Pinoy Pride: Filipinos on the global stage

by Nickie Wang

Whether it’s in sports, fashion, entertainment or performing arts, there are Filipinos who excel and make indelible marks in their chosen field. And what makes their countrymen rally behind them is their being proud of their roots.

Charice’s new single is another singer’s reject

by Nickie Wang

At last, Charice is going to sing an original song in the two-part season finale of the hit US series, Glee. The 19-year-old Filipino singer will perform “As Long as You’re There.” But this is not the reason why Chasters (the nickname of Charice’s fans) have been busy online defending their idol.

What are the brightest local celebs up to?

by Nickie Wang

Who are making waves in local tinseltown these days and what are brewing it the country’s big media networks?

Kristine Hermosa’s “I do” response to the question “Will you marry Oyo Boy Sotto” is to date her best gift to Dina Bonnevie and Vic Sotto’s unico hijo. The 26-year-old Oyo Boy, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, exchanged vows with Kristine in a very simple and private ceremony. This celebrity event is the first to add sparkle to other showbiz happenings that will take place in the coming days and weeks.

Sunshine Corazon to do a Black Eyed Peas number

Charice as Sunshine Corazon is back on Glee as a member of Vocal Adrenaline. The Filipino exchange student will finally make her return on Super Bowl episode of the top-rating series on Fox channel. The 18-year-old Filipina will perform Black Eyed Peas’ “Meet Me Halfway.”

Foster and friends’ advise

by Nickie Wang

Before American composer David Foster and friends that include Natalie Cole, Peter Cetera, Ruben Studdard, the Canadian Tenors, and Charice staged a sold-out concert at the Araneta Coliseum last Saturday, they met the local media in a press conference held at the Resorts World in Pasay City.

The press conference went smoothly although an hour later than the scheduled time. Members of the local press were early at the venue thinking that American performers would arrive on time and require the event to start as scheduled, but it was otherwise.

The John Mayer experience

by Nickie Wang

It took more than six years for me to finally see John Mayer live in concert after buying his record in a Virgin Megastore in Abu Dhabi Mall using my first pay cheque. In 2003 I bought Mayer’s Any Given Thursday live double disc album, which was recorded during a tour in Birmingham, Alabama.

I got hooked up with the album because of the finely-written lyrics and Mayer’s undeniably soothing vocals, not to mention the genius way the Grammy-winning song-writer strums his guitar. Songs like “No Such Thing,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Why Georgia,” “83 Medley” (a cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”), and the anthemic “You’re Body is a Wonderland” became my instant favorites.

Meet Sunshine Corazon

by Nickie Wang

Sunshine Corazon is your typical Asian teenage girl. The 15-year-old lass wears specs, updates her Facebook and Twitter accounts, giggles when she talks about her crushes, and adores the likes of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna. You bet, her hobbies are singing and dancing.

Sunshine (portrayed by Charice Pempengco) is a foreign exchange student from the Philippines, with astounding and amazing killer vocals; she presents some serious competition against Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), the captain and the self-proclaimed star of McKinley High’s show choir, New Direction.

WITHOUT WANG²: Ratings is always a tug of war

by Nickie Wang

It was an intriguing week. On Monday, Kapamilya viewers were welcomed by a minor change in their afternoon viewing with Showtime and Pilipinas Win na Win moving down on the afternoon block.

The arrangement was done to give way to Kapamilya Blockbusters to help the station reclaim its position as frontrunner in noontime viewership.

On hind sight, the country’s leading network is beginning to lose its audience in the said timeslot. Based on the data released by TNS/Kantar Media on National Urban ratings, GMA programs Eat Bulaga and Kapuso Movie Festival are dominating the ratings game. Thus, Kapamilya network introduces the same program format to keep up with the competition. It is a great challenge though but better than not doing anything at all. Of course, Kapuso fanatics will claim that their favorite station’s programming strategy is being copied by its rival network, so Kapamilya aficionados would fume and say, “ now we’re quits.”

Gleeful Charice on music, places, and international stardom

by Nickie Wang

THE last time we had a chat with Charice was when in a press conference for a Valentine concert at the Philippine International Convention Center in February. Since then, the 18-year-old singer has been traveling to different cities around the globe, performing before big crowds and enthralling them with songs like “Note God” and her own rendition of power ballads originally sang by Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.

