AnGeLa

Worshipping an idol–by drawing her.
Editorial Cartoon. “Phem-Phin-Kho”

Imagine a guy wearing his 80-pesos-worth eyeglasses gormandizing his all-time favorite Sinigang na Baboy in front of his laptop resting on a small glass center table. I guess you kinda wondering (and suspiciously eavesdropping) if he’s watching something [decent, you pervert :-)].

Okay. A Korean boyband in a talent variety show. All good-looking and f*cking talented. That’s–err–nice. So?

Then suddenly, you hear quick sniffing coughs that sound like asthma. A few minutes later you see him forcefully blurts out some 60 something grains of rice and other chewables on his laptop screen and shouts ‘SHYET!‘ extremely loud on a 14 year old girl belting out “And I’m Telling You I’m not Going”

It was only a week ago when I discovered the news about a certain young Pinay who ‘wowed’ South Korean superstars in a variety show. I was hesitant at first about it–for a lot of reasons. One, we’re only known in Korea for their own convenience of cheap English proficiency education in the Philippines and two, as far as the entertainment industry is concerned, we’re just practically ‘unknown’ there since the Korean entertainment industry focuses more international market to China, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand. Then I landed on Maruja’s blog post and stumbled on a rather familiar name: Charice Pempengco.

I was like… who the hell is Charice Pempengco? (to think her name is rather familiar)

Charice Pempengco with her liveliest LIVE rendition yet of “And I am Telling You I’m Not Going” by Jennifer Hudson. Don’t tell me you’re not going to be amazed by this performance.

I just couldn’t believe how the Korean audience, including the members of Super Junior (a very popular Korean boyband)in that show (Star King) was astonished by Charice’s very powerful singing. I mean, standing ovation in her NO NO NO NO WAYYYYY WHOAAA!!!!?

Wait, is that a kid singing?

[Woman] “OMG, I need to see this (shivers)…”| [Man] “I can’t… whoah “

For those who don’t understand what they’re trying to exist on the vid, they were just SOOO amazed on how a young 14-year-old (Korean age: 15) lady–I mean ‘young lady’ would sing something like that of a 30 year old with so much power and flawlessness.(If you want, you can just jump to the videos below and stop reading this but of course you’ll die if you do that without reading the rest of the article. Lolzies :-D)

Even I was dumbfounded at their reaction–their overwhelming reaction, like it’s the first time of their lives that they saw a young kid belting out songs of 20 to 30-year-old divas. Here in the Philippines, almost every municipality has an amateur singing contest held occasionally, and for us fiesta-loving Filipinos, it’s quite not unusual to see youngsters ranging from 6 to 10 years of age performing the highest notes of Whitney Houston or Regine Velasquez’ singles.

“Whoah… whoah… I couldn’t believe it… wow.”

There, they all stood up, waving their hands (as though getting some fresh air), clapping, and repeatedly whoah-ing.

I was wowed by Charice’s performance as well. Plus my mom and my brothers. Kulang na lang, dad ko. I rarely see renditions of this song to be performed wonderfully and, oh may gulay–LIVE. o_O!!! [insert more Korean smilies here]

However, I am suddenly saddened by the stature of our perception–perhaps our industry’s standards–to what make makes a person a star. To think that that mature, controlled but effortlessly powerful voice coming from a young teenage Filipina is already worthy of a big round of applause in my very own room, the overflowing number of young talents here in the country would seem to obscure her and and have other aspirants to capture the brighter limelight of stardom. And going outside this room overpopulated with talented individuals and seek for a room with–well, not exactly untalented–will make him/her noticeable.

Just like what Charice Pempengco did in Star King, which I think is good.

Why good? Okay, take this as a good examply.

She just simply inhaled a tankful of air, posed a little bit, then…

One…

Two…

There you go!

Would you believe that this real ‘rising internet star’ Charice was only a runner-up on Little Big Star, following Sam Concepcion (that handsome, total package, wonder boy who dances like Gary Valenciano but sings like Britney Spears. Lol) on the ‘honor roll’? For first time viewers, I know you wouldn’t believe hearing it from Charice saying she’s just a finalist. But with that kind of talent, those Koreans already knew that this so-called ‘runner-up finalist’ in one of the biggest TV networks in the Philippines already has a bright, bright future ahead of her.

