Has it already been five years since 8days.sg did a photo shoot with the Star Search finalists?

The world has changed a lot since 2019, but since Donald Trump is president again, maybe not so much.

We now have 12 new competitors who are hoping to not only follow the same path as past winners, like Zoe Tay, Chew Chor Meng, Ivy Lee and Felicia Chin, but also take home one of the three upcoming BYD cars. Sunday (November 24) during the grand final.

In the days leading up to the 8days.sg shoot, we asked them to come in an outfit they would wear to impress a director at a casting.

The result? Assorted shades of black, gray, denim and beige.

Pure luck or coordinated effort? The finalists assured us that there was no discussion between them beforehand, so maybe they spend too much time together to the point that even their styles sync up?

Interestingly, they hinted that they didn’t know there would be a photo shoot. Gasp!

But hey, showbiz is full of surprises so you better get used to them now.

Of course, a photo shoot with this many people is never without drama.

Tan Zisheng, a student at Singapore Polytechnic, had rushed from his internship and showed up in the much-mocked “SG uniform” of Singaporean men – an oversized Uniqlo AIRism t-shirt.

Turns out the poor guy, who looked as blue as his t-shirt, was the only one who didn’t get the memo that everyone should dress to impress.

Competitive breakdancer Marcus Sim arrives to save the day. The floppy-haired hunk was seen reaching into his bag and pulling out a striped top to lend Zisheng, saving the latter from a possible fashion fail.

Marcus’ wife, multimedia host Gladys Bay, also gifted former SGAG content strategist Amy Ang with her combat boots after the latter complained that her sneakers didn’t actually match her modern cheongsam.

So why was Amy wearing sneakers in the first place? “My boots are going bad,” we heard him say.

You see, you can find real friends in showbiz, even if you’re in the thick of competition.

Well, until it was time for the group photo.

We saw swim coach Jona Chung and Amy head straight for the coveted center spots while the others procrastinated over where they should place themselves. Where’s your killer instinct, guys?

Then there were those who knew exactly which face angle the camera preferred and quickly ax a place on the side. We turn to you, NTU students, Jadon Lim and Clement Ng.

We kid you not when we observed a few dejected faces a few minutes later as we moved some around while trying to get the perfect shot.

Maybe it was just us, but we swear a few of the jovial ones (we’ll let you guess who) started fading into the background as our photographer walked away.

Fortunately (or not?) someone broke the ice

“I’m dying!” Jadon lamented, raising his eyebrows and receiving a few nervous laughs, after what seemed like the millionth shot of the day.

It turned out he was tired, hungry and, as the group leader whispered to our editor, he didn’t like to smile in photos.

Hey, no one said becoming a star was easy, right? -BRYAN WONG