Focus on the Philippines: 4th Impact eye a world tour after successful UK run of shows

Plus: Maine Mendoza and Jeron Teng win at Kids’ Choice Awards; Marian Rivera has world’s 19th most-liked Facebook page; and after Berlin, Lav Diaz’s eight-hour film heads to four more festival.

4th Impact. Courtesy ITV

4th Impact wrap up X Factor UK tour

The Filipino girl group and X Factor UK stars 4th Impact have just concluded their 20-city concert tour across the United Kingdom. The four sisters Almira, Irene, Mylene and Celina Cercado expressed their gratitude at the completion of the tour. "Thank you for accepting us. Thank you to The X Factor," they wrote. "This has been the best and most amazing journey for us."

In an online poll organised by entertainment website Telly Mix, 4th Impact was voted by readers as the best act on the The X Factor tour, commanding 92 per cent of the votes.

Fans continue to wait for the group’s first album since finishing fifth place back in December. The sisters are apparently still in negotiations with two international recording companies, one of which is rumoured to be Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment.

In an earlier interview, youngest sister Celina said they have received offers to tour abroad, including the UAE. “We’ve been getting offers to perform in the Philippines as well as messages from the US, Australia, Canada and Dubai asking us to perform there. I hope they all materialise.”

Mendoza and Teng win at Kids’ Choice Awards

Two Filipino stars took home trophies during last weekend’s Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards. Maine Mendoza, one half of the popular supercouple AlDub, won the Favourite Pinoy Personality award, while basketball player Jeron Teng won as Favourite Asian Sports Star. Mendoza beat out fellow Filipino television actors Kathryn Bernardo, Enrique Gil and James Reid. In a recorded video message, she told her fans: “I’m away for holiday — maybe this will do for now. I love you all. ”Meanwhile, Teng beat out Singapore’s Irfan Fandi, Indonesia’s Kim Kurniawan and Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong.

“I just feel really blessed right now,” Teng said in his message. “I just hope I can inspire kids to be a student-athlete like me.”

Held in a ceremony in California, the Kids’ Choice Awards was hosted by country singer Blake Shelton.

Marian Rivera has world’s 19th most-liked Facebook 

Television and film actress Marian Rivera has been included in a new list of the world’s most-liked Facebook pages. According to social media analytics website Quintly, Rivera’s page — with almost 15 million likes — is the 19th most-liked page of a public figure on Facebook. Rivera is the sole Filipino in the top 20, which is led by the fictional character Mr Bean (65 million) and followed by Nicki Minaj (43m), Kim Kardashian (28m), Ellen DeGeneres (24m) and Hugh Jackman (22.3m). The Egyptian preachers and television personalities Mustafa Hosny and Amr Khaled placed sixth (22.2m) and ninth (19.9m), respectively. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan placed twelfth with 17.6m likes, while Aamir Khan placed 17th with 15.2m. After Rivera, the next Filipino on the list is actress Cristine Reyes, who placed 36th. “Wow, thank you,” Rivera posted on Instagram. “The only Filipino in Top 20 and beating some of the biggest names in Hollywood like Kourtney Kardashian (#21), Oprah (#27) and Tom Cruise (#30).”

After Berlin, eight-hour film heads to four festivals

Fresh off of winning the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last month, Lav Diaz’s eight-and-a-half-hour opus Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis (A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery) is headed to four more international festivals. The film, which chronicles the rich revolutionary history and mythology of the director’s impoverished homeland of the Philippines, will screen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival on March 27. On the same day, it will be shown at the Courtesan Festival in Ghent, Belgium. On April 2, it heads to the 21st Vilnius International Film Festival in Lithuania, then a week later it will screen at the Istanbul International Film Festival in Turkey.

Headlined by actors Piolo Pascual and John Lloyd Cruz, Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis will finally open in select cinemas around the Philippines on March 26, bagging a distribution deal with Star Cinema, one of the country’s biggest production studios.

During the film’s single, sold-out screening in Berlin, audience members were reported to have brought inflatable pillows and smuggled snacks into the cinema, shaking hands in solidarity with those in neighbouring seats before the screening began. During his acceptance speech in Berlin, Diaz said: “I want to dedicate this to all filmmakers who think that cinema can affect change.”