Charice Pempengco is young Filipina recording artist and actress who rose to popularity through internet broadcasts on YouTube. Charice is the real deal to everyone who knows her story including Oprah Winfrey. It is not hyperbole to say that when Charice was a small child she had the vocal ability of Whitney Houston and Celine Dion. As luck would have it, one or more than a hundred talent contests which she entered in her homeland were filmed. At the pre-inaugural celebration of President Obama, Charice was invited to sing along with singer like Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder. She has been called also as an International Youth ambassador for she help kids in Operation Smile all over the world.
Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco was born on May 10, 1992 , in Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines. She was started singing at the age of four . Charice and her brother were raised single-handedly by their mother Rachel after they left their father due to domestic violence when Charice was three years old. By age seven, she was helping to support the family by entering singing contests from town fiestas in various provinces to singing competitions on TV. She is said to have competed in almost a hundred such contests. In 2005, Charice joined Little Big Star, a talent show in the Philippines loosely patterned after American Idol. She was eliminated after her first performance but she was called back as a wild card contender and eventually became one of the finalists. Although, she was a consistent top scorer in the final rounds, she did not win the title in the finale coming only in third place. She made several appearances on local television shows and commercials, but essentially fell off the radar after her stint at a Little Big Star. It was not until 2007, when she gained worldwide recognition after an avid supporter under the username FalseVoice, started posting a series of her performance videos on YouTube. These videos received over fifteen million hits. In June 2007, a music publishing company in Sweden invited her to a demo-recording after producers saw her videos. She recorded seven songs, six covers and an original song entitled “Amazing.” She was then invited to the South Korean talent show Star King on October 13, 2007. A year later a video of her singing “I Will Always Love You” with unbelievable vocal power hit YouTube. She was contacted by the Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey show’s producer who brought her to Chicago and onto their show Oprah gave her the title “The Most Talented Girl in the World.” She sang “And I Am Telling You” and a duet of “A Whole New World” with Kyuhyun from Super Junior, a Korean pop group. After watching her Star King performance on YouTube, Ellen DeGeneres extended an on-air invitation to Pempengco to guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She flew to the United States for the first time and performed two songs on December 19, 2007. She made a second appearance on Star King as the “Most Requested Foreign Act”. On December 28, she performed Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and sang a duet with singer Lena Park. When Oprah heard Charice’s amazing voice she excitedly said that she found the most talented girl in the world. In the Philippines, she was also invited to the Malacanang Palace where she performed for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the following year.
She released her first international studio album “Charice” in 2010. The album entered the Billboard top 200 at number-eight making her the first Asian singer in history to land in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 album charts. Charice is regularly invited to perform all over the world . She soon came into the attention of the legendary music producer David Foster, who signed Charice to his record label and vowed to mentor her towards becoming an international superstar. Her international fame continued to boom with her guest performances alongside big names like Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. She’s also involved in Foster’s tribute album Hit Man: David Foster & Friends .
Charice wowed America as they heard her magical voice when she sang “God Bless America” during the pre – inaugural Presidential events. According to David Foster, in an ABC News interview, Charice has the ability to mimic other people’s voices, which he says is a characteristic of a good singer. She released the single, “Pyramid”, which featured rapper, Iyaz. It became her most successful single to-date, charting within the top-40 in a number of countries, and debuting on The Oprah Winfrey Show where she sang live. Crossing over to acting on television, she joined the cast of TV series Glee as Sunshine Corazon. She has released a new single, “Before It Explodes”, written by Bruno Mars, from her upcoming international sophomore studio album. She also made an appearance on ET Canada cut during her three day promotional tour in Toronto, Canada.
Although she has a petite figure, she is blessed with a mighty soprano voice reminiscent of her idols Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. Charice is recognized as an icon for tomorrow and has been named an official Smile Ambassador and supporter of Operation Smile, a worldwide children’s medical charity, an organization’s global efforts for providing free surgeries to children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. She continues to use her growing fan base to raise awareness and funds for children in need. She is determined to become more involved with Operation Smile and help children around the world. Recently, she became a Tourism ambassador in the Philippines. Although, she is very busy with her career that doesn’t stop her from going to school because she says that education is the key to success. She was enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts in Communications program in an online course at the Southern New Hampshire University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Some people still do not know Charice Pempengco but her popularity is growing rapidly. To me she is an inspiration for various reasons. She established her name around world at a very young age as a singer and as an Ambassador. In addition to that, she helped unfortunate kids not only in her own country but all around the globe. She is warmly accepted everywhere because of her talent. This made her the pride of every Filipino household across the globe and the diva of different races. This young diva would continue to soar high like an eagle and prove that she has the power to be a star.
INFORMATION SOURCES:
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charice_Pempengco
The Tropic Post
http://www.tropicpost.com/16-year-o ld-wows-madison-square-garden/
by: Stenberg-Tendys W.L in Entertainment, January 2010
International Business Times: Entertainment and Star
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/29844/20100622/filipina-singer-charice-pempengco-joins-glee.htm
by: Nabilah Hamid, June 22, 2010
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/li fe/music/news/2010-09-20-chariceotv20_ST_N.htm
NewYork Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/arts/music/17celi.html?_r=2 &ref=arts&oref=slogin
by: Jon Caramanica, Sept. 16, 2008
ABC News, Good Morning America, Nov. 18, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/FallConcert/story?id=6281726
http://www.operationsmile.org/news_events/in-the-news/2009/singer-charice-smile-ambassador.html , Dec, 17, 2009
CTV Canada
http://www.charicemania.com/2010/06/03/interviews/international-interviews/interview-charice-on-ctv-canada-am/
by: Jeff Hutcheson, June 3, 2010
OFW Now
http://ofwnow.com/entertainment/celebrity/charice-pempengco-enrolls-in-online-college/6151
by: Julie, august 08, 2010