High Pinay

Charice Clarice Relucion or Charice Pempengco will now be known internationally as simply Charisse. It was decided by her handler to drop Pempengco in her launching career in the Hollywood.

I first saw Charice in the Little Big Star, honestly she is not my favorite, because I already thought before that there was something amiss during her production number with the other. Especially her instant noodle soup commercial. Now I think it’s because her talent is quite different pala,  pang-international! Of course, I am not saying that the other kids are not for international scene, but I guess there’s something more on Charice Pempengco.

I watched her performance at some Korean show, I might say she performed better there than at Ellen’s Show.  I still remember some forum comparing her to Bianca Ryan, to Lani Misalucha, but not to Sarah Geronimo except nowadays. I think it is Madam Auring who predicted that this 2008, Charice will outshine Sarah, but I believe that won’t happen because Sarah  will always be special in the hearts of the Filipino. And we are thanking Charice for making Filipinos proud once again.  Go girl…. Aim High Pinay!

Charice Pempengco

Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco, better known by her screen name Charice Pempengco (born May 10, 1992), is a Filipina singer who became a singing sensation throughout the world through YouTube. She started joining singing contests at the age of seven but became widely known in her native Philippines when she placed third in Little Big Star.Pempengco joined Little Big Star singing contest in 2005, when she was only 13 years old. She was eliminated right away but was later picked in a wild card round to re-enter the competition. She worked her way up to become a finalist. She was a consistent top scorer during the early rounds. But during the finals, she only finished third place, while Sam Concepcion got first place.

Popularity on YouTube

Pempengco first attracted attention in the cyberworld when the FalseVoice channel of YouTube posted her Little Big Star performance of Whitney Houston’s hit, “I Will Always Love You.” Many viewers thought her singing was fake, and that she was only lip synching because of her unbelievable vocals. Another popular video was a face-off between Pempengco and America’s Got Talent winner, Bianca Ryan. These videos brought Pempengco to the attention of Ten Songs Productions, a record company based in Sweden. She then traveled to Stockholm in June 2007 and recorded seven songs, which included three cover songs, namely Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You,” Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” and the Shakespears Sister’s “Stay” plus four original songs, “Amazing,” “All The Money in the World,” “It Can Only Get Better,” and “Born to Love You Forever.” There is no news about when an album will be released.A few months later, FalseVoice released a video of Pempengco singing the Dreamgirls anthem, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” This earned her an invitation from one of the four national television networks in South Korea, Seoul Broadcasting System, on October 13, 2007 to perform on a talent show called Star King. The Korean audience was wowed by her rendition of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” She also sang a duet, “A Whole New World”, with Kyuhyun of Super Junior. Many viewers reposted her Star King performance on YouTube, and Pempengco found her way into American television. TV network E!’s The Daily Ten featured her Star King performance with the headline, “A Star Is Born” on November 14, 2007 and then titled her “Queen of the Week” on the Hollywood Royalty segment, this time with the headline, “A Queen Is Born” on November 16, 2007.Pempengco’s performance on Star King was featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on its November 28, 2007 episode, in which Ellen showed web videos of different people she would like to have as guests on the show. After showing the video, DeGeneres did a standing ovation and imitated Pempengco’s gestures. She later personally invited the young singer to perform on the show.

International exposure

On December 5, 2007, Martin Nievera invited Charice Pempengco to his concert where she sang “The Prayer” with him followed by a solo performance of the song, “One Moment in Time”.On December 19, 2007, Charice sang her already popular “And I Am Telling You, I’m Not Going” and “I Will Always Love You” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.. She also met with David Foster and her lawyer Ed Shapiro.Right after coming back from the USA, Charice flew to Korea in order to tape her performance once again for the popular show Star King, where she sang “I will survive” and a duet with the popular Korean singer Lena Park. The song they chose was “I will always love you”. SBS aired the show then on December 29, 2007.On January 4, 2008 Charice Pempengco paid a courtesy call with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Pempengco sang the Philippine national anthem in Game 7 of the 2007-08 PBA Philippine Cup Finals at the Araneta Coliseum.Charice latest performance was on Channel 4’s Paul O’Grady Show in London, UK last April 08, 2008. She sang “And I am telling you I’m not going” from Dreamgirls and “I will always love you” as popularized by Whitney Houston. She received two standing ovation from the audience who was amazed by her powerful voice.In May, she will be joining other young talented kids in Oprah.