Star Search performer Fatima Malate of the Social Sciences cluster was unable to perform properly due to a technical glitch. Photo by Alexis Mathew Reyes

SAMAHAN Secretary General Dexter Jake Villarosa admitted that the organizers of this year’s Star Search played the wrong musical piece during the performance of Fatima Malate from the Social Sciences cluster. While he acknowledged that there were technical lapses during the event, he clarified, however, that no sabotage happened.

Last Aug. 11 during the contest, Malate made it to the final round of the competition when they sang “Beauty and the Beast.” However, she was not able to perform properly, as the organizers played a version of the song that was different from what Malate used during her practices.

Villarosa explained that there had been a problem with copying the music files from his flash drive to that of the DJ’s laptop. He further made clear that the incident was unintentional and was purely a technical mishap.

Malate clarified that she did not forget the lines of the song but was just surprised that the musical arrangement played was not the one she submitted to the organizers.

“At first, habang kinakanta ko yung song, I really thought ako yung may mali. Baka advanced lang yung pagkastart ko ng kanta,” she expressed through a text message, “tapos diba pina-ulit sa akin, so yung pangalawa tapos di ko pa rin nakuha, sabi ko hindi na talaga ito yung minus one ko.”

She explained that the organizers asked her to continue singing despite the glitch.

“Wala man akong kaso kung ano ang place ko or whatsoever, ang akin lang is if maayos sana yung pagkapasa ng files at naplay ng maayos, hindi sana ganito,” she said.

Villarosa assured that they already talked to Malate and her mother to settle the said issue.

In her deleted Facebook post yesterday, Rosalinda Malate, the performer’s mother, expressed her disappointment over what happened and asked the organizers to admit their mistake and make appropriate actions to resolve the case.

As of now, the organizers have not released a public apology or explanation to clarify what happened.

Meanwhile, University President Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ, in his tweets, expressed that “The organizers of the #Hugyaw2016 are students who [have] worked hard to bring joy to all. Be kind, esp. [when] things don’t work as expected.”

The University president also tweeted, “It [would] defeat the spirit of the Fiesta if for unintended technical lapses we start dragging each other to court.”