Cebu auditions for new Asian girl group set today

CEBU, Philippines - Cebuanas who have dreams of being a global pop star as part of a sensational girl group ala Spice Girls, this is your once-in-a-lifetime shot. Auditions for Project Lotus, the search for the best talents to make up an English-singing, all-Asian girl band, will be held today, Aug. 3, at the City Sports Club across the Mariott Hotel beginning 1 pm.

The candidates must fit the following criteria: female, Asian, 18-25 years old, English-speaking, singer and dancer. An ability to play a musical instrument will be an added advantage. They are looking for versatile performers who can belt out a sugary-pop song one moment and then sing acappella in five-part harmony the next.

In the press briefing last Saturday at the City Sports Club, Philippine coordinator for Project Lotus Gel Yap said this project was born out of the realization by Far West Entertainment that there has never been an Asian singer making it “big” in the West.

Farwest, a Hongkong, Shanghai and Singapore-based independent production company, was founded by former President of Disney Asia Jon Niermann. His company’s main aim is to help bring Asian-inspired entertainment in English to other parts of the world. Niermann is also the executive producer and award-winning host of Asian talk show “Asia Uncut” on Starworld.

For the Project Lotus undertaking, he is joined by Grammy Award-winning producers Eliot Kennedy and Brian Grant to seek out the best female talents in the Philippines, Korea, Japan, India and China for launch into the international music scene.

Kennedy is credited for helping develop the Spice Girls before he brought them to Simon Fuller. He has also worked with some of this century’s greatest artists like Bryan Adams, Aretha Franklin, Robbie Williams and Celine Dion.

“The Spice Girls were not as polished and beautiful before Kennedy worked with them. Now, when we see even just the silhouette of the Spice Girls, we can determine which one is Posh Spice, Baby Spice or Ginger Spice. Project Lotus wants to achieve the same thing for this Asian girl group,” Yap said.

Yap had previously held auditions in Bacolod, Boracay and Davao. They will head to Pangasinan and Manila after Cebu.

Kennedy hosted a writer’s camp at Peter Gabriel’s studio in the UK from June 6-11 with today’s top pop song writers including Gary Barlow from Take That, Alisha Dixon from Ace of Base, Lil Boots and Jonathan Wang. They already started writing for the music tracks to be featured in the girl’s debut album, so that everything is ready for the girl’s global launch next year.

Yap said the songs will incorporate the language of each of the five girls. In fact, she shares getting calls every now and then from the producers asking for the Tagalog equivalent of a certain phrase.

After today’s auditions, the videos will be sent to Hongkong. Those approved by Hongkong will be given an invitation for a Manila audition on Aug. 30 where hopefuls will be pared down to 20.

The chosen 20 will be asked to come back on August 31 where judges will decide the final five Filipinas who will be sent to Hongkong for an intensive training academy, which will run from Sept. 15 – Oct. 30, 2010. Another five Filipina back-up singers will be chosen in case there will be problems with any of the final five.

Along with the five finalists from the other countries, they will attend clinics in singing, dancing, choreography, styling, stage performance, nutrition, physical training and media management. Each week of the academy, one girl from each country will be sent home, until the final week when the final band will be formed.

The judging panel will consist of Project Lotus producer Eliot Kennedy, choreographer David Liu and a local celebrity from each of the host countries (the chosen Philippine celebrity is Miriam Quiambao because the producers have been closely following her). 

At the end of the training, the final five members will form a new girl group (to be named later) and record an album at Eliot Kennedy’s UK studio, scheduled Nov. 15 – Dec. 15. The entire recording process will be filmed for a special TV production that will be broadcasted on January 2011 across Asia and also the US and Europe.

In April 2011, they should be ready for the world.