YouTuber Kelly Wong, Who Said She Might Fall Asleep Listening To CAPITAL 958, Eliminated 2 Eps Later By The Star Voice Mentor & 958 Jock Pan Jiabiao

Things are heating up on Mediacorp’s radio DJ talent search show The Star Voice. We’re three episodes in, and two out of the final nine contestants have just been eliminated. Oh dear.

For those who want a quick re-cap of the latest episode: the three groups each had to choose a  topic to base their final radio segment on.

From the get-go, it looked like the girls on CAPITAL 958 sports commentator Pan Jia Biao’s team weren’t doing too hot. The trio, made up of Kelly Wong, 29,  Joey Tay, 27, Yunis To, 28, first decided on a supernatural theme… before switching over to food midway through.

However, there was a twist. The girls wanted to tackle the topic from a different angle, choosing to discuss what kind of food can help make a couple’s relationship more, um, exciting, if you get our drift.

Though they started off strong, the episode’s three judges, CAPITAL 958’s Lin Lingzhi, YES 933’s Siau Jiahui, as well as host and former DJ Lee Teng weren’t too enthused.

As Lee Teng put it during his critique: “This is a polarising topic, those who like it will really like it, but those that don’t, will really hate it.”

In any case, mentors Jiabiao, as well as YES 933’s Kunhua eventually had to choose one contestant from each of their teams to eliminate, and it ended up being Kelly, as well as the youngest finalist, Eleanor Tan, 20, who were asked to leave.

After the episode aired, 8days.sg caught up with Jiabiao and Kelly to find out more about the elimination.

The first question that came to mind was: did Kelly’s throwaway comment in the first episode ruffle Jiabiao’s feathers?

After all, she did mention during her group’s radio segment that she doesn’t really listen to CAPITAL 958, “cos they talk a lot, and I might fall asleep”.

The comment didn’t go down too well with the judges, who felt that DJs should strive to remain neutral, instead of throwing shade at a rival station.

When we spoke to Kelly, she shared that she actually didn’t mean whatever she said. Rather, it was just to provide a contrasting view.

"The entire segment was basically just to create a little bit of tension, but I think what Kun Hua said [during the episode] was true. It's okay to bring it up, but as a DJ, you have to be neutral, so that's something that I've learnt from the mentors. So if I could do it again, I won't have said the the same thing, instead, I'd find a better way to say it,” she said.

Kelly added that she apologised to Jiabiao after her segment, and explained that she had nothing against CAPITAL 958.

Jiabiao also joked in a separate interview with 8days.sg, saying: "You guys must be very surprised why I chose [Kelly to be in my team,] right? I picked her 'cos I wanted to change the way she viewed CAPITAL 958.”

He went on to explain: "To be honest, I actually wanted to pick two girls and one guy 'cos I knew that our competition would have team-based challenges in the future. So I needed a male voice."

"But 'cos of the way the process of choosing mentors was set up, by the time it was Kelly's turn, I decided to pick her 'cos I knew she had bold ideas, and like you said earlier 'cos of her CAPITAL 958 comment. I thought if she joined my team, she would be able to see that we're not just a newsy station, we can also be a very fun place to learn.”

At the end of the day, the comment had zero sway on Jiabiao's decision to eliminate Kelly.

“I think Kelly is very opinionated, and the leader of the team. But 'cos this is radio, what I want to find is a unique voice. When I close my eyes and listen to their voices, what I look for is a voice that has the potential to move forward in the radio industry,” Jiabiao said, when asked why he chose Kelly to leave the show.

“It was a very difficult decision, that was really the first time I had to do something like that,” he added.

Similarly, Kelly’s taken her elimination in stride too.

"I don't regret anything, I feel like my team did the best we could. I wish I could've done more, but that would've meant that I wasn't eliminated. I think my elimination, I could see it coming in a way 'cos I feel the other two did well as well, so I don't wish for them to get eliminated,” she said.

"I think talking about aphrodisiacs is a healthy topic, we didn't mean to make it sound perverted or sexual, we're really approaching it from more of a food-science point of view. And I think this is a good topic for people to start talking about, with divorce rates being so high. It's really a problem that we should think about, so that's where we were coming from. Maybe it's a little bit of a shock to the judges, but I don't regret it. Maybe we just need some time for people to accept it," she added.

Finally, since the other two mentors have joked about how Jiabiao's "more lenient" when it comes to the girls, we asked if he had anything to say in reply to Dennis and Kunhua's words.

"I'll say this is a misunderstanding. Of course, we have nine contestants, and most of them are girls, so definitely there would be a team with all girls. It might be that I was the lucky one, I'm grateful for being charming," he laughed.

"Okay, but that's not the case. I think we just wanted to make things more fun while choosing teams, so unknowingly, I became the one who's [known for being] softer on the girls. And it just so happened that my team is all girls. It's not that I'm purposely paying more attention to the girls. I actually wanted two girls and one guy. When we were choosing Jensen, I actually raised my hand, but he didn't want me!

By the time it was Jeff's chance to choose, my team was already filled up, so I couldn't choose him either. But of course, I think it's a good thing that they're in my team as well. It's like I'm forming a Charlie's Angels team, in a way," he said.

Catch more of The Star Voice and behind-the-scenes clips on meWATCH here.

Photos: meWATCH, Pan Jiabiao/Instagram