Young Singing Sensation: Charice Pempengco

As i was just channel browsing, and just stumpled up Oprah Winfrey show, and suddenly the song, and the voice caught my attention, and stop at that channel. A young asian lady was singing Whitney Houston's I've Nothing, and she IS as good as Whitney! .... and .. she's only 15 year-old! She is Charice Pempengco.



The world might be talking about Leona Lewis, but here's an Asian version of Leona from Philippine, with a powerful and talented voice! ... just wondering what will Simon Cowell will comment on Charice, since her singing style is in the mould of Leona and Il Divo, powerful vocals! David Foster said "she's a force to be reckon with", and it was David who got Charice onto Oprah's show introducing her as "My newest baby". I guess this is the ultimate compliment you can get from one of the best song writers and most powerful person in the singing show-biz.

Whenever people mention Filipino singers, the names like Jose Mari Chan and Lea Salonga came into mind ... but Charice is a totally different type of singer. While Lea Salonga is known for her sweet voice (as heard in Aladin's songs, and also her We Could Be in Love duet); Charice possess a more powerful vocal, a voice that's beyond her 15 years of age!

She reminds me of Charlotte Church; both got powerful voice, and propelled to stardom at a very young age, but I do hope Charice will be around on the music scene much longer than Charlotte though .. and chunking out great albums for everyone to enjoy!

I'm listening to her rendition of "I've Nothing" on Youtube as i'm writing this, her voice is so mesmerizing, and her ease of singing some of the most difficult powerful high-pitch songs only shows how talented she is!


Among the stars....

Celine Dion's comment and invitation to sing with her:


With David Foster ... Charice's sings My Heart Will Go On ....


Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charice_Pempengco

I'm definitely buying her album!!! .. just tell me when it's out.

My first Chicken Rice!

My first Chicken Rice!

No, this is not about the first chicken rice that i've eaten, but it's the first chicken-rice that i have cooked.... last Saturday. :D

I saw the recipe of chicken rice in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago, so, thought of been adventurous and try it out myself (since my parents are not around, so, it doesn't matter if i kinda mess up the kitchen .. and of course the chicken .. a little bit ;)

I went to do some ingredients shopping at Tesco in the morning ... 2 chicken tights, 1 chicken carcass (for the chicken-broth to cook the rice), green spring-onions.

Ingredients that i used.
Chicken Tight (to cook steam chicken).
Chicken carcass (to prepare the chicken broth to cook the rice).
Garlic.
Fresh Mushroom (i put some oyster-mushroom to cook the broth, just to get more taste).
Ginger
Cabbage (I also put in some cabbage to further sweeten the broth).
Green spring onions.
Pandan leaves.

Steps that I took.
Chicken-rice
Boil the chicken carcass in water for a couple of hours, with 1 or 2 cloves of garlic. Put in some cabbage and later mushroom when it's about ready. Put in some salt, pepper and soya-sauce to taste, and also the pandan-leave to fragrance the rice. Cook the rice with the the chicken broth.

Chicken
I cook the chicken tight in the chicken-broth as well. Marinate and season with some salt, pepper and soya-sauce. After a couple of minutes, put the chicken-tight in cold-water, and rub some olive-oil to lighten the chicken-skin, and prepare it from drying.

Chicken soup, with cabbage and mushroom.
With the remaining chicken-broth, i used it to cook a soup, with cabbage and mushroom.

Self-critics
For the rice, the chicken-rice taste is there, but, it's too soggy and oily. Might also consider using rice with less-stach (like the Taj-mahal brand)
Definitely much more room for improvement. :)