Nobody's Singing To Me

Charice Pempengco

I was flipping through my CD case when I fell upon my well loved and worn copy of Charice's debut album. I put it on and I cried. Charice is to me what JoJo was to everyone else. 

Charice is just my favorite. Sexy. Gorgeous. Talented. My three favorite things. This was the girl discovered by Oprah. Discovered might be a strong word, but Oprah promoted her. Oprah is hardcore a Charice fan. It just turns out Oprah's taste in books isn't as popular as her taste in music.

It's the voice. That's what people love about Charice. Her range is incredible. She was the Phillipines answer to Celine Dion. Charice tried to become a household name way back with “Pyramid”, which is such a bop. She just wasn't blessed with the talented producers that Mariah Carey alined herself with in the nineties.

The song she performed on Oprah was “Note To God”. By far my least favorite Charice song, I try not to think about it, but one thing it does is show off her range. This little girl just glides into the atmosphere. It's crazy.

I first heard of Charice when she guest starred on Glee. She played Sunshine Corazon. I was so obsessed with her that I told everyone I was changing my name to Sunshine. Lea Michele's character was jealous. She thought she could sing better. And, she wasn't wrong. 

They sent poor Charice to a crack house. It was an intense three episode arc for her. This was back during the second season, when Glee was still a phenomenon and people still watched it. 

I had to have her album. This was back when I had to wait for allowance. It was one slow and painful month. But, it was okay. Because, I cried and smiled. Mainly cried. When she sings “the truth is that I love you” and I'm just like yes my queen! Hit those high notes. It's embarassing. ​

Her American fans have been patiently waiting for a follow up. Infinity, her second album, was only released in Asian territories. Charice has not been singing for us.

I love Charice with her long hair or her short hair and when she cut it there was a lot of drama. People were like look at Charice being edgy. Some people accused her of being a lesbian. And, I was just sitting behind my computer screen thinking, it's just a haircut?

Then, she did come at as a lesbian. I was honestly so happy for her. It made so much sense. She almost never used personal pronouns on her album. It was always about a “you”. I was like kill it. People still didn't like her hair, but your personal style is what makes you comfortable. And, as long as she likes it and it makes her happy as her fan I'm happy for her. ​

There was some backlash over that. Charice said something about how she would understand if people didn't want to be her fan anymore. I thought that was just so heartbreaking. You shouldn't lose your career just because of your sexuality. Charice was dipping and doing it with gender neutral terms anyway.

Needless to say she's been on hiatus. Who knows when our Filipino goddess will start singing to us again, but quite recently she reunited with producer David Foster to perform a cover of Sam Smith's “Lay Me Down” on Asia's Got Talent. There's hope that her return will be sooner rather then later.