On the night of Friday 14 April, Taylor's Music Club (TMC) hosted Open Mic 9.0. A few hours before the event, Lecture Theatre 21/22’s muffled chaos came from the bands as they were trying to do their last soundchecks while the crew went over everything one last time. The performers were seated together on the far side of the lecture theatre, buzzing with nerves and anticipation.

As the performers were getting ready for tonight’s show, the performing duo, Airo and Rayhana were dressed in parallel and said that they had always been performers at heart. They had already been in the club for a year and although performing is nerve wracking, it’s still fun. A soloist, Helena said that she was nervous but hopeful as she talked about her first performance at the signature event and how she’s grown from there and trusts herself more from that courageous experience.

Soon after, people started to fill the seats of the lecture hall, with almost a full house. Spirits were high and people waited for the performances to begin with excitement in the air. Cue the emcee for the night, Carmen, who happily introduced the event and the sponsors which included “Big A production”, which sponsored the audio equipment and “Buga Buga Burger Bar”, a burger store located at SS15.

The performance that kickstarted the event was by Ke Miin who sang “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish. She stood confident in her all black outfit and white sunglasses. Ke Miin gave a riveting performance with a voice that can only be described as almost sultry. The grand highlight was when she pulls out a red ribbon during the bridge which is very much fitting for the theme of the song.

Next we have a rising rookie, Helena, who is dressed in an outfit with a white tie that encapsulates the 90s to complement the chosen song, “Zombie” by the Cranberries. She was singing with a perfect rasp that is needed for the song. The crowd sang along with her whilst bobbing their heads to the classic.

For our third performance, “Fall For Your Type” was the song which was amazingly executed by Izac (there weren’t any other musical instruments except for acoustic guitar). With a voice that is smooth, clear and melodic, the crowd started to switch on their phone’s flashlights to wave along to the tune.

We have Iman performing “Ruin” by Shawn Mendes for the next performance. He had great stage presence and you could tell immediately how natural he was in this element that encouraged the crowd to sing along as well. With a voice that’s strong, powerful and calm, he showed an immense amount of control with amazing riffs.

We also have Renee who performed a pop rock song which was Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal”. The crowd gathered in a mosh pit to sing along with the teenage angst energy like how the song is like. The ambiance also complimented the intense strobe lighting. With the sadness that came with “Ruin” and the anger we all felt with “Brutal”, to quote the emcee, our hearts “had to be mended with the next performance”. The said performance was a classic that most of us would know and it is “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift. The song was performed beautifully by Allysa. The crowd was immersed as you could suddenly feel a sense of comfort from the song but for some,it could be a longing feeling, as everyone sang their hearts out.

The next song was performed by the duo, Airo and Rayhana, where they revealed they were strangers before joining the club but after meeting each other, they quickly clicked. Their amazing chemistry was shown in their performance of the song “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavinge. They took an interesting approach to the song where they took turns in singing the lines, resembling a back and forth exchange or as how they would refer to it: a “Dual POV”. Their singing mimicked two girls fighting over someone with each line from both of them filled with raw energy and passion. Right before the intermission, we heard “Pagi Yang Gelap” serenaded by club senior, Iskandar, who gave a melodic performance accompanied by his guitar.

We had the pleasure of seeing the performances by “The Baby Cosmos”, a band that has certainly made a name for themselves among many universities and even featured in Malaysiakini. The band had three songs in their set list, starting off with a high energy performance of “Rolling in The Deep” by Adele. It was then followed up with their own original song “Right Here Right Now” which captivated the audience. The final song from them was “Yellow” performed with a raw yet comforting tone but the crowd hadn’t had enough and cheered for an encore. The band went all out and delivered a high energy performance to truly cap off their set.

The series of performances by The Baby Cosmos was followed up by Claudia, who sang a crowd favourite “Redbone”, which was a notoriously hard song to sing. However Claudia, our local R&B queen, nailed it. Her singing was truly entrancing and people couldn’t help but dance to the rhythm. Next up was a performance of a Mandarin pop ballad where the title roughly translates to “Suddenly Missing You So Bad” by Taiwanese band Mayday, sung by Eddie. Even if you didn’t understand what was being sung, you could feel the emotions in his voice.

Following the pop ballad was a more upbeat and sweeter performance by Andrea where she sang “She Plays Bass” by beabadoobee. The next electrifying performance was by Aisyah singing “Runaway Baby”. The exhilarating energy had the crowd almost feverishly dancing and singing along. To take a different route was Immanuel’s rap performance of the well known song “Humble”. Immanuel engaged with the crowd, encouraging them to sing parts of the song while masterfully rapping the lyrics. Last but not least, there was a surprise performance by our well known club senior, John. This was at the request of the entire crowd and he did not disappoint with his explosive performance and stage presence.

While the performers gave the audience their most outstanding performance, let's not forget about the organising team behind the unforgettable night. I've spoken to the project manager of Open Mic 9.0, Sin Yuan, to share her experience in making the event possible.

Sin Yuan: I started planning Open Mic three months before the actual day (14 April) with my two assistant project managers, Beck and Iskandar. It took us about a week to finalise our event proposal. Then, we still have to decide and go through many things such as booking the venue, the open mic theme, the PR materials and designs, sponsorship, discussing the timeline of our Instagram posts with our Public Relation Managers (PRM) and liaising with many people. We went through auditions for the performances, two to three weeks before the actual day.

Sin Yuan: Finding sponsorship. I sent out requests to around ten companies or brands and only two came back to us. As an architecture student it’s very hard to distribute equal amounts of time and effort for the team and academics but luckily there were still the other two APMs dealing with the matters. So, everything eventually turned out fine!

Sin Yuan: Glad and honoured? That everyone is proud of me and I’m proud of myself too as Open Mic 9.0 was my very first time organising an event but slightly unsatisfied as many things can be improved. I should’ve come up with a backup plan for (every) backup plan, be more firm in decision-making and not panic while facing problems. I plan to do better as an APM in TMC’s upcoming signature event in September!

When the show finally ended and there were no more surprise sets, the energy of the crowd cooled down as the lights in the hall were switched on. It was a bittersweet feeling that the event had ended so soon and it was definitely an experience I would recommend to anyone who’s looking for good music and great vibes.