People 5.29.10

…are talking about

Barbie Forteza and Joshua Dionisio
These young stars are fast becoming teen sensations. Although bad PR sometimes make young onscreen couple looks stupid in their actions, Barbie and Joshua are still appealing among teens and different age groups. This is probably the reason GMA is maximizing their popularity with another follow-up on First Time. Barbie and Joshua will soon star on Pilyang Kerubin, which is another series for teen romance. It is also their third team up with Stairway to Heaven and First Time.

People to watch out for in 2009

By Billy Bong

In the world of entertainment, talent doesn’t always equal stardom. You have to have the look, that star quality that has made show business worldwide a merry go round . Whether you like it or not, your register on the screen makes all the impressions and the talent you have takes you to the spot where you could bask in fame and have all the other celebrities die in envy.

If you want to be recognized by your talent alone then it must be an extraordinary one otherwise people will scrutinize your physical attributes. What we are talking about is star quality as ticket to limelight.

Here are the five women we see to be most prominent darlings of showbiz in 2009 because of their star quality.

Kim Chiu

She has changed a lot since the first time she mesmerized the public by her appearance in a reality program. Kim welcomed the New Year with the loudest bang through her primetime series Tayong Dalawa that poses as a serious threat to any program that would challenge it.

She doesn’t need any kind of hype to stay in the public eye. Though people are not yet ready to see her being paired with a different actor other than Gerald Anderson, her current TV series itself is a litmus test if people would buy the idea of her being paired to a different leading man. Since no other actresses of her age come close to her popularity, with a strong fan base, Kim is definitely a superstar in the making.

Rhian Ramos

She’s nothing but an adorable young woman whose face is too beautiful to be ignored. She exudes a certain kind of appeal that naturally attracts both men and women. Despite of the strong primetime threat coming from GMA’s rival station, her series Lalola remains resilient and we can only attribute the series strong performance to the chemistry of the lead stars.

Rhian has her own numbers of followers and they are growing everytime her face appears on the boob tube and we have nothing more to say on the enormous waves she makes. Her strong presence is the result of the meticulous selection of projects given to her, and the way she delivers them in an almost perfect fashion.

Karylle

She is the biggest talk of the town before the year 2008 ended. Now she welcomes all of us with numerous surprises as a very sexy single lady. Concerts and television series are in bold letters in her time table this year and everyone is optimistic that she will accomplish them the way she made all the loud buzzes recently,

Her career is souring high and it’s just the beginning, let’s wait for more endorsements, new albums, television series, and movies. Yes, she’s going to be very busy this year and everyone can’t wait to see her appear on series of top projects being prepared for her.

Charice

If we would say she has overtaken Lea Salonga as the most popular Filipino artist in the international scene, we are not kidding and we are not just making this all up because  her massive exposures in the United States and other parts of the world won’t  lies.

Here in the Philippines , she has been selected as one of People Asia’s People of the Year for 2008, a feat no other artists of her age have achieved. If she’s not the biggest international Filipino artist as of this moment, no one else could claim the branding. We all know that she is overwhelmingly supported by Oprah Winfrey and David Foster. She is set to record an album in LA this February and hit maker David is at the helm of writing original material for her.

Christine Reyes

Her Eva Fonda outing has given her more outlets to showcase what she has got. And what she receives in return is something she never thought possible to be connected with her name, instant popularity and adoration among men and women.

Men consider her as an ultimate eye candy for her innocent colehiyala look and her oozing sex appeal drips like a sweet fruit juice when she sways her hips on Banana Split. Women on the other hand consider her as a strong person who withstood all the trials that confronted her (but of course that’s the image she portrays on TV). But actually, what we see from this beautiful woman is a brighter future and a more secured career now that she has distanced her self away (far away) from her sister Ara Mina.

-oOo-

We have given you the women, now let’s roll out the red carpet for the men.

While some young actors have kissed the death of their showbiz careers by acting in sleazy indie gay films, a more promising year awaits those chaps who have more than just pretty faces or sculpted body to offer. The following five men have a better career ahead of them because of the image they have portrayed through their initial public excursion.

