Acapellago conquers Russia

If the singing group Acapellago were a beauty contestant, then they would have already amassed a treasure trove of tiaras, scepters, sashes and all the other accoutrements of champions by this time. Truth to tell, at the rate that these guys are going, they are on their way to indeed becoming the winningest singers in Philippine pop music history. And take note of Acapellago’s latest conquest, no other but Russia.

Acapellago was recently declared First Prize Winner in the Medium Vocal Ensemble Category of the Moscow Spring A Cappella Festival 2019. Considered the Olympics of a cappella singing and the largest festival of its kind in the world today, the Moscow competition was held from April 27 to May 12 in the Russian capital. It is part of the annual music festival during which guests and natives of the city are treated to spectacular shows, various performances, workshops, tours and all things musical.

This year saw 195 entries from 26 countries performing in 51 venues for the whole 12 days. This was huge and but not really surprising as Russia is the land of Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Horowitz and other music legends. Besides, the government has always been appreciative of the arts and it does feel great to know that they have witnessed Acapellago in performance and liked what they heard.

Acapellago performed a hot pop repertoire that had Russian audiences up on their feet and dancing along. The Burlesque Mash Up, Show Me How You Burlesque by Christina Aguilera; Conga by Gloria Estefan; Safe And Sound by Taylor Swift; Da Coconut Nut by Ryan Cayabyab; Queen Of The Night by Whitney Houston; and dedicated to the people of Moscow, the inspiring A Million Voices by Russian songwriter Polina Gagarina.

 It was only a year ago when Acapellago topped the CHVOCALS A Cappella singing competition in Shenzhen, Guangdong last Aug. 18. Acapellago brought home Best Original Theme Song Award, Music Of Your Heart a composition by JC Jose, Almond Bolante, Joshua Cadeliña and Riva Ferrer-Jose; Best Performance Award; Best Music Presentation Award; Best Male Artist Award (Overall Performance), Almond; Best Vocal Percussionist Award (Overall Performance), Bogart Laderas; and the biggest plum of them all, the 2018 CHVOCALS Golden A Cappella Award.

Before that, Acapellago celebrated winning at the VoKal Total 2017, International A Cappella Competition held in Graz, Austria. They were also proclaimed Overall Champions and they also won the greatly covered Audience Award and the Gold Award for Pop Singing. And before this, they were also the Gold Award Grand Champion winners all over Asia at the A Cappella Championship 2015 held at the ITE College Central in Singapore. Of course, they were also the Champions of the First Akapela Open Competition held in the Philippines in 2014.

Looks like Acapellago is truly living up to its goal of popularizing a cappella singing in the Philippines by winning international competitions. As they often say, they want “to create and perform new music and inspire young artists in contemporary a cappella singing and to contribute to the Philippine music and performing arts heritage.” Big dreams, big words. But the dream is starting to come true for this group of young extraordinarily talented singers that originated in Bulacan only six years ago. Oh and for those who still cannot place Acapellago in local pop music circles, the group’s biggest hit is Tatlong Bibe.

Acapellago is made up of soprano Michelle Corpoz Pascual, who is a student at the University of the Philippines College of Music; CHVOCALS Best Male Singer Almond is the group’s counter tenor; former child actor and Kokey star Cadeliña, only 22 years old, is the tenor who just recently graduated from UP as a voice major; Acapellago founder and arranger Happy Lemon Laderas is the bass singer; and Happy Lemon’s younger brother Bogart Laderas, the Best Percussionist winner, is Acapellago’s impressive beatbox.

By the way, also a winner in the Moscow Musicfest was another Filipino a cappella group, the Pinopela. So the winners of the Medium Group Category were Acapellago followed by Just 6 from South Africa and the Baguio-born Pinopela sharing Third Place with Rain Drops and PYATERO, which are both from Moscow.