I felt 12 again, settling down to watch America’s Got Talent show with my mom.

But better, cause we had popcorn and cotton candy and glow sticks—how cool is that? Monash Got Talent had students buzzing with excitement. Auditorium 1 was done up and transformed; it blows my mind just how much lighting and decorations can change the whole vibe of a place. 

As we settled down in our seats, our judges were introduced; David Soh, a singer and guitarist, Alexandria Kay, actress, model and film producer, and finally (a Monashian fan favourite by now), Sek Hao, the frontman of Malaysian band RESORT. To start things off, Alexandria performed a song for us, and via peer pressure friendly encouragement, Sek Hao too performed a RESORT song.

Thoroughly entertained, the emcees kicked off the event with lively banter as they introduced talented finalist after finalist onstage. Our twelve contestants wowed the crowd with a variety of acts; there was a magic show, a modern violin genre mashup, a cello and piano performance, a chinese yoyo–diabolo–performance and…it wouldn’t be a talent show without singing, of course. My personal most memorable performance was the heavy metal band, which had me screaming along to the song. 

After much glowstick waving, cheering, screaming, the performances finally came to an end. While the judges deliberated over the points and winners, the emcees pacified the crowd with a lucky draw and cheerful jabs at each other.

The results finally came in around 9:50pm, many on the edge of their seats. While the audience participation and voting played a huge part in the results, we were all hoping that our choices lined up with that of the judges.

In 5th place came Seow Yu Heng, who sent the crowd into oohs and ahhs with his mesmerising diabolo yoyo performance! He was completely undeterred during his performance to put on a show, and put on a show he did.

4th place was awarded to Chu Boe Vann, the magician with a firm belief “magic is not real”. He’d told the crowd repeatedly how magic wasn’t real, even as he performed tricks so smooth I had trouble believing him. 

Our second runner up was the heavy metal band, Isolate, who had stormed the stage with their energy and skills. Composed of band members Aaron Teh, a rhythm guitarist, Yuven Cung, on the bass and vocals, Aaron Lie (yes, another Aaron) as their lead guitarist and Mikhail Haris as their drummer, they tore the auditorium up with their songs.

The first runner up, Heng Jun Yi, had taken our breath away with a song mashup on the violin. Although he’d been trained classically, the songs he performed were anything but; from Cupid to Megalovania (I screamed when this came on. The 13 year old fan in me cried.), he blended the songs together effortlessly.

And, finally, first place was announced. Hearts gone all the way into our throats, we held our breath for…

Kristen Lam, our winner of Monash Got Talent 2023!

She’d approached the microphone with a certain confident yet humble energy that’d ended up capturing our hearts. Strumming the guitar, she sang to a cover of Teenage Dirtbag; blowing the audience and judges away with her vocals and…well, talent!

The crowd exploded into applause and pictures were taken, wrapping up Monash Got Talent 2023. The finalists all did an incredible job, and I’m looking forward to seeing more incredible displays of skill from our fellow Monashians!

Written by Erika; Photos by Nancy