Four years ago, Renaldo migrated from the Philippines to the U.S. and found employment as Greyhound and Wal-mart janitor. His love for singing, and support from his friends, encouraged him to try out for AI when the show held auditions in Dallas, Texas. Renaldo was the last one to audition and obviously he was the only one who hyped up the exhausted judges after a long day with his original composition We're Brothers Forever. Although Renaldo was eventually rejected, Simon Cowell declared, "I have a horrible feeling that it's going to be a hit record."
True enough, Simon's prediction came true as Renaldo's performance invaded YouTube, following a series of modifications to his song such as rock, rap, metal and techno versions. It earned him 1.2 million hits and since then, has become a weekly Top 10 favorite.
"Keys Me" by Alyssa Alano. A prank can sometimes boost the career of an artist, as in the case of former Viva Hot Babes dancer Alyssa Alano.
Some people may not know that Startalk's Alyssa Alano popularity skyrocketed when she performed Sixpence None the Richer's Kiss Me on the now defunct late night show Master Showman Presents. Alyssa's Tagalog accent drew snickers from the Internet community back in June 2006 when a prankster uploaded a clip of her performance in YouTube and subtitled it with monde greens such as "Keys Me" instead of "Kiss Me".
This mockery seemed to be a door of opportunity for Alyssa in terms of her career, when hits on the video skyrocketed to 500,000 by the end of the month. Alyssa herself had no idea that her performance drew quite a stir until it was shown to her in the 24 Oras entertainment segment Chika Minute of GMA-7. She reacted like a good sport.
The prank on Alyssa even landed a spot on the weekly entertainment show Startalk with Joey de Leon and Lolit Solis.
Charlie Green and Madonna Decena: RP's got talent. Britain's Got Talent made headlines here in the Philippines when the news about two Filipino contestants—Charlie Green and Madonna Decena—broke out, thnaks of course to the Filipino community who uploaded videos of their performances in YouTube. Not many Philippine households have cable and since Britain's Got Talent is only shown abroad, one might miss out on two Filipinos making waves.
CHARLIE. Ten-year-old Filipino-British Charlie Green sent the judges of Britain's Got Talent grinning broadly and and he captured the admiration of viewers across the U.K. with his clear, youthful voice and natural talent in jazz. His rendition of Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind" got wild cheers from the audience and earned him the praises of the show's hosts and judges, especially Simon Cowell, who also judges for American Idol.
Charlie's popularity continued to rise even though he was booted out in favor of a karate duo that goes by the name of Strike. This is not the end for Charlie as hits on his videos on YouTube continue.
MADONNA. Charlie may have only made it to the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent but fellow Filipino Madonna Decena strove on to reach the finals.
The 32-year old single parent of two and overseas performing worker got accepted by the talent show and made waves with her strong and emotional rendition of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".
The performance has since made it to the pages of YouTube and caught the attention of many as Madonna's accomplishment showed how significant it is for an overseas Filipina worker to be making such raves as a performer abroad. Her hard work earned her a slot in the finals, although she eventually lost to U.K. dancing sensation George Sampson.
Edu Manzano gives the world a mouthful of Papaya. The hit Philippine dance craze "Papaya Dance" is proving to be the next "Macarena."
Over ten years after the Spanish song "Macarena" by Los del Rio swept the world with its contagious dance steps, another dance craze is beginning to take the world by storm: the Philippine's very own "Papaya Song."
The "Papaya Song," composed by Polish jazz vocalist Urszula Dudziak, saw a rebirth among Filipinos when the song became a local dance hit in ABS-CBN's game show Pilipinas, Game KNB hosted by Edu Manzano. The gimmick on the game show required the audience to stand up and perform the dance whenever a contestant made it to the next round.
