short, young and Asian - and no, it's not Whitney Houston

The Filipinos are taking over the world. I've already talked about Arnel Pineda, who is the current lead singer of Journey. Well, today, I saw on TV a performance by Charice Pempengco (who apparently [sic] goes just by "Charice" now).




I looked her up on YouTube and found a clip of her from last December on The Ellen Degeneres Show when she was 15. There's a full clip to follow, but I want you to see and hear her singing first.





OK, so now that you've seen and heard her sing, here's the full clip of her appearance on the show, where Ellen talks to her first. Yep, just like Arnel, she's got a pronounced accent while speaking, but that all disappears when she sings. This clip also includes the first song she sang on the show, since the song in the previous clip was the second song.





Obviously, she's amazing at the songs she's singing, and you definitely don't expect that kind of voice coming out of a young girl. Some of the high notes she hits look and sound normal, but there are a few vocalizations she does, in imitation of Whitney Houston, that make me wonder what, if anything, it's doing to her voice. I would think her vocal chords are still developing, but some of the notes seem kind of harsh, so it concerns me. But then, her mother is a vocal coach, and presumably, she wouldn't let her do anything that would hurt her.

My only other criticism is that her performance seems too produced - there are too many choreographed movements in conjunction with what she's singing, but they're not movements that go just with singing but rather, with the lyrics she's actually singing. I'd like to see her with more natural movements, and hopefully, they'll let her do that as her career progresses.

Here's her official website.