You’re bound to be skeptical when someone’s called “The Most Talented Girl in the World”, but Charice was given the title by no less than top talkshow host Oprah Winfrey who has hosted more than her share of celebrities and newsmakers.
Here in Singapore for a special 2-day show, Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco, as her full name goes, was discovered by David Foster, who has unearthed such amazing talents as Josh Groban and Michael Buble. She has also performed with some of the biggest names in the world including Kyuhyun from Korean band, Super Junior and Celine Dion on ‘Because You Loved Me”.
UrbanWire caught up with the petite, modest, ever smiling 18-year-old singer and Glee actress at a media conference Oct 29 alongside her mentor and producer, David Foster, as well as famed acts like Natalie Cole, Peter Cetera, Ruben Studdard and The Canadian Tenors. They all performed at the “Hitman: David Foster and Friends” concert on Oct 29 to 30 as part of the Singapore Sun Festival 2010.
Check out Charice’s imitation of Justin Bieber plus Alvin and the Chipmunks:
She also collaborated with Iyaz on lead single, “Pyramid” in her first international album, Charice, which was released in May.
Turning around to look at Charice with pride, Foster said, “I have been watching Charice the way I see my own children, you know, [and] she’s like my daughter – you turn around one day and all of a sudden, she’s a woman instead of a child. To be able to like go to Natalie [Cole]’s dressing room on a daily basis, and to get all this years of experience at this age in show business… I can’t imagine what that’s like”, said Foster.
Charice also recently joined the cast of Glee, America’s top television series and musical comedy, as recurring nerdy character, Sunshine Corazon.
“Being part of Glee is the coolest thing ever. I’m a big fan of [Lea] Michele… I even auditioned for it and then when I got the role, I was about to faint!” she laughed.
The Filipino singer started joining competitions since she was 7 and has performed on talent shows like Little Big Star, the Philippines version of America Idol for young singers. The baby-faced singer has joined more than 100 contests and it was her way of helping her single mum support the family and fulfilling her dream of being a full-time artiste.
But Charice’s journey to fame truly began only when a devoted fan started posting her videos onto YouTube. Her singing caught the attention of American TV shows and she was invited to The Ellen DeGeneres Show and several more times on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Charice can’t imagine a life without singing but if she has to, she’d want to become a soldier or an entertainment laywer “so [she] can help other celebrities”.
“[David’s] always telling me everything you’re doing in life, even [if] you’re not singing, it just has to be great, not good. I’ve learnt a lot and every day, I’m very thankful [when] I wake up in the morning. I always think that I’m just so blessed to have these people you know… and I’m not gonna get tired of saying thank you to you, David, for all the people who’ve helped me, Oprah, to you all, thank you so much for this amazing experience,” said Charice.
“I’m in love,” she sighed, “with my work. And that’s, you know, that’s my boyfriend. I’m in love with it, I have to take care of it and I wanna just stay with it forever.”