A singer wearing a golden top hat, three young boys singing
a capella, and a rocker belting the lyrics "Because I'm evil, my middle name is
misery" are just some of the attention-grabbing performances presented recently
by the delegates for an international talent search competition to be held in Hollywood.
And if you're competing against 5,000 acts from 40 countries, it pays to be a
standout.
From July 19-27, hundreds of singers, dancers, and various
entertainers will compete in the United States for the chance to be known as
"Junior and Senior Grand Champion Performers of the World." This year, 15
singers from the Philippines will aim to being honor to the country once again
just like Aria Clemente and Reymond Sajor, who won top honors in last year's
edition.
Each of the 15 delegates performed 60-second snippets from their repertoire for the benefit of the media during the July 3 press conference at Teatrino, Greenhills. The walls reverberated with the powerful voices of the young performers, all of whom must prove their marketability and their entertainment value to the judges of the 12th World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA).
For Team Philippines, there are eight junior contestants (age 15 and below) and seven senior contestants (age 16 and above). The junior contestants are Catherine Loria, a singer from Lucena City; Cherry Palad, a Trumpets Playshop alumna; Glee Nette Gaddi, the Department of Tourism's delegate to the 2007 Korea Travel Fair in Seoul; Rachel Razon, a Fil-Am pop and R&B vocalist; brothers Marek, Enzo, and Ruiz Sison, musical theater actors seen in the local production of Off Broadway hit musical Children's Letters to God, and Tippy dos Santos, who played Belle in Ateneo Children's Theater's production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
The senior contestants are CJ Concepcion, a singing nurse from Manila, Dex de Rosa, whp played Thuy in the Australian production of Cameron Mackintosh's Miss Saigon, Abe Dorado, a Filipina singer based in Milan, Italy; King, a Star Records' recording artist; Marielle Corpuz, a singer from Nueva Ecija, Paolo Ledesma, 3rd Avenue band's lead vocalist, and Panky Trinidad, a scholar in ABS-CBN's Pinoy Dream Academy Season One.
Since the Philippines joined this competition dubbed as the "Hollywood Olympics," our representatives have won major awards beginning with Jed Madela in 2005, the Cercado sisters in 2006, and Reymond and Aria in 2007.
This puts a lot of pressure on the delegates who are among 75,000 performers who auditioned globally for this year's WCOPA.
How do the contestants deal with this kind of pressure?
"Malaki-laki po ang pressure because Kuya Jed set the standard," says Panky. "He won the Grand Champion Vocalist of the World in 2005 and in a way it's very good because in WCOPA, natatak na sa isip nila ‘pag Philippines, magaling. It's a very good thing and we're very proud of that. We're also doing this for our country po and not because we want to go there to have fun. In the same way that Manny Pacquiao wins for the Philippines, we're also doing it for all of us."
The former PDA scholar is set to release her solo debut album under Star Records.
Aria Clemente confirmed what Panky said by pointing out that even the hosts of WCOPA have commented about the abundance of talents here in the country. The young singer mimicked the emcee who told the audience, "The Philippines—land of the talents, if you want to get talents, go to the Philippines."
But Jed recalls that they initially experienced discrimination when they joined WCOPA for the first time in 2005. He narrates, "During my time in WCOPA [in 2005], Orientals are being discriminated. If you're not white [Caucasian], they look down on you. I personally experienced this. They have a different outlook of the Philippines. They think we still live in huts, they think we still walk barefoot, and they ask me if we have malls in the Philippines. But with my win and Rizza Novales, we were somehow able to erase that outlook."
This year, Jed has been invited to sit as one of the judges during the preliminary (Round One and Two) and semi-final (Round Three) rounds of the weeklong competitions.
He and Aria will also perform in the 2008 WCOPA opening ceremony at the Universal City Walk, Hollywood on July 20, and in the finals night at the Grand Ballroom of the Westin Bonaventure, downtown Los Angeles on July 25.
For the Parade of Nations in the opening ceremony, Jed will sing "Go The Distance" from the Disney-animated film Hercules. On finals night, he will sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," a track included in his Platinum album Only Human. He will welcome the new 2008 WCOPA Grand Champion Performers of the World by leading the song, "We are the Champions," by The Queen. His version is re-arranged by Filipino composer and arranger Arnel de Pano especially for this event.
On the other hand, Aria will perform songs from her newly released album Sing Like A World Champion Performer in the opening and closing ceremonies. Her album, produced by STAGES and ABS-CBN's Star Records, will be sold at the event.