Charice as your Hamlet. To be or not to be "Made in USA"

MANILA - Did you see her at the airport Thursday? Charice is as cute (little) as ever, as Asian as ever (brown, looking like the 100% Filipina that she is). She was of course with David Foster, Canadian-American, her mentor, her godfather (she as a returning Roman Catholic). Strutting like the winners that they are.

He loves her alright. "She´s like my 6th daughter," says David Foster of Charice (Neil Ramos, 22 October 2010, mb.com.ph). He knows her as Monday´s child (fair of face), Tuesday´s child (full of grace), Wednesday´s child (full of woe), and Thursday´s child (has far to go). Pinoy Cinderella, as I call her.

At the press conference, did you notice what David Foster promised to the Filipinos and the world about Charice? "I will continue working until she becomes the first true Asian world superstar" (Neil Ramos, 22 October 2010, mb.com.ph). If you read the papers, at least online like I do, did you read what Ricky Lo said was how David Foster introduced Charice to the American audience? "Charice ... from the Philippines!" (22 October 2010, philstar.com).

"Asian" and "from the Philippines!" - That is all deliberate. Not "from Chicago!" not "from New York!" not "from McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio!"

Yet, there was the time when David Foster "offered the young Filipino star to move to the United States" (ANN, 13 November 2009, abs-cbnnews.com). In volunteering such information, Mommy Raquel said "Foster told them that it would be convenient to stay in the US while the singer attends to her commitments (there)." She should stay there because her career was there, it was just starting.

Good point, but Mommy Raquel said No. Charice´s brother Carl couldn´t be with them in such a case, because he was still studying. Mommy Raquel saw the huge opportunities awaiting her daughter in the US, but they wanted to come back to the Philippines "after each show since they would also want to spend time with (extended) family and friends." Very Filipino. Yes, the great opportunities to become wealthy are in America, but every time they were there, Mommy Raquel said, they felt that their feet were dragging them back to the islands where they came from. Charice herself didn´t approve. She wanted to be able to go home when she could. She wanted to visit places - in the Philippines. She wanted to go shopping - in the Philippines. Charice said it was okay for her to stay there but she wanted the freedom to come home anytime because she didn´t want the Filipinos to forget her. "Ayaw kong makalimutan ako ng kapwa ko Filipino."

You can take Charice out of the Philippines, but you can´t take the Philippines out of Charice.

The same story played out at YouTube Charice early this year. On the 2nd week of March 2010, as we watched what is now titled "Charice - Pyramid [featuring Iyaz] (Viral Video) (Charice Pempengco, YouTube, with 24,312,502 views as of 0539 hours 23 October in Manila), when it was still called the Unofficial Music Video (with 665,006 views as of 1325 hours 11 March), ScapeCrisis was quoting David Foster as having said "Even for us Canadians, we know that if we want to make it, we go down" (geographically, from Canada to the US), and in an ET Las Vegas interview, David "clearly (was) trying to convince her to move to the US."

ScapeCrisis was more or less saying, to which among others I fervently objected, that Charice needed to learn "the American Way" of behaving, become a US citizen, so that she can be marketed as American-bred.

darkangst said:

Do you know why Charice keeps going back and forth to the US? Because she can. The management team has come to terms with it, and they´re allowing her to do it because it´s not detrimental to her career.

You can take Charice out of the Philippines, but you can´t take the Philippines out of Charice.

Those were very interesting, if very intense moments in YouTube Charice. If you didn´t watch out, you could swear. ScapeCrisis was insisting that Charice had to charm the American DJs or she isn´t going anywhere.

I said:

ScapeCrisis, "DJs are the gatekeepers etc." if you can´t charm them, you flop? A small world! I thought the US music industry is bigger than a radio booth. Charice is a different species altogether, you have to realize that. She doesn´t fit your guidelines.

ScapeCrisis replied and then removed his own remarks.

TheNcube said:

ScapeCrisis, I don´t think Charice will break the Hollywood / mainstream stereotypical mold of the music industry. She´s going to REDEFINE it. Just hoping her new songs would be up to task to match her enormous talent.

I said:

TheNcube, Charice is "going to REDEFINE it," the music industry. You put the words into my mouth. In other words, Charice is an irresistible force trying to move an immovable object. I´m on the side of the irresistible force. Yay!

ScapeCrisis said:

TheNcube, In order to redefine, you need to break something. You cannot redefine something that isn´t broken. Right now, the stereotypes out there are either Caucasian, African or Hispanic.

I said:

ScapeCrisis, In fact, with this unofficial Pyramid music video, Charice has already redefined whatever it is. I love it! I´m sorry, but to redefine is not to break something - it is to improve it, refine it, or smoothen the rough edges, to update it, to remove the built-in biases (like your Caucasian bias) - or it may be to change that something altogether.

TheNcube said:

Frank, She´s the real deal alright. I´ve seen her perform live and I was sold 100%, just half-way thru her first song. It would be an absolute disgrace and a tragedy of tragedies if the world´s top music composers / writers cannot come up with songs to match her talent. When David Foster said that talents like Charice come only two or three times in a lifetime, he was not talking hyperbole. He was dead serious.

ScapeCrisis said:

It´s not my guidelines; it´s the guidelines for every pop artist who wants to break into the American music industry. Unless of course you can name 1 artist right now who doesn´t live in the US while having a pop music career.

Well, ScapeCrisis forgot that there´s always a first time. And he didn´t realize that Charice had been travelling the Yellow Brick Road to Discovery where rules are being broken by her or for her.

I said:

ScapeCrisis, What you´re trying to tell us is that we all have to follow the rules that you know will work? Well, tell that to the marines! And tell that to Charice. How did they come up with such a smashing video such as this one? Not following the rules!

ScapeCrisis said:

Last one. Frank, you might be a new fan. If you watched all her interviews, she repeated again and again that she wanted to be known as a (popular) singer in the Philippines ONLY. You know why she´s going on with the ride for international? Cause she is carrying the weight of the Philippines and all 90 million people in or outside the country. Just like Manny Pacquiao.

papaglyn said:

ScapeCrisis, Mr Frank is not a new fan. Visit his blog, you will know him better - Pinoy Cinderella blog.

ScapeCrisis said:

Thanks, Noellen. I´ve read every blog he has already (written), even met both of you in PICC.

I said:

ScapeCrisis, Not quite right. All she wanted was to be a known singer in the Philippines - past tense. Then she drew in her dream journal again, and now she wants to conquer the world, and no, the US is not the whole world. She can dream another & bigger dream, can´t she? And I swear I will follow her and help her the best I can all the way to the end of the rainbow with or without that proverbial pot of gold!

ScapeCrisis said:

You´re talking about her dream journal, right? So this happened recently? Did you know that her dream journal she left with Oprah the first time she guested there? the last entry (known publicly at least) was the house she already has now? And as literate as a former journalist you are, we are not living in a utopian world. Hollywood is still the center like I said. Name an artist that is mainstream who isn´t living in the US right now.

I said:

ScapeCrisis, I´m not a former journalist - I never retired, and I never worked in one of those follow-the-rules-or-else kinds of publications. With a subject as magnificent as Charice, how can you even think of retiring? I´m a nonconformist myself. That´s why I understand Charice perfectly, that´s why I love this unofficial Pyramid music video 100%. And I know that the last entry in her dream journal was not a house but Tweety bird - a little bird told me. So don´t wonder that now she´s tweeting!