Charice and Celine

This beautiful performance happened more than a month ago, but I still want to post it here anyway.

The extremely talented Charice Pempengco is given a star turn at Celine Dion’s concert at the Madison Square Garden.

Ms. Dion displays a very generous and humble heart in letting Charice take center stage while she stayed in the background during the high points of the song. God bless her!

A beautiful rendition of “Because You Loved Me“:

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The New York Post’s Dan Aquilante gave this very favorable review:

The Charice segment was the night’s brightest moment. The teen was able to blast notes with Celine-like power, but she was also able to get in touch with the song’s emotions.

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And Jon Caramanica of The New York Times had this to say:

They performed “Because You Loved Me,” though Ms. Dion mostly stayed out of the way as Ms. Pempengco explored the song’s heretofore unheard rougher edges, with ample gesticulations and melisma. As Ms. Pempengco brought the crowd to its feet, Ms. Dion struck poses behind her: awestruck wonder, heartfelt empathy, ambient triumph.

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Related posts:

16-year-old Charice Sings with Andrea Bocelli

Super Filipina Kid

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16-year-old Charice Sings with Andrea Bocelli

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m late again 😦 .

But I’m still happy that Charice Pempengco got to sing with Andrea Bocelli. I’m sure that thousands of other Filipinos have already seen her videos on YouTube. So? I still want to post links to her videos in this blog. Hey, I’m a fan 🙂 .

In the Wikipedia article on Bocelli, the tenor is quoted as saying that he was actually looking forward to promoting Charice, whom he called a “force of nature” 🙂 . Here’s what he said, according to the Wikipedia article:

In an interview, Andrea Bocelli said that “In realtà il mondo è pieno di grandi voci e ho avuto la fortuna di cantare con tanti artisti, da Christina Aguilera a Bono. Ma, se proprio dovessi trovare una nuova interprete, punterei su Charice, una ragazza delle Filippine che a soli 15 anni è una versa forza della natura. Ne sentiremo parlare.” or “In reality, the world is full of great voices and I had the opportunity to sing with so many artists, from Christina Aguilera to Bono. But, if I would like to look for a new voice, I would push for Charice, a girl from the Philippines that only at 15 yrs old is a flush force of nature. That we shall be hearing.”

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So here they are, Charice and Bocelli, singing “The Prayer” (the video is a bit shaky, since it was just taken by an audience member, but their voices were sure and steady 🙂 ):

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For more news on this wonder kid, click here. There are also more and higher-quality videos of her various performances with different artists in other countries at this site (including her performance at the Paul O’Grady Show in England).
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The following news clip on Charice features a snippet of her fantastic performance at the tribute concert to David Foster, held last May at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The news is in Tagalog, but the praises heaped on her by the 14-time Grammy Award winner Foster and by Josh Groban (!) are, of course, in English. She received standing ovations for her renditions of “I Will Always Love You“, “I Have Nothing“, and “And I am Telling You“.

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And here’s an interview on a Philippine entertainment show:

 

Hats off to you, Charice! Man, if you’re this good at 16, who can tell where you’ll be, even just 5 years from now? I do hope you stay humble, and that you never ever forget the Creator who gave you your gifts. God bless you!

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Related posts:

Charice and Celine

Super Filipina Kid

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American Idols Shout to the Lord

I don’t really watch American Idol, so I missed the two episodes last week where, it turned out, the remaining contestants sang Darlene Zschech’s beautiful song Shout to the Lord.

I was just alerted to this through my favorite blog Parchment and Pen, which asked: What’s up with American Idol and Jesus? and posted a link to this YouTube video:

Maybe the program is just pandering to the strong conservative Christian market base, but that’s OK. Thanks be to God that praises to Jesus Christ are sung on US TV primetime.

(Seems that something happened behind the scenes, though, because the name “Jesus” was replaced by “Shepherd” in the first night’s performance, during the actual Idol Gives Back telecast. But the same song was sung again the following night, with the name “Jesus” placed back!)

Canadian Idol, on the other hand, seems to be already open to Christian songs. Their 2004 winner, the very talented Kalan Porter, performed this awesome number on that show, a moving rendition of MercyMe’s I Can Only Imagine:

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(Bonus clip 🙂 : Porter also sang this powerful song, for which a fan made a video montage on YouTube:)

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(Note: Wikipedia has a note about the performance of Shout to the Lord in last week’s Idol Gives Back show where the name “Jesus” was replaced by “Shepherd”, but was placed back in the following night’s repeat performance of the song. The Parchment and Pen post from which I got the original heads-up has interesting views on this from various commenters.)
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Super Filipina Kid

Hi, guys.

I’m late (again 😦 ) in becoming aware of these videos. They’re of Charice Pempengco, super Filipina singer, and I thought I’d plug this extraordinary talented kid on this site. She’s awesome, especially since she’s only 15 years old! For those of you who don’t know her, please watch the videos—and be amazed at her talent.

This one’s her guesting on the Ellen DeGeneres show last December:

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This one’s a copy of the video which Ellen saw, which moved her to invite Charice:

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And this one’s a previously unreleased video of Charice in a singing contest when she was just 9—amazing!

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Hats off to you, Charice! You’re one super Filipina talent! Mabuhay ka and God bless you!

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Related posts:

16-year old Charice Sings With Andrea Bocelli

Charice and Celine
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Happy Slip, Kabayans!

Hi there!

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday. I had a fun and refreshing week, with Christmas services, parties, blessed times for prayer and meditation with my wife, and family reunions with aunts, uncles, and cousins, and with my wife’s family. It’s not over yet. We have another family reunion with my brother and sister tomorrow the 31st, which will last until January 1.

Just wanted to visit the blog today and post a notice about a very talented and funny Filipina—Christine of Happy Slip. Her YouTube channel is now #5 in terms of subscriptions, and I believe she deserves all her success. She’s hilarious, and actually plays all the roles for her family members in her videos, a la Eddie Murphy—her lola, her mother, her father (!), her sister, her auntie and her cousin. She’s even among the 15 nominees for Balitang America’s Newsmaker of the Year by ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel.

Her videos showcase not only Filipino humor, but also the high value that we place on the family. Below are samples of her videos:

A Christmas jingle with a catchy (and hard-to-imitate 😦 )
backbeat on a plastic cup (!)

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Thanksgiving—> Thanksliving
(she’s got a good point on this video)

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And, kabayans, you’ll LOL when you learn where she got the “Happy Slip” tag 🙂 .

BTW, I’d like to thank Pastor Eyriche for pointing me to Happy Slip. Thanks, brother!

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