Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco (born May 10, 1992), better known as "Charice", is a Filipina singer who rose to popularity through YouTube. Her videos have garnered more than 15 million hits. She has performed and gained standing ovations in South Korea, United States of America, the United Kingdom, Italy, The Netherlands, and Canada.
Personal
At age seven, she began joining amateur singing contests, from town fiestas in their province of Laguna to several televised competitions in her country.
In 2005, she joined Little Big Star, a talent show in the Philippines loosely patterned after American Idol. Eliminated after her first performance, she was later called back as a wildcard contender. Charice worked her way up to the finals and eventually placed third.
Charice has referred to Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Regine Velasquez as her favourite singers.
International performances
In 2007, a series of YouTube videos of Charice's performances posted by a youtuber called FalseVoice brought her to the attention of Ten Songs/Productions based in Sweden. In June 2007, she flew to Stockholm, Sweden and recorded seven songs.
A video of Charice performing the Dreamgirls' anthem And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going became a hit on UCC, the Korean version of YouTube. This gained her an invite to perform the same song on Star King, a famous talent show in South Korea, in October 2007. She would later reappear in January 2008 as the Most Requested Foreign Act on Star King, performing Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive and, with Korean-American singers Lena Park, the Bodyguard theme, I Will Always Love You.
In December 2007, she flew to the United States for the first time after having been personally invited by Ellen Degeneres to perform on her show. She sang Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You and her popular cover of And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going.
Right after her guesting on Ellen, Charice became an instant celebrity in the Philippines performing on different TV shows, becoming one of the most sought after young singer in the country.
In April 2008, she guested on The Paul O'Grady Show, performing two songs and earning standing ovations, the first in the show's history.
In May 2008, Charice guested on The Oprah Winfrey Show in their World's Smartest Kids episode. She sang Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing.
In the same month, Charice was introduced to the international concert arena by David Foster in his tribute concert, David Foster and Friends, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. She would again later join David Foster on September 13, 2008, in the David Foster & Friends Charity Gala & Concert at Winspeare Centre in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
In July 2008, she was personally invited by Andrea Bocelli to be one of his guests on his birthday concert, The Cinema Tribute, held in Lajatico, Italy. Aside from her solo performances, she did a duet of the song The Prayer with Andrea Bocelli.
On September 6, 2008, she performed before more than 50,000 football fans at Feyenoord's Centennial Anniversary, the Festival of the Century, in The Netherlands where she sang the team's theme song, You'll Never Walk Alone.
On September 9, 2008, she once again guested on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the Dreams Come True episode. Oprah referred to her as The Most Talented Girl in the World. She sang My Heart Will Go On, with David Foster on piano. Oprah went on to surprise her with an appearance by Celine Dion via satellite, inviting her to sing a special duet at the Madison Square Garden as part of her Taking Chances world tour.
On September 15, 2008, Charice met with Celine Dion at Madison Square Garden to perform a duet of Because You Loved Me. They dedicated the song to Charice's mother. Her peformance with Celine got rave reviews in major newspapers namely The New York Post and The New York Times. The duet was eventually featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 19.
