Filipino-American contestant Anatalia Villaranda has advanced to the next stage of competition on the reality singing programme The Voice US after winning a battle round against contestant Missy Robertson.
Celebrity coach Alicia Keys paired Villaranda and Robertson in a one-on-one sing-off, covering Janelle Monae's track Tightrope. The rest of the panel, comprised of Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton, were all praises for the two singers, but Keys could only pick one of them to continue on in the competition.
Keys told Villaranda and Robertson: “This was really exciting. Absolutely, you’re different. There was almost a pocket that Anatalia has, and Missy, there was a real beautiful, powerful voice that came out of you. You’re both really incredible. I love how this ended up.”
Keys eventually selected Villaranda as the winner of the battle.
Villaranda, a 16-year-old child of Filipino immigrants, quickly became a frontrunner on the show after her audition performance earlier this month turned the chairs of all four judges.
Another Filipino-American contestant, Gaby Borromeo, failed to advance in the competition after losing her battle round against singer Mark Isaiah. Their coach Levine did praise the duo's cover of Zayn Malik's single Pillowtalk: "You're both great singers, both very dynamic, very different. Gaby, you're stunning and you sing so beautifully and that's a valuable and amazing thing to have as an artist. So this is not an easy thing."
The next round of the competition, dubbed the knockouts, will air on April 3 and 4.
Eight-year-old Balang wows Ellen DeGeneres
Eight-year-old television personality John Philip Bughaw, known as “Balang”, impressed Ellen DeGeneres once again when he returned to the American presenter’s talk show on Tuesday to show off his spirited dance moves.
Balang rose to fame after video recordings of his energetic dance performances went viral on social media in 2015. Since then, DeGeneres has flown in Balang to Los Angeles four times to appear on her show.
Introducing Balang to her audience, DeGeneres said on Tuesday’s episode; “In the two years we’ve known our next guest, he’s gone from being a six-year-old dancing boy from the Philippines to an eight-year-old international star.”
After an interview with DeGeneres, Balang took the stage to perform a dance number to the tune of Ed Sheeran's hit track Shape of You.
Philippines’ Next Top Model returns for new series
Ten years after the premiere of its inaugural season, Philippines' Next Top Model is finally getting a follow-up edition. A local version of the reality competition America's Next Top Model, the programme's second-season premiere broadcast last Tuesday (March 21) and will air weekly on the local Philippine network TV5.
The show is hosted by Maggie Wilson-Consunji, a former beauty pageant winner and MTV VJ who won the recent edition of The Amazing Race Asia along with best friend Parul Shah.
Wilson-Consunji is joined on the judging panel by fellow beauty queen Kylie Versoza, model Raphael Kiefer and magazine editor Rain Dagala.
In January, auditions were held in four major cities across the Philippines. The semi-finalists have been whittled down to top 23 contestants who will compete for the title.
Wilson-Consunji told the Philippine Entertainment Portal: “We have a great roster of girls. We actually have girls who are short but they’re very beautiful. Nowadays, height doesn’t matter so much. If you look at supermodels like Cara Delevigne, she’s only like 5’6 or 5’7.
“So if you have a great personality and you know who you are, then you can be a great model. That’s a great thing about modelling. It’s not one-dimensional, it’s multi-dimensional.”
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Sunday Beauty Queen wins in Amsterdam
Sunday Beauty Queen, a documentary film by Baby Ruth Villarama about Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong who compete in beauty pageants, won the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the recently concluded CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The acclaimed feature premiered at last year’s Busan International Film Festival and won the top prize at the recent Metro Manila Film Festival. It is currently screening at this week’s Salaya International Documentary Film Festival in Thailand.
Villarama told the Philippine Daily Inquirer: “I’m grateful that a [Filipino film] can win the hearts of the Dutch as much as it did back home. This proves there’s an audience for documentaries.”
Another Filipino film, I America, competed in CinemAsia’s Official Selection programme. Directed by Ivan Andrew Payawal, the film chronicles the stories of Amerasian children abandoned by their American military fathers in a base in the Philippines.
artslife@thenational.ae
