"the kindness of strangers."
But I believe that kindness stems from Charice's great talent and luck (which by definition is preparation meeting opportunity).
The kindness of strangers. This is how the 16-year old singing phenomenon Charice Pempengco explains her meteoric rise to stardom. It was a stranger who uploaded videos of her singing on YouTube. Those videos caught the attention of Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey—both strangers to her—and before she knew it, she was on her way to the U.S. to appear on their shows. The rest, as they say, is history.
Charice’s guest appearances on both shows opened doors for her, paving the way for music legends David Foster, Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion to take the petite Filipina under their wings. With such pedigreed support, stardom came quickly, so quickly that Charice (who now uses only her first name) admits that she still gets goosebumps whenever she thinks about how it happened.
Born and raised in San Pedro, Laguna, by a single mother, Charice got her big break when in 2007, one of her fans named FalseVoice (real name Dave Duenas) posted on YouTube without her knowledge, her renditions in “Little Big Star,” a TV talent show in Manila, of “I Will Always Love You” (by Whitney Houston) and “And I’m Telling You, I’m Not Going” (from “Dreamgirls”).
The videos garnered at least 13 million hits from Internet users worldwide. Sweden was the first to take notice, when the Stockholm-based music publishing company, Ten Songs/Productions, offered Charice her first recording contract. The first major TV network response came from South Korea when Seoul’s local TV talent show “Star King” invited Charice to appear. The U.K. followed suit in spring 2008 when London’s celebrated TV host Paul O’Grady asked Charice to guest in one of his shows.
As her Internet audience quickly grew at a staggering pace, Charice-mania also hit the U.S. with her guest appearances in the Ellen and Oprah shows. On Oprah’s prodding, the 15-time Grammy-winning music producer David Foster agreed to sign Cha-rice to his recording production 143/ Reprise Records. “Who could resist the Little O?” Foster jokes every time he appears with Charice on the TV talk show circuit.
In the spring of 2008, Foster invited Charice to perform on his “David Foster and Friends” show at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, alongside such big-name stars as world-famous Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, among others. Charice’s performance at Foster’s tribute concert became her debut performance on the international concert stage. She got two standing ovations (the show was broadcast on PBS).
The following summer, Charice performed a song with Bocelli titled “The Prayer” in his hometown of Tuscany, Italy. That fall, she performed a duet, “Because You Loved Me,” with Celine Dion at her Madison Square Garden show in New York City. Charice’s performance got rave reviews in the New York Post and the New York Times.
Her first internationally released single “Note to God,” written by Grammy awardee Diane Warren and produced by David Foster, became an instant Top 10 hit on iTunes.
“I don’t know if fate has designed it so. But my own Cinderella story is wrapped around the lesson my mother, Raquel kept repeating to me since I was little: that it is through our own generosity as neighbors that others are helped, and when given a chance to do an act of kindness, no matter how insignificant, one should take that chance because kindness brings happiness and good fortune to others,” Charice relates. “I took that lesson to heart.”
Charity Work
True to her word, Charice visited Miami, Florida last October 16 to help raise funds for the Miami Children’s Hospital (MCH).
“I’m happy and humbled to be a part of the MCH Foundation’s efforts to raise money to ensure that all children have access to the best care available in the nation,” she declared. “What makes this undertaking more significant for me is its timing of giving me the chance to stand true to and put into deeds the spirit of my just recently released first international single “Note to God.” She then went on to purr the lyrics: “…wish for wisdom to let compassion rule this world, …put some tenderness in our hearts, …and find love cuz love is overdue.” “You know what, my song has become part of my prayer every night before I go to bed,” she relates.
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