What Went Down: Winner of Heineken Found @ Thirst 2011 DJ Finals

By Melanie Zhu-Han  •  05 Dec 2011 in Reports

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Image Heineken Malaysia

Pitting 5 DJs against each other, the judges of the night had their work cut out for them. With the heat on each finalist to outperform the others in terms of technicality, crowd interaction, and top of that, to showcase their personality, there was the ultimate prize (even money couldn’t buy) to open for Tiësto at this year’s Heineken Thirst. The panel of judges consisted of DJ Prem, DJ Fono, DJ Blastique, DJ Phil K Lee and Ben Law of Future Sound Asia, Heineken Thirst‘s organiser. Each finalist had to play a 15 minute set according to their choice of genre, with a variety of songs and remixes.

DJ Darling Sabrina went on first and the only rose among the thorns was dressed to kill. She played a tight trance set as per her specialty. Focusing on the deck for most of the time, the crowd at Mist applauded her efforts towards the end of her set before she passed the floor on to DJ Nick Haydez. Without wasting any time, he dropped some sick beats to keep the crowd moving. The budding DJ had a fan base on site to cheer him on. For his last song, he played a bold remix of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ which caused some raised eyebrows but thankfully it was well received by the audience.

DJ Frozen Steps was up next on the decks to try his luck. Among his competitors, he certainly had the biggest fans in the crowd. Starting his set off with deep bass tracks, he dropped the popular track ‘Save The World Tonight’ by Swedish House Mafia and played air piano, much to the amusement of the crowd and the judges. He truly looked like he was having the time of his life, dancing away to his beats unabashedly. His pulsating set ranged from mellow to upbeat tunes in a combination of house and trance genres. But all good sets have to come to an end, and so it was DJ Major up next for his 15 minutes of fame. The faux officer got off with ‘Stereo Love’ before moving on to the staples of indie tracks for TAG enthusiasts like yours truly. Vocal trance and club favourites were peppered throughout his focused set before finishing it off with a dubstep/rock mix.

DJ Tommy Cham was the last DJ to take the stage, at which point the crowd couldn’t get enough of the music. Deep house, techno and electro beats were choice pickings for the advertising executive. He thoroughly impressed the crowd and somehow found the time to hoist a drink from the deck. At the end of DJ Tommy Cham’s set, it was time to hear from the judges Constructive comments from the panel of judges were encouraging for the finalists. However, it is certain that only one can emerge as the champion for Found @ Thirst 2011. After an hour of deliberation and a performance from DJ Fono, the judges announced that this year’s title went to DJ Tommy Cham with DJ Nick Haydez as the runner-up.

As the champion, DJ Tommy Cham clinched RM 10, 000 in cash, the once in a lifetime opportunity to play the opening set at Thirst and production training from Mile High Sounds DJ & music academy. Tommy Cham also gets to host Heineken Green Space, an exclusive party organised by Heineken’s team of music and event experts and shopping vouchers from clothing label Topshop & Topman.

Catch DJ Tommy Cham and DJ Nick Haydez at Heineken Thirst, 10 December @ Sepang International Circuit. Photos of the finals are here.  For more information, log on to www.heineken.com.my