“The Voice of the Philippines” blind auditions are over! And oh, what a mammoth task that turned out to be. I did not anticipate the difficulty all four of us coaches—apl.de.ap, Bamboo, Sarah Geronimo and I—would face in the four days of screening singers with our backs turned.
Just a few days ago, when I read who the coaches of the “The Voice of the Philippines” would be, I had a huge grin on my face and exclaimed “Wow!”, followed by “Holy Crap!” This is going to be something else–to bring these four artists together for a show was a little bit surreal for me. These are some of the most important–and let’s not forget the word “influential”–artists, currently. Not one coach here will feel like he or she lacks “personality” or does not deserve to be there.
ABS-CBN may have just pulled off the most formidable lineup of judges for a reality talent show. Lea Salonga, Bamboo Mañalac, Sarah Geronimo and apl.de.ap are set to occupy the rotating red chairs for “The Voice of the Philippines,” which starts in June. This early, people are getting curious about these four industry bigshots’ judging and coaching styles.
Apl.de.ap, asked about his coaching style on ABS-CBN’s coming talent search “The Voice of the Philippines”: “Definitely truthful. [I’ll give] constructive criticism. And…you know, Imma give you a little swag, you know what I’m sayin’?
Filipino-American rapper apl.de.ap is said to be the fourth coach-judge of the coming ABS-CBN reality show “The Voice of the Philippines.” A Kapamilya blog site quoted apl.de.ap.’s Huffington Post interview in which he said he had received an offer for a TV show. A highly placed source said the fourth coach is “a music industry bigwig…as in hebigats.
By now you’ve all heard the news, but allow me to confirm it one more time: I am officially one of the four coaches of “The Voice of the Philippines,” along with Sarah Geronimo, Bamboo Mañalac, and a fourth judge, who has yet to be announced by ABS-CBN.
Lea Salonga will be one of the four judge-coaches of ABS-CBN’s upcoming reality singing competition “The Voice of the Philippines”—the local version of the multinational TV franchise “The Voice.”
On Wednesday, ABS-CBN released an official statement announcing that Sarah Geronimo’s musical variety show “Sarah G. Live” will air its final episode on Sunday. The network said the move was done to allow the 24-year-old singer-actress, who just renewed her contract with ABS-CBN, to focus on other projects line-up for her this year which include a judging stint on “The Voice of the Philippines,” a drama anthology and a movie with John Lloyd Cruz.
