2015 Pinoy K-Pop Star winners to represent Philippines in worldwide K-Pop competition

MANILA, Philippines - A 25-year-old singer and a seven-member cover dance group won this year’s recently concluded 2015 Pinoy K-pop Star contest held last Aug. 15 at SM Mall of Asia Center Stage.

Hergie Manlucot won the singing category with his rendition of Winter Love, originally sung by Korean singer The One (Won Jeong Soon) for the Korean drama That Winter, The Wind Blows Manlucot received P20,000 and will represent the Philippines in the online regional finals of the 2015 K-Pop World Festival.

Coming in at second place was Val John Librea, who sang So Good by Jay Park. Placing third was last year’s grand prize winner Jean Kiley Manguera. Manguera sang Tears Stole the Heart by Ailee. Librea and Manguera won P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.

 It was a sweet victory again for Se-Eon. The dance group which covers the popular K-Pop group BTS is composed of Carla Chua, Candy Chua, Angelou Villanueva, Leonides Barron Jr., Stellvester Ajero, Josh Santos and Kane de Guzman. Se-Eon danced their way to success with the remix of BTS songs We Are Bulletproof Part 1, N.O, I NEED U and Dope.  

Last year, the group also won the competition. They represented the Philippines in the global stage for the promotional event of Incheon Asian Games. For this year, the group won P20,000 and will represent the country in 2015 K-Pop Festival in South Korea.

Placing second to Se-Eon was Sheeny for their SHINee cover dance piece; and finally in third was the EXO cover dance crew AMIGO. The two groups took home P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.

The event is comprised of two separate event competitions from Korea, namely the K-Pop World Festival as well as the K-Pop Festival.

The judges for the singing competition were Oh Choong-suk, director of Korean Cultural Center in the Philippines (KCC); Jo Jeong Jin, K-Pop singing instructor of KCC; Hong Nam Ki, musical actress and KCC musical trainer; Hong Young Jun, musical director; theater actor, professor and Happee Sy-Go, singer and vice president, Pulp Live World.

For the cover dance competition, the judges were Oh Choong Suk, Hong Nam Ki, Hong Young Jun, K-Pop dance instructor Dasuri Choi and Philippine STAR Lifestyle editor Millet Mananquil.

The event was well attended by families, students and guests, along with the contestants’ supporters and K-Pop fans.