Charice Pempengco

have seen her humble beginnings here on local tv at several singing contests, continuously amazing judges. an old soul in a gifted young person. god-given talent. one can also say thank god for youtube. and if one knew her singing background and struggles, you'll see that she truly deserves her international recognition.

she's 14 (not 15. well if her may 10, 1993 bday from her website is correct. hehe).

dec.19 appearance on the ellen degeneres show (and i am telling you i'm not going)
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/watch?v=BB_hybC9bm4

dec.19 appearance on the ellen degeneres show (encore - i will always love you)
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/watch?v=U6Wx397W_F0


ok, let's do some youtube hopping... hehe

one of her youtube clips that started it all (she got a short recording stint in sweden out of this)
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/watch?v=I1hLURkIh7E

the youtube clip that made its way to the us (her guesting on a korean talent show)
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/watch?v=WZccz5cy3ks

and how ellen found her on youtube (nov. 28) --
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/watch?v=hFwhcgkCPfQ

for more of charice pempengco videos (from when she was 9 to present)
http://www.you[SPACE]tube.com/profile?user=FalseVoice


hahaha. i could basically be her cyber-pr. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

nah. just sharing. you know, when you're bored or something. but i have to warn you, be prepared to get some glue for your jaws (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) 14!!!! haha (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

shout-out: thanks victor for the push (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)


rock on.
sweet

Alan Jackson's Upcoming Album

ack! it's finally happened and i'm so happy!!!! waaahh!!! one of my now-i-can-die moments! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

my favorite country male and female vocalists in a duet!!! waaahh!!! *faints* (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) sorry... i'm really not that excited, ei?! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) not to mention, martina has also gotten to finally duet with alan jackson, who i believe is someone she really wanted to have a duet with.

definitely a must-see (hear). i hope it will be released as a single. hihihi

rock on
sweet

'Time' Is Right For New Alan Jackson Disc

December 14, 2007, 11:05 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
With a new single, "Small Town Southern Man," already climbing Hot Country Songs, one of the genre's most reliable hitmakers will return March 4 with his 15th studio album.

The Arista Nashville set "Good Time" also includes the Martina McBride duet "Never Loved Before," the self-explanatory "Country Boy" and "Sissy's Song," a tribute to a deceased family friend.

Jackson wrote all the tunes, which were produced by longtime colleague Keith Stegall. The artist begins a North American tour Feb. 2 at San Antonio's annual Livestock and Rodeo show.

In related news, Jackson is nominated for a best male country vocal performance Grammy for "A Woman's Love," from his 2006 album "Like Red on a Rose."

Martina At Keith Urban Show In Sommet Center

i find it so-happenin' and so cool when artists show their support for each other.

at first i thought they're gonna sing tryin' to find a reason, but then again, that's martina's song, haha. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) i just wonder how come martina sang? special request? special audience participation? hmmm...

nevertheless, it's not hard to imagine that the audience there were very much delighted to have witnessed such bonus from martina. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

rock on
sweet


Keith Urban gives one heckuva hometown show

By CINDY WATTS
Staff Writer

Concert Review

Friday night Keith Urban walked onto the stage at Sommet Center in front of a nearly, if not sold out crowd of screaming fans and played his guts out.

“We made it back home,” said Urban at the conclusion of an audience-pleasing “Where the Black Top Ends,” which was the second song of the evening. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be here tonight, but we’ll spend the next two hours explaining it to you, at least.”

And he did, and then some.

Urban engaged the crowd with blistering guitar solos, beaming smiles, infinite energy, multiple sing-a-longs and hit after radio hit.

He and his band, which is laden with jaw-dropping, first-rate players, kicked off the show with “Once in a Lifetime” and glided through songs including “Faster Car” and “Shine” before upping the intensity a step further with an acoustic version of “Raining On Sunday,” which morphed into a sing-a-long. “Stupid Boy” followed, wrapping with an epic, frenzied guitar solo in which the gold Les Paul he was playing got the beating of its life. The audience — dotted with stars including Martina McBride, The Warren Brothers and Rodney Crowell — couldn’t tear its eyes from the stage.

A star-studded event

Other standouts include the ever-popular extended version of “You’ll Think of Me,” which is a staple of Urban’s live shows; “I Told You So,” complete with an appearance from indoor percussion ensemble Music City Mystique; “Days Go By”; a medley of guitar licks from classic rock songs like Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way”; “You Look Good in My Shirt”; and “The Joker” during which an ever-generous Urban pushed, pulled and drug various members of his band up to the microphone to take a turn in the spotlight. Gary Allan, Urban’s gritty, sensual, platinum-selling opening act, even resurfaced for a quick verse during the Steve Miller Band classic.

Toward the end of the evening, Martina McBride appeared onstage to ear-splitting applause and belted out “A Broken Wing,” before retreating to the backstage area.

The concert, which was near flawless, could be construed as quite a feat for Urban if only because it represents the first time he’s headlined a show at Sommet Center. In years’ past, he’s opted for multiple night stands at the historic Ryman Auditorium that made connecting with his fans almost a sure bet. To maintain that intimate relationship in a significantly larger space, Urban brought in state-of-the-art multimedia equipment including a screen that appeared to be as large as the stage, placed a smaller, round platform in the center of the floor seats and connected the two with an elevated walkway that saw scads of use throughout the evening. He plucked one young girl out of the audience for a hug and even ventured into the seats for a song. He managed to finagle his way through it as fans grabbed at his clothes, guitar and anything else they could get their hands on. A lesser performer might have been perturbed, but Urban grinned the entire time.

