Will Philippines again win Asia’s Got Talent?

SINGAPORE — The three Filipino acts in Asia’s Got Talent received raves from celebrity judges David Foster, Anggun and Jay Park in the April 4 episode featuring a total of nine grand final performances. But will one of them — hand shadow-play artist Shadow Ace, hip-hop dance crew Junior Good Vibes and acrobatic pair Power Duo — receive enough votes to be the second winner from the Philippines, after El Gamma Penumbra in Season 1?

The answer will be revealed in the Results Show airing tomorrow, April 11, 8:30 p.m., on AXN Asia. Fans can still help the country’s bets win the $100,000 (or about P5M) prize money by voting on Google Search and Facebook Messenger until today (April 10), 11:59 p.m. 

“I think at this point of this competition, they’re not going to perform anymore. This is now up to the public, they’ve done their bit. They’ve really given us their best,” said Indonesian pop star Anggun in a presscon after the live taping of the penultimate episode. “And I know Philippines is one of the countries that really support Asia’s Got Talent because the talents coming from the Philippines are amazing, you know, the dance groups, the singers.” 

For the US hitmaker Foster, the Results Show will not be the last time viewers will be seeing these talents. “There’s gonna be eight losers and only one winner. And eight acts will have to make a decision in their life. ‘Well, we didn’t win Asia’s Got Talent, what are we going to do next?’ And the strong ones will survive, and the weak ones will break and we will never hear from them again. But I guarantee you, out of the eight non-winners, we will gonna hear from a couple of them.”

Park, for his part, couldn’t give any criteria on how the public should vote but reckons that they will vote according to how they feel. “(We’ve seen) so many different types of talents… And we can’t be an expert in every single field, so I think it’s about how (a talent) makes you feel. What do you look at and how does that make you feel?” the K-pop superstar said.

Nevertheless, opportunities will open up for the winner, including possible collaborations with the judges. Foster, for one, brought El Gamma Penumbra to the US for a tour.

Meanwhile, the Pinoy finalists will be up against equally strong contenders. The rest of the last talents standing are magician Eric Chien (Taiwan), dance crew Maniac Family (Taiwan), cyr wheel dancer Yang Shih Hao (Taiwan), girl group NAMA (Malaysia), math genius Yaashwin Sarawanan (Malaysia) and singer Siti Saniyah (Indonesia). 

One of the favorites of Anggun and Park, Chien said of judges’ comments on his performance, wherein he turned chocolates into Rubik’s cubes and vice-versa: “It feels amazing because this act, I’ve been working on this for so long. It’s something that the world has not seen before. I’m really, really secure that people enjoy it and like it. I have received so many positive comments about it and I’m just really happy and I really hope Asia votes for me. I have so many magic to share with the world and everything I have is designed by myself. If I do become the winner, that means I will get more chance to perform for everyone.”

Grand finalists like the hijab-wearing girl group NAMA and Siti Saniyah want to make a statement through the Got Talent platform.

When asked why they chose to sing Freedom for the finals, NAMA member Nur Fazrina said, “Some people might not accept that we, as Muslim women, are singing. Even in the Muslim community, we want to tell them, as Muslim women, as long as we know our limits, we can do whatever we want. We want to tell the world, you are free to do whatever you think is the right thing to do, you are free to dream, you are free to do what is right.”

For Saniyah, who delivered a fiery version of Rather Be, hopes that having her and NAMA on the Got Talent stage will help change minds on stereotypes “because there’s a lot of Islamophobia out there.”

She added, “I also want to represent the Muslims out there who can’t express themselves because (there are comments like) every hijab should stay in your house, you don’t need to express yourself because you’re hijab. No, no, no, you’re wrong girl. You’re wrong, we can express ourselves, sing, dance and everything.”

Yang Shih Hao also wants to send across a message. “It doesn’t matter if the audience wants to vote for me, I just want the audience to get some message out of it,” the former hip-hop dancer and juggler said of his soulful dance with his cyr wheel to the song Take On Me. “It seems like (when) I play with my wheel, with my partner, it’s the child in me and it’s important. I just want to tell the audience, live your life with heart and enjoy your life.”

“Human calculator” Yaashwin Sarawanan, on the other hand, doesn’t feel Asia’s Got Talent is a competition. “For me, this is a friendly talent-reality show. We all do different things. It doesn’t matter if he wins or I win because there’s no exact way to judge. That’s why the judging is based on the people because it’s open, there’s no exact way to evaluate. For me, it’s just a fun thing to be with these people and performing together as one because at the Results Show, we will be performing together. Like it’s a body and a way to bond with each other.”