn-burner, Tom Jones’ “I Who Have Nothing”.

Kai faced strong family opposition when she first starting singing professionally though her win at the Siam Kolkarn competition did much to change their attitude. Back then, she found it relatively easy to make money from her singing, at one stage earning more than Bt100,000 a month from performing in hotels and cocktail lounges.

She gave up her career when she married, settling in Pattaya with her husband but 10 years later was back in Bangkok, divorced and a single mother. That was 12 years ago and she admits the first few years were difficult. 

“I was earning just Bt20,000 for singing from 8pm to 3am,” recalls Kai, who fell on her feet when she landed a job as a vocal coach at Gen-X Academy before moving to the KPN Music Academy on Wacharaphol Road where she is today.

“When ‘The Voice’ came to Thailand, I was often asked why I didn’t give it a try. I wasn’t interested having already won a competition and recorded an album in my younger days. I also felt that it would be wrong of me to stand in the way of young generation singers,” Kai says. “One day, my son saw my show at the Siam Kolkarn competition, which had been posted on YouTube by a fan. After that my son pestered me, telling me the competition doesn’t have an age limit. ‘I would like my mum to be on the big stage again’,” he told me.

Although she didn’t win the big prize, Kai is very proud to have finished in second place. 

“It’s given me a new life. Everybody recognises me now,” she says proudly.