Christian Bautista all set to conquer Singapore

After establishing himself as a singing sensation in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, Asia's Pop Idol Christian Bautista is all set to conquer Singapore with "The Way You Look At Me," a special compilation CD of English songs from his first two albums.

The album will include Christian's signature hits "The Way You Look At Me," "Hands to Heaven" and "Colour Everywhere" from his self-titled debut album, and singles from his sophomore album "Completely"-the recent hit "Everything You Do," Indonesia's current favorite "Since I Found You" and Christian's latest local offering, "Invincible."

Christian's international success began with his debut single, "The Way You Look At Me," after getting frequent airplay in Indonesian radio stations. The song became an instant hit among the country's young music lovers, even if they had yet to see the artist behind the ballad.

The song, penned by American composers Andrew Fromm and Keith Follese, became so popular that record label Warner Indonesia decided to bring Christian there-to the great delight of the fans whose support for the Filipino singer has been steadily growing and even spreading to neighboring countries!

Christian's compilation album "The Way You Look At Me" hits music stores in Singapore this month.

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Tintin Bersola-Babao is happy to be working with daughter Antonia "Anya" Babao in their latest product endorsement. She was signed up together with her daughter as endorser for Robby Rabbit, a Filipino-created cartoon character that has spawned a line of school bags, toddler and children's apparel for boys and girls, water jugs, notebooks, face towels, et cetera. As an endorser, Tintin will appear in Robby Rabbit print ads, fashions shows and other special events.

It's a good thing that Tintin is not covered by the Code of Ethics issued by Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN that prohibits their on cam news anchors from doing product endorsements, and that includes her husband, Julius Babao.

"I am lucky because even if MUB (Magandang Umaga Bayan) is a current affairs program, I'm handling other segments like parenting and health so I am not covered by the ruling. But being the wife of Julius, I'm conscious of what I endorse. I make it a point to choose carefully what products I accept for endorsements," says Tintin at the media launch of Robby Rabbit.

Tintin is happy to be doing endorsements because it enables her to reach a wider spectrum of the market, not only those who watch "Magandang Umaga Bayan" but also mommies and daddies out there, plus young people as well. She had a grand time doing the pictorial for the print ad of Robby Rabbit with Anya. She proudly says her daughter is a smart kid and this is probably because she breastfed her for eight months. It could have been longer but Tintin decided to go back to work in MUB.

"It's probably because she's a breastfed baby that's why she's smart. And she has never been sick. I breastfed her for eight months and she hasn't been hospitalized," she enthuses.

If she had her way and if she didn't needed to go back to work, Tintin would probably be still breastfeeding Anya, who is already one year and three months old now. She says Anya already knows so many words and baby sounds. She already knows the sounds made by a cow, dog, and cat. The first word that Anya learned to speak was "mommy" and she already knows the word "daddy." She even knows how to call her yaya. "We don't engage Anya in baby talk because matatas na siyang magsalita," says Tintin.

Now that her daughter is doing commercials, Tintin follows strictly the rules of the Department of Labor when it comes to child workers, especially for young kids like Anya. She has a permit that says Anya is allowed a maximum of four hours to work on camera.

"We follow all the rules. It's okay if the shoot takes three to four days but she can't shoot or work beyond four hours a day. We follow that strictly," says the young mother.

The money that Anya earns from her product endorsements is deposited in two bank accounts. Tintin has also bought for her a condo unit in Timog Avenue, which is near ABS-CBN. "I will give it to her when she turns 18. Anya is really lucky because her future is already secure but we also would want to teach her the value of being hardworking and saving up for her future," says Tintin.

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Has director Gil Portes already paid in full all his stars in "The Mourning Girls," namely Assunta de Rossi, Ricky Davao, Glydel Mercado, and Juliana Palermo, just to name a few? We heard that direk Gil just finished a new film titled "Barcelona" which went on location shoot, of course, in Barcelona, Spain. And we are wondering if he has settled his obligations with the stars of "The Mourning Girls." We remember writing here that Assunta has yet to be paid in full. That was even before we heard of direk Gil finishing "Barcelona."

Going back to "Barcelona," the film stars Alessandra de Rossi, Luis Alandy, Robert Arevalo, Alan Paule and former child star and singer Kristina Paner (who is now based in Barcelona). Being introduced in the film is newcomer Kris Martinez, who was a runner-up in the Close Up to Fame contest of ABS-CBN last year.

"Barcelona" is a film about love, life and death. It is the story of five people who are holding on to something (or someone) in their past, seemingly unable to move on with their respective lives. The film has finished principal photography.

The movie captures on camera the best tourist spots in Barcelona including La Rambla, La Sagrada Familia, Playa Espana, Mare Magnum, the Cathedral, and the scenic monastery in Montserrat, which is an hour away from the city.