Charice now contract artist of US record firm

Barely two years after she made her debut in US television on Ellen DeGeneres’ show and then thrice on Oprah Winfrey’s (the latest having been last May 18), and guest appearances on the concerts of David Foster, Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, Charice adds yet another feather to her already well-decorated cap by being the newest contract artist of Warner Brothers Records.

Credit A-list composer and record producer David Foster who, impressed by Charice’s vocal prowess when he heard her for the first time, has charted Charice’s international career.

It was Foster who produced Note to God, written by Diane Warren, which is included in the latest David Foster album. Immediately upon its release, the song took the No. 5 spot on iTunes and No. 1 on the Amazon download charts. Charice’s Note to God performance on Oprah, with Foster himself accompanying her on the piano, can be seen on YouTube.

Charice’s first solo album, to be produced by Foster, is now being prepared. It will be released locally by Warner Music Philippines before the year ends.

‘Bikay’ graduating from Letran in 2010

A few issues ago, Funfare casually mentioned a letter from a reader who corrected a news item in a Bohol community paper about Rebecca Lusterio being a scholar of a certain Panaghoy Foundation.

I just got a letter from Ofelia Legaspi, director of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran-Manila’s Public Affairs Office, thanking Funfare for setting the record straight. Wrote Ofelia, “Bikay, as Rebecca is fondly called, is a Masscom senior and will graduate in March 2010.”

In May last year, Bikay appeared in a musical video prepared by the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation (with Jane Censoria Cajes as national president) for the Bohol Youth Week, paying tribute to young Boholano achievers.

Bikay was discovered in 1999 by Marilou Diaz-Abaya who cast her as Kalbo, a driver, in Muro-Ami (titled Reef Hunters in its international release) for which she got Best Child Actress awards from the FAMAS and the PMPC Star Awards. In 2004, she did Panaghoy sa Suba and got an Urian Best Supporting Actress nomination. And then she did Ligalig and won Best Supporting Actress in the 2004 Metro Manila Filmfest.

But due to lack of money, Funfare wrote that Bikay wasn’t able to leave Bohol for Manila to receive her award. Her father is a fisherman and her mother makes souvenir items out of seashells which Bikay helps sell at the Alona Beach in Panglao, also in Bohol.

Funfare also mentioned that Bikay, who graduated from a Bohol high school in 2005, might not be able to continue her studies. Letran rector and president Rev. Fr. Edwin A. Lao, O.P., read about Bikay’s plight and offered her a full scholarship. Bikay commutes from Bacoor, Cavite, where she stays with relatives to the Letran campus in Intramuros, Manila.

That’s the whole story.

Briefly noted

• Somebody who was rooting for another contestant (among the Top 6) is asking if, according to a rumor, the names of winners were “switched” in the 2009 Mossimo Bikini contest two Saturdays ago at the SM North EDSA’s The Block. As one of the judges (together with Paul Cabral, ABS-CBN reporter Ginger Conejero and model-actress Angel Jacob), I can attest that there was no such “anomaly.” What happened was that there was a tie in the male category and the judges had to break it in favor of half-Japanese/half-Filipino Jiro Shirakawa (the other contestant was declared first runner-up). Winner in the female category was Vanessa Dime. The winners are deserving.

• Providing a touch of humor in the protracted video scandal involving Dr. Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili (plus a few other victims) are text jokes such as the following forwarded to Funfare by my doctor-friend (who knows Hayden very well):

Ano ang mga bagong uso?

• Usong gadget — Hayden camera

• Usong laro — Hayden seek

• Usong shampoo — Hayden shoulders

• Usong feelings — Hayden desires

(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph or at entphilstar@yahoo.com)