Soul, Grit & Energy

It was a terrible evening. I was to tape my interview with Charice Pempengco, prior to her departure for The Ellen DeGeneres Show and after her special performance in a Korean variety show.

Charice who? The girl who took The Ellen DeGeneres Show by storm. The girl who may just break the impregnable American pop music industry which has been unrelentlessly badgered by Filipino musicians who are some of the best in the world. Charice, who is under contract with Star Records, may just surreptitiously break into the extremely esoteric American music industry. How? By destiny.

Wasn’t it by fate that her performance of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You was viewed and applauded by hundreds of thousands of web visitors that eventually led to her much-applauded performance in the Korean variety show and the top American daytime show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show?

Where does Charice go from here? I’m sure Star Records will take good care of her. I pray that her appearance at Ellen’s show will open magical doors for her and the Filipino artist. I wish she cinches an international recording deal with the revered record producer David Foster. I beg every Filipino music lover around the world to buy her CD and turn it into a monster hit. I beg God to make this girl into a global pop star — a much-delayed break for the very talented Filipina artist.

Back to that terrible night of my interview with Charice before she left for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

It was my last back pack interview for Boy & Kris that day. Everyone was tired and admittedly cranky and petulant. But showbiz is fascinating. You can be dying of fatigue but when the cameras start to roll, you leave every tired bone and nerve behind and you face the cameras as if you were doing your first spiel. In this business, we have no right to get tired or to complain as we do our jobs knowing that we are so fleeting — both our jobs and us. So we smile if asked to, we cry if need be, we holler even if the heart is bleeding or we weep even when we are at our happiest. This is showbiz — where the impossible is made possible.

Bad coordination with the venue of the interview caused the irritation among parties’ concerned. I felt annoyed particularly because I looked forward to that interview with Charice. Ellen had already talked to her and to her mother over the phone but they weren’t sure yet if they could get a visa so everything was still hanging in the air but not the unflinching determination and the spunk of this 15-year-old girl. (We read later that Michael Gurfinkel helped Charice and mom get their US visas!)

This girl has enough grit to make her a big, big star.

That night in a music bar in Manila, Charice and I talked. She sang seven songs that told the story of her 15 years in this world, songs that spoke about her big dreams, every note, every word dedicated to her mother who has raised and nurtured her to be who she is today.

Exactly what’s going to happen to Charice Pempengco? We know and we don’t. I pray that she becomes an international pop star. I pray that she makes the right moves, for the road to the bigtime is filled with deadly landmines that can mercilessly kill dreams. But when I saw Charice that terrible night of our meeting — she was unperturbed. She was decided to do a great interview and even a greater performance. And she did. We saw it on Boy & Kris weeks ago.

That energy. That hunger. That soul. They are all there in YouTube, in the Korean TV show, in her Ellen DeGeneres performance. And everytime you chance upon one of her performances, you would see something indescribable that would tell you that she’s headed for the big time! Freaky real.