SINGAPORE: Georgina Pattarida Dobson, who’s actually in her final year studying psychology at Temasek Polytechnic, just won Mediacorp’s 987 STAR 2025 competition, as reported by CNA.
Dobson beat Lex Whitlock, Nicollete Callie Wee, and Shaniah Kiew at the two-hour grand finale last Saturday. Because she won, she gets a contract with Mediacorp 987 and a cool S$5,000 cash prize thanks to Fisherman’s Friend.
Interestingly, if you check out her LinkedIn, Dobson is also the president of the emcees club at her polytechnic.
Thankful for incredible mentors
“Seriously, can you even imagine? Going from that first scary audition to actually winning – it must feel totally unreal! It’s amazing to think about how much you must have grown through it all. I’m just so thankful for our incredible mentors who believed in me and helped me every step of the way,” she exclaimed.
“And honestly, the friendships I’ve made with all the other super-talented people here mean the world to me. I’m so excited to see what fun things I’ll get to do next with Mediacorp 987!”
So, the whole hunt for the next Mediacorp 987 STAR started back in early April, and guess who were the main people kicking things off? None other than the super familiar voices of Sonia Chew and Joakim Gomez from 987 FM.
Discover fresh new talent
And the whole idea, just like it was for previous winners who’ve become popular radio personalities like Ann Nicole, Kimberly Wang, and Sonia Chew herself, is to discover fresh new talent and give them a launchpad into the entertainment world.
On Saturday, the finale was held live at 313@Somerset, where the final four competed in a set of tasks intended to highlight their charisma, spontaneity, singing ability, and stage presence.
In the Wheel of Flavours competition, for instance, each competitor rotated a wheel with eight different Fisherman’s Friend flavours. A “would you rather” question was revealed for each flavour, and the finalists were challenged to answer with confidence, humour, and inventiveness.
Captivating dialogues
In an additional job that assessed their hosting abilities, from clever openings to captivating dialogues and rapport-building, each competitor was required to conduct live interviews with local musicians WhyLucas and Shazza, showcasing their capacity to engage both the performers and the audience.
The panel of judges for all the challenges included some pretty big names: Doreen Neo, who’s the Chief Talent Officer at Mediacorp; Vernon A and Justin Ang, who you probably know as The Muttons from Mediacorp Class 95; Janice Lim, the Program Director for Mediacorp 987; and even the local celeb Xiao Ming from SGAG!
Mediacorp also mentioned in their announcement on Saturday night that the judges were looking at a few key things when deciding who would win. They were checking out how the contestants sounded, how creative and original they were, and how well they connected with the audience.
It sounds like the judges really connected with how genuine and graceful Dobson was, which is why they picked her as the Mediacorp 987 STAR 2025.
And Simone Lum, who’s in charge at Mediacorp in growth and audio, was absolutely thrilled for her.
She said Dobson’s performance was just incredible and totally captured what it means to be a Mediacorp 987 STAR – being imaginative, staying true to yourself, and really connecting with the listeners.
“Additionally, we are really proud of each and every finalist! Each one of them brought their own unique spark to the competition, and it’s been wonderful to see how much they’ve grown throughout this whole experience. We really hope they’ve found it rewarding, and we can’t wait to see all the amazing things they’ll go on to do in the media world,” Lum added.
So, if you’re keen to watch the Mediacorp 987 STAR episodes, you can find them on the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube channel or stream them on mewatch. Plus, you can catch all the best bits on Mediacorp 987’s TikTok.