A Filipina caregiver, once part of a faceless crowd of foreign workers who tend to Israel's infirm and elderly, has surprised the country by winning one of its most popular TV singing contests.
Competing in Israel's X-Factor, Rose Fostanes, 47, swept the judges off their feet with a tear-jerking rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" on Tuesday night's live final.
"I didn't expect that I will win," Fostanes told reporters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, speaking in English. "Because I'm not Israeli and I don't have residence here and I'm only a worker," she said.
Fostanes has been compared to the Scottish singer Susan Boyle, 52, who shot to fame in 2009 after appearing on the TV show "Britain's Got Talent" and performing "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Miserables".
Asked on Channel Two television whether she planned to return to the Philippines to pursue a music career, Fostanes said: "If they give me a chance to do it here, I will do it here." Until then, she said, she would go back to caregiving.
Reuters