Just imagine a big-time entertainment outfit SM (not the ShoeMart, of course) asking her to sign as a major talent right after the taping of that show. And she even had the ‘closest encounters’ with one of the most popular superstars in Korea which any die-hard SuJu fan would envy.

Like…

Being personally given with a bottle of Evian water from a SuJu member (with a foreground of the host’s imitation of her R&B belting) and…

…a SuJu member wiping off her sweat with his own ’shining shimmering splendid’ scarf

And she even danced with the the rest of them! She was like, oh, a diva that can sing pop can even do the Harlem. Totally outrageous. I mean, she too was joking around, having some funny stints with the jurors of that show, and in the end hugged not one, but TWO SuJu members within a short period of time. (Aside from the behind the camera scenes, Charice has been a lucky, lucky girl.)Another thing… after the dancing part, she even had a duet with Kyu-Hyeon, singing “A Whole New World”, which really gave my skin the highest goosebumps from a variety show. Kulang na lang, sumigaw ako ng ‘Go Philippines!’ [haha, there goes the Tagalog part]

Not to mention that some of the members were like crying a river during their performance. Isn’t that awesome?

[Final Fantasy Battle Triumph theme playing on the background ]

Take that, die hard SuJu fans. Mamatay kayo sa inggit. (Envy her to death)

Because of that, I’ve been playing the video for like a hundred times already and unbelievably, I still can’t get enough of it. I’m getting more and more amazed each and every time I witness how a 14-year-old Charice wowed Koreans and netizens alike.

What do you want? Talent? Charice can give you REAL TALENT!

Just look at her YouTube vids, as well as all the articles posted on the Internet about her and her performance. Or if you can read (and type) Hangeul, try daum.net or kr.yahoo.com. Some of the silliest comments I can read were like her lip-synching and that she’s not really 14 years old but 5 years older. Oh c’mon, isn’t that obvious that they were just toppled by a young Asian kid from some ‘high’ school in the Philippines.

Now, she’s even featured TWICE on E!’s Daily Top Ten this week. It’s so amazing. Finally, someone from the mass media officially confirmed that she is NOT lip-synching.

(Ergh, I guess stupid people would delude themselves that she’s fake. Duh?)

Ultimately, with all the wits and charm, and an electrifying talent demonstrated, Charice has annexed a global bridge between the Philippines’ finest young talents to the rest of the world.

Go Charice~! Mabuhay ka! Aja aja fighting! ^_________^

[Oh, nag-Korean ba?]

UPDATED: English Subbed Videos of Charice Pempengco performing at Star King Episode 38. Yes, Charice videos with English subtitles. Oh c’mon!

Charice Pempengco’s “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” Solo performance

Interviewing Charice at Star King, then danced with Super Junior

And of course, the duet between Charice and SuJu’s Kyu-Hyeon (Kyu-Hyun|규현)

UPDATE: Charice has been featured on E! Channel. TWICE! Unbelievable. Go Charice!

First feature: “A Star Is Born” - Charice Pempengco on Daily Top 10 - Nov 14 episode

Second feature: “A Queen is Born on Daily Top 10

After getting so much popularity worldwide via ALL the video streamers on the Internetz, Charice Pempengco finally was recognized by none other than Ellen DeGeneres! OMG! And she even called her as Charice’s no. 1 fan!

Charice Pempengco featured on Ellen DeGeneres Show. OMG. Charice! Welcome to Hollywood!

And I got great news for you. Charice is now in LA preparing for her guesting/taping on the Ellen show on December 18! OMG! I WANT TICKETS TO THE STUDIO! Which means that episode might air more or less before Christmas. Can’t wait for her another Christmas exposure!

Plus, remember her duet with one of the greatest vocalists of Super Junior KyuHyun? Well, here’s the good news–they’re gonna do ANOTHER duet on Star King right after her taping on the Ellen DeGeneres show. COOLNESS!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 12:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.