Charice Pempengco
Charice Pempengco took the Internet by storm when videos of her singing songs by Whitney Houston and Celine Dion was featured on Youtube. People looked on in disbelief as the young, petite Filipina kid belted out “If I Don’t Have You,” with her perfect voice. At first, people thought that Charice was merely faking her songs; they couldn’t believe that such a powerful voice can come from someone so little.
This singing sensation was born in Cabuyao, Laguna on May 10, 1992. She started singing when she was four, and joined amateur contests in town fiestas. In 2005, she joined the talent show Little Big Star. She was eliminated from the competition, but got the chance to compete again as a wildcard contender. She reached the finals and won third place.
Videos of her performance in Little Big Star found their way to Youtube, and soon Ten Songs Productions, a Swedish production company, invited Charice to Stockholm and recorded seven songs with her. A few months later, Seoul Broadcasting System, one of the major TV networks in South Korea, invited Charice to perform in their talent show Star King. Charice brought down the house with her rendition of the Dreamgirls hit, “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.”
Her Star King performance brought on more attention from the media. She was featured on E! Network’s The Daily Ten with the headline “A Star is Born.” Other TV shows soon followed. Ellen DeGeneres invited her to sing on her talk show, and again, Charice wowed the audience and Ellen herself with her performance. In May 2008, Charice marked another milestone; she performed on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where she stunned the audience with her jaw-dropping renditions of Whitney Houston songs. Oprah watched in disbelief; she showered Charice with compliments after her performance. It was through Oprah that Charice got the chance to perform with her idol, Celine Dion. Via satellite, Oprah introduced Celine to Charice, and the veteran chanteuse invited Charice to sing a duet with her on Madison Square Garden concert. Needless to say, Charice never disappointed; she matched Celine note by note in the song “Because You Love Me” during the performance in New York.
Charice was recently featured on the one-night only tribute concert to legendary producer David Foster. Foster gave her the honor to sing the songs from The Bodyguard soundtrack, which roused the audience into a standing ovation. The concert featured other superstar performers such as Josh Groban, Babyface, Andrea Bocelli and Michael Buble.
