The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Alvin I. Dacanay
By the time this piece sees print, the four Filipino finalists in the just-concluded first edition of Asia’s Got Talent—10-year-old pop singer Gwyneth Dorado of Antipolo City, Rizal province; dance crew Junior New System of Sampaloc, Manila; 24-year-old classical singer Gerphil-Geraldine Flores of Parañaque City; and the winner, shadow-play group El Gamma Penumbra of Tanauan City, Batangas province—have returned to the Philippines and are enjoying a much-deserved break.
They do so as Filipinos’ elation over El Gamma Penumbra’s triumph has yet to die down, and several media outlets have started speculating on what they would—or should—do next. Such speculation is expected, given how, as the cliché goes, fleeting fame can be, and how fickle the entertainment industry and audiences are. Too many gifted performers who gained celebrityhood on national, or even international, talent shows—and who deserve to be celebrated, even more so than others with greater staying power—no longer appear on anyone’s radar. Remember Mau Marcelo?
It’s too early to tell how the four finalists would exploit the significant exposure they received from Asia’s Got Talent. What I can tell, though, is that they will go through more interviews and appear on more shows in the days ahead, and, thus, extending their exposure. Whatever they do in the coming days or weeks may determine how far they could prolong their popularity.
Of the four, Dorado seems to have the best chance of translating her accomplishments on Asia’s Got Talent into a successful career in the country, at least at the moment. Yes, she still has a lot to learn and she’s only 10, but even at that age she has displayed terrific musical instincts—when to stray from a song’s original arrangement to good effect; when to belt it out not. What more if she blooms into a more confident and more polished musician?
Plus, the songs she sang on Asia’s Got Talent, particularly Katy Perry’s “Roar” and her bit in the “Turn Up the Music” opening number in the program’s grand final results show shows how very iTunes and Spotify-friendly her voice is. As to whether she could manage a recording career and her studies well, only she and her parents could tell.
About Junior New System, I could easily imagine it getting offers to perform their jaw-dropping routines—with or without high heels—here and overseas, or invitations to join international dance-crew competitions that promise more financial rewards and, of course, more exposure. It may be tapped to dance for higher-profile Filipino or foreign entertainers, or its members may be offered dance scholarships to further hone their talent. As long as they invent new routines or incorporate new elements into old ones— freshness is really the key here—they should go far.
Much ink has been spent on Flores, especially in the days leading up to last Thursday’s Grand Final results show. This was spurred, in part, by her soaring rendition of “The Impossible Dream” during the Asia’s Got Talent Grand Final night on May 7, blowing away the program’s judges, as well as audiences throughout the continent.
If one of the judges, Grammy-winning composer and producer David Foster, makes good on his promise to introduce Flores to the entire world—and many believe that he will—we can expect her to clinch a deal with a major recording label soon. I’m certain that, when she records her first album, it would contain songs that are unlikely to hit the Billboard Top 40 chart; she is not a pop singer, and she herself made that very clear from the beginning. Ballads, operatic pieces, show tunes, standards, torch songs—these, I and many others believe, are much more suited to her.
Also, I could imagine her, after establishing herself on the music scene, touring around the world, singing not in stadiums bursting with screaming fans, but in concert halls filled with people who want songs to be performed without any adornment or distraction.
As for El Gamma Penumbra, like Junior New System, it’s very likely to receive invitations to perform its meaningful and relevant routines here and abroad, or opportunities to learn or even devise new shadow-play techniques that it could include in its performances. It knows that it has to keep itself current—in terms of the tales they tell, of the moves they have to do—in order to succeed further. I do hope it gets to perform at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore on a long-term basis. Of the four, the shadow-play group probably deserves—needs—it the most.