This Is Why We Need Subtitles

I'm not Charice's biggest fan, and I wasn't even long before I was an ELF. I never liked that she mimics her singing heroes (if it wasn't obvious enough, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion) down to the runs and even their gestures when they sing. I found her to be awfully smug in interviews and just generally, not a very likable person. My uncle and his friends (they're airline pilots) have had many chances to meet her when traveling abroad, and in many instances, Charice was, to put simply, conceited. What is most upsetting is that it's almost as if any Filipino who doesn't support Charice (or kiss the ground she walks on) is pegged to be 'jealous' or someone who has a crab mentality. It's almost as if it's a treason to not like her, which stands in stark contrast to Western music, where it's perfectly alright to not be a fan of an artist who is from the same country.

As I was watching the show, I was relatively calm and composed and was just generally indifferent to the idols' reactions. I was actually leaning towards pleased because of course, it's a feat for my Korean idols to look up to someone of my nationality. There's a sense of pride there that's unavoidable, whether you like the person or not. So at this point, I was thinking like, hey, maybe she's not so bad after all.

Next came the portion when Luna sang her rendition of "One Moment In Time." She's actually one of the most talented girl idol group singers, in my opinion, so I knew she'd do well. She doesn't have the same teensy weensy voice that other female Kpop singers have, and she can belt out high notes without even breaking a sweat.

The next part then came as a shock to me, because suddenly it was Charice's turn to sing One Moment in Time. I don't understand Korean so I have no idea what the context of the entire thing was, whether it was a singing showdown between the two or I don't know. But to sum it all up, Charice pwned Luna. And that's okay. I mean, Charice's comfort zone is Whitney, she can sing any Whitney song exactly like Whitney and she knows it. She's worked with David Foster, and all these other big names and has had plenty of vocal training, and grew up in a country where the orientation for female singers is to be So afterwards, everyone was giving Charice a standing ovation and all of a sudden, Luna was crying and I was just at a loss as to why that was. Was she crying because she was so moved by Charice's performance? Or was she crying because she felt like she was inadequate, and that she was embarrassed?

I felt for Luna, because it must've taken her a lot of guts to even sing the same song on the same stage as "World Star Charice Pempengco," who has been on Oprah and Ellen and has gotten the biggest breaks any Filipino singer has ever had. I expected Charice to go up to her and tell her that "There's no need to cry or compare, you are amazing, just the way you are." But what Charice said to Luna went a little something like this:

"She did really really great and she's a lovely person, *and you don't have to feel bad for what you heard because everyone in the world has a big chance, like me, you know a lot of people say that 'i'm not good enough' but still I believed in myself, and that's really the important thing."

*She is referring to not feeling about hearing Charice's performance

LOL, I don't even know anymore. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions and I should wait for subtitles before making judgments.