He finished the initial set with a foot-stomping “Somebody Like You” and after several minutes of roaring applause, returned to the stage for several more including a cover of “Blister in the Sun” by The Violent Femmes. Then Urban, who in October of 2006 entered Betty Ford Center for substance abuse issues, stepped back and took a second to address the audience on a more serious note. He said that it had been a “pretty crazy year” and that he wanted to thank “every single person who sent love and prayers to me this year.” Then he dedicated “Got It Right This Time” to his wife, Nicole Kidman, and flowed into “Better Life” at the end of which he kicked the microphone stand over as heart-shaped confetti exploded from the stage. He closed the show, almost three hours later, with “Everybody.”

And the crowd went wild, as they did all night. And, rightly so.

Origin Of 'for These Times'

Nice Read.

I do hope the song fares very well, if not in charts but in reaching out to a lot of people. Next to Anyway, this song instantly gave me chills when I first listened to it. It has a great message.

rock on
sweet

++++++++++++
Sarah Maria Santorum's tears inspire song

By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Oct 17, 2007 06:09 AM EST
Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and wife Karen comfort daughter Sarah

This is the story of a defeated senator, his crying daughter, a Nashville songwriter and Martina McBride, the country music star.

It begins in Pittsburgh on election night 2006. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), losing to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr. by a wide margin, gathered his wife and six children around a hotel ballroom microphone and conceded.

The little girl at his side, Sarah Maria Santorum, then 8, wept. She squeezed her eyes and wiped her tears. She buried her face in her father’s arm, pulled away and cried some more — all on live, national television.

The image became an instant Internet sensation, fueled by snarky blogs like Wonkette, which declared it the “official screenshot of the 2006 congressional midterm elections,” and was debated for weeks on comment boards.

Now it’s a country music single.

McBride released the song, “For These Times,” on Monday — a social commentary inspired, in part, by Sarah Maria Santorum.

“I always tell my children that good things come from bad things,” Rick Santorum said in an interview this week.

The arc of this image underlines how Santorum, the former Senate Republican Conference chairman who weighed in on every hot-button social issue, remains a pop culture provocateur.

Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano quoted him as a moral authority on homosexuality in a “Sopranos” episode last year. A character on UPN’s “Veronica Mars” used the alias “Rick Santorum” as he blackmailed gay students. And, of course, there’s the raunchy definition of “santorum” that is still the first hit on a Google search for his name.

The latest example is a bit kinder to Santorum.

Hundreds of miles away from the Pittsburgh hotel, where the Santorum children took their pre-marked positions on stage — their names were scribbled on masking tape pressed to the floor — Leslie Satcher watched the election returns on a big-screen TV in her Nashville home.

The songwriter already had one hit with McBride (“When God-Fearin’ Women Get the Blues” in 2002), and was trying for a second.

Inspiration struck on election night.

Satcher and her husband — “big Fox News junkies” — were riveted by the scene.

“I saw the cameras zoom in on that little girl,” Satcher said.

“That’s awful. They are not even showing Rick. They are showing her crying. She is hurting, and she knows her dad is hurting.”

As blogs parsed and parodied the image — some gleefully made fun of it, others questioned the wisdom of putting a distraught child in front of the camera — Satcher went to church. Her pastor held up the Bible.

“For these times in which we live, you are going to need this book,” he said. Satcher scribbled the words into the back of her book.

At 3 a.m., she wrote the song.

“I had the sermon and the picture of Rick’s little girl in my head,” Satcher said. “The song is about the fact that we are a faith-believing, conservative nation, and that voice gets very little front-page time to me.”
The first verse is about Sarah Maria, Satcher said.

In these times in which we live
Where the worst of what we live
Is laid out for all the world on the front page
And the sound of someone’s heartbreak
Is a sound bite at the news break
With a close shot of the tears rollin’ down their face
Blessed be the child who turns a loving eye
And stops to pray
For these times in which we live

The second verse is about the troops and the third touches on faith, she said.

McBride picked up the song for her newest album, “Waking Up Laughing,” and was quoted on gactv.com, the website for the Great American Country channel: “I’d been looking for a song that talks about these times we live in, and addresses issues that really bother me. I wanted lyrics that express how I truly feel, and these are perfect.”

Santorum found out about the song through Joe Lessen, a registered lobbyist for America’s Health Insurance Plans who is married to an aide to former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The Lessens know Satcher and Santorum, with the latter two meeting years ago at an event for Frist’s political action committee.

Word eventually filtered to Sarah Maria, a big McBride fan.

Santorum sat her down at the kitchen table. He asked his oldest daughter to get the video camera. And he told Sarah Maria.

“She started crying again,” Santorum said.

This time, however, the tears were happy ones.

Martina To Perform On 41st Cma Awards

Kenny, George and More to Perform on CMAs
Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Martina McBride and more have been announced as performers on The 41st Annual CMA Awards show, Nov. 7, on ABC-TV at 8 p.m. ET.

September 17, 2007 – Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts are also part of the performing lineup, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. “We are dedicated to delivering the best of the best, and this is a great start,” said the CMA’s Chief Operating Officer Tammy Genovese. Tickets to the CMA Awards show, held at the Sommet Center in Nashville, are available to the public through ticketmaster.com or by calling (615) 255-9600.

http://www.countryweekly.com/cma_awards/scoop/2574

***
of course, they wouldn't forget martina, one of the showstoppers! (IMG:http://martina-mcbride.com/martinaville/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

wonder what she'll sing.. hmm... for these times? house of a thousand dreams? with the gospel touch of for these times, hmm, i see a choir background, if ever this would be the one... martina would bring the house down! there you go! (IMG:http://martina-mcbride.com/martinaville/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

rock on
sweet

p.s.
ha! chesney, strait, mcbride, urban, flatts (?)... the only names mentioned so far. looks nice on the nominee roster for eoty ei? (IMG:http://martina-mcbride.com/martinaville/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) (IMG:http://martina-mcbride.com/martinaville/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)