Will Charice beat Whitney, et al, in Oprah poll?

MANILA, Philippines - Charice is competing with Whitney Houston, The Black Eyed Peas, Michael Buble. Journey, James Taylor and others for Best Show Musical Performance 2009 in the Oprah Winfrey show.

Oprah nominated Charice on the strength of her performance of Note to God,which reached the top 10 and raced to the top 10 downloadable songs on iTunes and amazon.com after the song debuted on the show.

“Ipapa sa-Diyos ko na lang `to,” Charice replied when asked what her chances of winning the polls are. But she doesn’t hide the fact that she won’t mind topping the poll just the same.

“I do hope people nominate me,” she said.

Charice arrived form Los Angeles last Saturday to promote Sennheiser’s Charice International Limited Edition evolution 822 S microphone.

Grace Mendoza, who manages Charice’s career in the Philippines together with Charice’s mom Raquel said the representative from Sennheiser Asia (Singapore) and Audio Video Solutions Corp. (Philippine distributor of Sennheiser) went out of his way to look for their newest endorser since they really had Charice in mind for the said product.

Martin Low, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Sennheiser Electronic Asia says the company produced only `very limited quantities’ of the microphone, which they hope Filipino singers can identify with.

Thus, Charice joins the ranks of international celebrities like Celine Dion and Beyonce, whom Sennheiser has supported in their shows and other projects.

Thanks to her latest endorsement and her other projects, Charice was able to build a house for her family in Tagaytay. The spacious house is a far cry from her humble home in San Pedro, Laguna.

Charice was also able to buy a vehicle which put a stop to her van-renting days of old.

The 17-year-old singer also invested part of her earnings in a Coogan account, a special bank account popular among celebrities who are not yet of legal age and thus cannot assume control over their money yet.

Charice can avail of the account next year, when she turns 18, but vows that “I won’t use all of it.”

Meantime, Charice says she knows how her friend Rhap Salazar is feeling, now that Ellen Degeneres invited the 12-year-old singing champion to perform in her TV show.

“I see myself in Rhap,” she explains. “My advice to him is that he will experience difficulties at the start . Intrigues will be there.”

Charice will release her new song, Pyramid in Jan. 1, 2010 and her new album in February.