After four rounds on stage, the last two bands standing were the five- member Da Feng Chui, whose strength lay in lead vocalist Koong Chen Liang and their ballad repertoire, and the three-member all-girl indie pop Rabbit, who stood out during the season for their geeky prep look.

The public voted via phonecalls and SMSes for Rabbit, who won the top prize of $50,000 cash.

Drummer Joyce Tan, 21, said: 'We are very tired but happy that we won. As we felt we had weaker vocals compared to the other finalists, we trained very hard and jammed till 3am every night before going to bed.'

Bassist and vocalist Carissa Foo, 21, agreed, saying: 'We did not expect to win as we felt other bands had a stronger and bigger fan base than us. It came as a pleasant surprise that we won.'

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times Life!