Robi Domingo

His PMPC Star Awards’ Best New Male TV Personality of 2008 trophy is an affirmation, or a distinction that separates him among the group of new generation stars. As top-caliber actors start in their teens, Robi is just in a perfect timing. He personifies the word teen sensations for he doesn’t need to try hard to get those entire fans grab his elbow just to stay close to him.

Indeed, Robi is one of the hottest teen celebrities and that if he maintains the image he is known for, his career would lead to a rosier future.

JC de Vera

GMA’s drama prince is Lalola’s Facundo. He is being hailed as the next big thing or rather next in line to the networks bevy of A1 actors like Dingdong Dantes, Richard Gutierrez, and Dennis Trillio. Challenges have been given to him and his potential has been noticed.

His appearance on primetime as a lead actor is already a sign that he is being primed to be one of the best talents on this side of showbiz. His boyish good look is supported by his natural acting flair, and his chiseled physique just comes in as a bonus.

Akihiro Sato

He is currently the hottest property of local fashion and yet he is not a Filipino. This is very same reason why local male models have all the reasons to get envious of this Brazilian-Japanese mutt. Twenty-one-year-old Aki paved the way to other Brapanese models to dominate the local fashion scene.

After his modeling stint in Thailand where he received the same mammoth acceptance, Aki hit Manila by storm and appeared on TV commercials, sashayed fashion ramps and graced gigantic billboards. He is about to appear in an indie movie called Handuman, which also stars Jason Abalos and Chin Chin Gutierrez. This hunk is indeed a serious threat to many aspiring actors. By the way he’s taking Tagalog lessons in UP and he’s dead serious about it.

JC Tiuseco

Why not Fear Factor’s Manuel Chua or Ram Sagad, or the other castaways from the Survivor series? Super Manuel is too old to be a heartthrob, Ram can’t be another Zanjoe Marudo, and other castaways simply don’t have the star quality.

Richer by P3 million courtesy of course by Pinoy Survivor, JC has a great potential to break in to showbizness. Though he wants to be recognized as a wholesome celebrity, he still cannot get away from the image he was known for during his Survivor days. A clothing line has taken him as an image model, and he is now greeting early birds good morning in Unang Hirit. He’s off to a good start and we can still see something more from him.

Jason Abalos

People can see him in the afternoon in Pieta and in the evening in Eva Fonda. He is seen twice during weekdays and people still can’t get over him. No wonder Jason is fast becoming a hot property of the Kapamilya Network because of the overwhelming support coming from his fans and the recognitions he is receiving from critics.

Another television series, or perhaps another movie that will still display his dramatic flair and he could claim the title drama prince. We bet, no one else could come close and his Gawad Urian Best Actor trophy can absolutely support that claim.

Charice to sing at Obama’s inauguration

By Nickie Wang

Charice is the first Filipino artist to have performed on Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres, and Good Morning America, and by far the only local talent who has been receiving such massive international exposure.

The sixteen-year-old belter is set to make another record by performing at the historic inauguration of US president-elect Barack Obama in Washington on January 20.

Racquel Pempengco, Charice’s mother, made this confirmation to the staff of ABS-CBN show “Wonder Mom” while they were taping an episode detailing the young singer’s worldwide fame.

Aside from Charice, two young students and a journalist from a Filipino-American newspaper are given the rare opportunity to witness the monumental event.

Nineteen-year-old college freshman Paul Michael Pilares Cruz and another student Anna Liwanag are invited to witness the swearing in of the 44th president of the United States.

Cruz and Liwanag, attended the Global Youth Leadership Conference when they were high school seniors in June 2007 in Washington and New York , making them eligible to be invited to inauguration.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Paul who has just received a $638 tuxedo from his grandfather. He’s going to wear the suit to the ball.

Meanwhile, Ted Reyes, editor of the Filipino Express, said he felt lucky to secure one press pass for the newspaper to attend the inauguration. According to Reyes, millions of people are fighting to have one of the 214,000 tickets available for the event, and he’s fortunate to secure one.

The landmark inauguration of the first African-American president-elect Barack Obama is expected to be watched by millions of viewers around the globe.