Who are the NEW STARs?

REVIEW: Almost 3 weeks ago, H!P fans welcomed 5 new members into Hello! Project, the winners of the Taiwan audition, Hello! Project NEW STAR. While not a whole lot is known about each of the girls or what lies ahead in their future, I've put together some clips from the final episode of NEW STAR showing off what they may offer to H!P.

趙國蓉
Zhào Guó Róng
16 years old

Affectionately known as Light bulb amongst Taiwanese Fans, Zhào Guó Róng had been a popular front runner since the early stages of the NEW STAR auditions. Her comedic skills (whether intentional or not) made her very endearing to the public and she backed this up with an obvious admiration of Japan and performing.

For her final routine, Zhào Guó Róng chose to sing Your Song ~Seishun Sensei~ by Matsuura Aya, the only performer to do a Japanese solo, I believe (at least in the second episode). Full credit for picking not only a Japanese song, but a H!P tune.
She has a very really sweet, high voice, reminiscent of Sayu or Aibon, and she seems to have good control. With some training she could end up being a very good singer. Her Japanese pronunciation is pretty good and Tsunku seemed impressed as he watched the performance.
Overall it is a very good performance and a great choice from Tsunku.
The thing I like the most about Light bulb is her willingness to adapt to Japanese culture and style. I reviewed her duet with Risafan the week before the finale and she really has that definite Japanese cuteness in her performances. She is sure to be very popular among the H!P fans.

曾德萍
Céng Dé Píng
17 years old

Céng Dé Píng has had a rough road in this competition, almost being eliminated just weeks before the final, after receiving a low score in the individual performances. She seemed to bounce back giving a somewhat decent vocal performance to survive through to the Final round.

Ping's opted to not sing for her final performance, instead performing a musical theater style routine for the judges, dancing to Sinatra's Saturday Night (is the Loneliest Night of the Week). The inclusion of other performers is slightly odd, as I would think she'd want to perform individually, but dressed in pink she is obviously the center attraction. While the dance is not overly difficult, she performs it gracefully and has a certain charm about her. You can't deny that she is a confident performer.
From her previous singing performances, she isn't great but she has an interesting, breathy voice which if worked upon could sound very nice. With her hair down she also looks pretty attractive, and could be very sexy if she so wished. For a mature group she'd be a nice addition.

吳思璇
Wú Sī Xuán
20 years old

The veteran of the competition experience wise (one girl was older than her), Wú Sī Xuán has had a lot of modeling experience and even appeared on One Million Star, an Idol style singing show where she placed 24th. She is obviously very confident and comfortable in the spotlight and was a standout from her very first performance straight through to her last.

Xuán's final performance is slightly odd as she performed twice due to a costume malfunction, but we'll get to that later.
She opens with some traditional hula dancing to Juantanamera and she's actually quite good. Dancing has definitely been her strong point for NEW STAR and she cleverly shows off her diversity as she strips off her hula skirt and begins dancing to Kiss Kiss by Holly Valance. Unfortunately the skirt just doesn't want to detach itself from her (who would?) and she is unable to perform up to par in fear of falling flat on her face. Kindly the judges give her another chance and she performs the later portion of the performance once again sans annoying hula skirt. Overall some very sexy dancing from a true star.

古筠
Gǔ Yún
12 years old

I noticed as I watched NEW STAR throughout the last few months that there seemed to be an alarming amount of very young girls dancing very inappropriately, yet very well. Gǔ Yún fell into that 11 to 15 age bracket of risque dancers who were extremely impressive but was the one who topped them all to become a NEW STAR.

Continuing her theme of crazy dancing, Gǔ Yún decides to dance to The Black Eyed Peas' My Humps... I think that just about says it all lol. I'm going to try to get past the fact a 12 year old is dancing and mouthing about her lovely lady lumps and just judge her on her dancing which is very good. She seems to be VERY flexible and have lots of rhythm. She high kicks in the air, bounces around and has lots of confidence and energy. The only thing she doesn't do is the splits ... oh wait, yes she does. The funniest thing in this performance is the concerned look the older female judge keeps giving lol - "thankgod that's not my daughter!" Tsunku also looks very serious, but he must have just been seriously considering her.
One thing I have to note is that she is doesn't look 12 at all, and seems pretty tall. I definitely think her look helped her stand out from her young compatriots as it seems Tsunku was going for a more mature looking group.

鍾安琪 - 邱翠玲
Zhōng An Qí - Lán Ai Zi
19 years old - 14 years old

Now Zhōng An Qí and Lan Ai Zi are contestants I know very little about as they were not finalists and had not been in the competition much.
Zhōng An Qí was eliminated in the first televised round while Lán Ai Zi failed to pass the public auditions. Both however were lucky enough to be selected for the Wildcard round where 18 contestants performed for the chance to be reinstated into the competition.
I don't have the episode they were on and it isn't on youtube but you can view the second half of the wildcard episode here. Zhōng An Qí is in the first group performance, and Lán Ai Zi is in the second. Both aren't really worth downloading the whole video for though, both group performances and neither stand out much.
Once again they failed (this doesn't bode well for them lol) but they got ANOTHER chance selected as 7 of the losing wildcards to participate in a training camp.

Zhōng An Qí (back row, second from left) Lán Ai Zi (back row, second from right)

There were three rounds in the training camp: a general training round, a singing round and an interview round. Both girls were of three selected to have an interview with Tsunku and must have impressed him as he chose them to join Hello! Project.

The final video is of Tsunku's selection of the winners. They each gave an emotional speech but since most of you likely would not be able to understand I just cut it. I included the emotional ending where family and friends were invited on stage to congratulate the girls. So sweet.

So what does the future hold for these NEW STAR winners? Reported information seems to suggest that they will form a group, releasing both in Japan and Taiwan. They are apparently training in Japan throughout November and recording a mini album (or single?) to be released in early 2009. They have also been reported to be debuting at the Winter 09 Hello! Project Concert Tour.

So there we have it, I hope you are a little more up to date on the NEW STAR winners now. I personally can't wait for this new group to debut and I hope Tsunku has big plans in store for them.