Charice, International Young Singer; stars on Glee

Charice Pempengco, a young Filipino talent, now young world-class diva, was discovered on YouTube in 2007 and traveled to South Korea to perform in their talent show Star King.

She has performed a duet with Celine Dion at the Madison Square Garden in New York, USA.

She has performed the song “The Prayer” with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, singer-songwriter Josh Groban, and Gianluca Ginoble in major performance venues.

She has met music industry superstars Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Michael Buble, Lionel Richie, Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, American Idol’s David Archuleta. She also got to meet socialite, entrepreneur, and hotel heiress Paris Hilton and the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

In May 2008, Charice guested on the US daytime talk show Oprah, hosted by Oprah Winfrey, a very influential female celebrity in the world. Oprah can be considered her fairy godmother who helped her make her dreams come true.

Charice has now bought a 400-square-meter house in Tagaytay, two hours away from Manila, and a million miles away from her singing career in America. She has also bought cars/SUV and condominium unit in Paranaque. She is currently building a 7-unit rental apartment.

Charice was born Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco on May 10, 1992 in San Pedro, Laguna. Her mother’s name is Raquel Relucio and is called Mommy Raquel in showbiz. She has a younger brother Carl, also called Coycoy. Her father is already separated from her mom because he has a drug problem and would physically abuse her mom Raquel.

Charice started singing at four years old. She used to sing along with songs of Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. Her mom Raquel herself is a singer because she used to be a vocalist of their band that performs in small bars in Laguna. Singing runs in their family like Raquel’s mother (Charice’s grandma) and sister.

Charice began joining singing contests at the age of seven. She has joined around 80 contests. The first contest she joined was at the Pavilion Mall in Binan, Laguna where she won second place. Then she joined also other singing contests in many cities of Laguna, Batangas, and Tagaytay. There were also times when she lost in singing competitions and she encountered people who didn’t believe in her talent and did not approve of her looks being small and petite.

Next, she joined tv contests such as Channel 9’s Bulilit Kampeon hosted by Pilita Corrales where she won third runner-up, Channel 13’s Birit Bulilit where she won first runner-up, and MTB Popstar (Magandang Tanghali Bayan) where she won second place.

In 2004, Charice joined ABS-CBN Kapamilya’s kiddie talent search Little Big Star hosted by Sarah Geronimo. She won third place only to Sam Concepcion and Gian Barbarona.

In 2007, Charice received a call from South Korea. A fan had earlier uploaded on YouTube a series of video clips of Charice’s performances on Little Big Star. Her rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You was a big hit in South Korea so she was invited to perform on their popular variety show Star King. She performed And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going from the musical Dreamgirls. Somebody uploaded it again on YouTube. This caught attention of the staff of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, a top-rating daytime talk show in the US, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, a 12-time Emmy Award-winning TV host. Ellen herself called Charice on the phone to invite her to guest on her show. The show shouldered all expenses such as air fare and accommodations in America. Charice received a standing ovation at Ellen’s show.

The staff of The Oprah Winfrey Show had also learned about Charice Pempengco, the Filipino little girl with a big voice from the Philippines, through YouTube. They invited Charice to join the show’s The World’s Smartest Kids episode. It was aired May 12, 2008. She sang I Have Nothing and received another standing ovation from the live audience in the studio.

Oprah Winfrey recommended Charice to David Foster, a legendary music composer and producer, has 15 Grammy Awards, most famous for co-writing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” for the movie Bodyguard. He has worked with famous singers Cher, Madonna, Barbra Streisand, and the late Michael Jackson. David included Charice in his touring show, David Foster and Friends which features American Idol’s Ruben Studdard among other stars.

Through Oprah, Charice Pempengco got a chance to sing “The Prayer” with Andrea Bocelli at the Teatro de Silenzio in Tuscany in September 2008. Also with Josh Groban and Michael Buble.

The one big show that Charice missed was performing at Michael Jackson concert tour scheduled for 2009. Jackson’s staff saw video of her performing “Billie Jean”.

Charice Pempengco is currently recording her debut CD in Los Angeles scheduled to be released on late fall (2009).  She is also part of the David Foster & Friends national tour which begins in Chicago on October 21st.  What else is Charice's dream?  She dreams to sing and dance with Justin Timberlake.  That's not impossible Charice.  You have all the talent, charm and sweetness to make it happen.  We wish you more success.