The girl from another planet

MANILA, Philippines — When Katchry Jewel Golbin — or “Kat” to family and friends in Capiz City — isn’t blogging or writing poetry, she performs on stage.

And how!

The now 27 year old won renown in 2016 when she landed a finalist slot in the 11th season of La France a un Incroyable Talent (France has incredible talent) in the country’s M26 channel. As “Alienette Coldfire,” she brought the judges and audience — both in the theater and in their homes — to tears with her rendition of Michel Legrand’s Windmills of Your Mind and Schonberg and Boublil’s I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables in, get this, French.

Alienette failed to land the grand prize but she won countless fans, not in the least her kababayan residing in France, one of whom, an OFW, said the young girl proved to be an inspiration and testimony that great things could be achieved with determination.

Kat is blind. Upon hearing the incomparable Edith Piaf’s La Vie en Rose years ago, she fell in love with everything French. She learned this foreign language from conversing nearly nightly online for three years with French speakers, who became her friends, and with the help of a special software.

Never far from the spotlight these days, Kat, who adopted the nom de scene (stage name) Alienette Coldfire to symbolize “someone mysterious, an alien… a little alien,” has had a hectic March. Earlier this month, she was a guest performer at the Singapore Alliance Francaise’s Month of Francophonie. Her presence served to show people what passion for the French language and diligence could do.

From March 23 to 25, she represented the country again in another international event, the inaugural True Colors Festival — the Asia-Pacific Celebration of Artistes with Disabilities. The stars gallery consisted of 20 exceptionally talented individuals and troupes, who were set to impress and rouse the city’s cultural scene like never before.

Specially commissioned for True Colours program were new works by contemporary inclusive dance troupe, DAZZLE from Japan; wheelchair dancer Rodney Bell from New Zealand, a collaborative theater production by Singapore’s Very Special Theatrics and Australia’s No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability. Japanese contemporary dancers Kazuyo Morita and Natsumi Sadayuki also performed a special festival commission on the outdoor Festival Village stage while No Strings Attached had the World Premiere of its new work, I Forgot to Remember to Forget. 

Among the other highlights were Canadian virtuoso violinist Adrian Anantawan, crooner Tony Dee from Australia (star of the 2016 Rio Paralympics trailer We’re the Superhumans), multinational crew ILL-Abilities (considered one of the world’s most talented street dance crews), Drake Music Scotland’s Digital Orchestra and Ma Li and Zhai Xiao Wei (the first pair of dancers with disabilities ever to enter China’s CCTV national dance competition).

Alienette was the Philippines’ lone participant.

Audrey Pereira, True Colours Festival director, said she was inspired after attending a UNESCO conference in 2015 to mark International Day of Persons with Disability. One thing led to another and her Very Special Arts Singapore — also dedicated to helping the disabled — became the producer of the event. She said: “As festival director, I was guided by the objectives of showcasing the most outstanding talent we could find, generating respect, shifting the needle on negative attitudes toward disability and adding to the changing narrative about disability.”

Said Alienette: “We (persons with disabilities) are not special or different. We just do things in a special way.”

Bravo is all we can say!

The festival comprised a ticketed multimedia indoor concert experience at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, a free admission outdoor festival village just a short walk away, and an international conference on arts and disability.

Born blind in a small town in the Philippines, Aliènette did not have easy access to Braille books and publications, but fast forward 26 years later, she earned herself a third-place finish in the finale of the 11th season of the French television program La France a un Incroyable Talent (France Got Talent).

“That’s more than enough for a mere Francophile who dreamed of nothing but a short vacation in France,” Aliènette, who drew tears for her rendition of Les Miserables’ I Dreamed a Dream, had posted on her Facebook page after her performance in December 2016.

The daughter of a taxi driver father and a clerk mother, Aliènette never let her impairment stop her from achieving her dreams. Case in point: In college, she enrolled in a French class as a course elective, but she really learned the language online. Almost every night, she would diligently practice speaking French with Facebook friends using a special software and three years into doing it, she became fluent in the language. Aliènette had told the show’s judges that she wanted to learn French after she became mesmerized by a rendition of La Vie en Rose.

Like learning French, social media and technology played a huge role in Aliènette’s singing career. She was first noticed when she became an online sensation in 2014 after a video of her singing Mariah Carey’s I’ll Be There at SM City in Iloilo City became viral.

Since the TV show, Aliènette has returned to France for a concert and has performed and collaborated with other online artists and in the Philippines.