Charice Pempengco raises bar for all female singers with incredible vocal range

September 5, 2009 by vongsundara · 46 Comments 

LATEST UPDATES
September 5, 2009: Fixed broken links for embedded YouTube clips.
March 17, 2009: Added video and comments for Through The Rain and My Heart Will Go On.
February 25, 2009: Added some information regarding Charice’s vocal range.
February 1, 2009: Original post date.

Sometimes in life, I witness someone so talented and driven that it inspires me to work harder on my own craft. Charice Pempengco is the most recent example of this.

I recently stumbled upon videos of a fantastic young singer from the Philippines named Charice Pempengco on YouTube. It seems as though I’m a little behind the times, as Ellen Degeneres and Oprah Winfrey discovered Charice Pempengco a few months back, and Charice has since gone on to widespread fame after appearing on Oprah three times now.

I am a huge fan of talented vocalists; I won’t listen to any musicians or bands whose vocals aren’t at least up to par (which is why I can’t stand punk music and a lot of pop rock). I’ve recently taken my obsession to YouTube, as it’s the perfect venue to compare vocalists in live performances. In fact, there are many videos that splice separate performances of the same song by different artists together, which makes my life easier when I’m trying to compare different vocalists.

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Filed under: Charice Pempengco, Listening
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Personal Performance Review and Recap: Homo Night in Canada 2009

July 2, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment 

I had a great time performing at Homo Night in Canada 2009 on Saturday night during Toronto Gay Pride Festival at Buddies in Bad Times theatre in the heart of Toronto’s gay village. I went to see the show last year when my friend and fellow comedian Julia Stretch was performing at the show, and I knew then and there that I wanted to be a part of the following year’s show. Luckily, I was able to secure a spot earlier in the year.

This year’s show was hosted by the always hilarious Richard Ryder, gay comedian extraordinaire. He did a wonderful job of running the show and keeping the energy of the crowd high. I was up first and was definitely nervous. I don’t get so much nervous for the occasion as much as I get nervous for the material I am performing.

The general rule in stand-up comedy is to start with your second-best joke and end with your best and never never never start with new material. Well, I don’t have much choice in the matter since my comedy style is storytelling. I can’t start with something old since all my sets are minimum five minutes long. The set I performed at Homo Night in Canada 2009 was basically ten minutes of all-new material from beginning to end (barring the last 30 seconds of the set, which I borrowed the ending from my Ugly People set).

Anyhow, here’s the video clip, so you can judge for yourselves:

Vong Sundara performs Super Power Bottoms during Homo Night in Canada 2009 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13sBHm6M4Og

The crowd as absolutely amazing. The crowd's reactions definitely added to the performance and helped me feel a rhythm. Overall, I was very happy with the performance. A bigger surprise to me is that the performance taped even better than it played live. After reviewing the tape, I was pleasantly surprised at some of what I missed while on the stage. Sometimes you never know unless you review the tape. I had the reverse happen when reviewing the tape for my performance of The Ghetto Truth at Spirits a few weeks back, so it was good to see the opposite happen with this performance.

I had a couple of audience members come up to me after to mention that they thought I had crossed the line a couple of times during the performance. I wasn't too upset, though, because it's always my goal to offend five percent of the crowd. Any more than five per cent means that I probably went too far, but anything less than five per cent usually means that I didn't say anything with substance that was worth thinking about.

Another quick note before I go: Mae Martin. Last year, Mae absolutely came away as the breakout star of Homo Night in Canada 2008 (at least for me anyways). I was really excited that she came back this year and performed, this time closing the show. Below is a clip of her song Showers:

Mae Martin performs Showers during Homo Night in Canada 2009 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXhrr2txcog

Filed under: Performing
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Charice Pempengco’s voice sparkles in Fingerprint, preview single off new album

March 17, 2009 by vongsundara · 2 Comments 

Courtesy of Charice Pempengco super fan and insider FalseVoice, below is a preview of Fingerprint, a great song from Charice’s upcoming album currently being recorded with producer David Foster.

Preview of Charice’s Fingerprint

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-QYVsyQi_Y&feature=channel_page

It’s great to hear how well Charice Pempengco’s voice translates in a studio environment. She’s undoubtedly the best live singer I have ever heard in my entire life, so I didn’t really have much doubt that her voice would work well in a studio. The big question would be about artistic direction. This song gives a hint toward that, but I’d like to hear more before I make my verdict.
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Filed under: Charice Pempengco
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