‘Sound-alike’ singing tilt requires aural and visual credibility

“EAT BULAGA’S” new portion, a celebrity “sound-alike” singing tilt titled, “Ikaw at Echo, Ka-Voice ni Idol,” is instructively reminiscent of the penchant of music fans way back in the ’50s for adulating local singing counterparts of foreign musical stars.

If memory serves, there was a Joni James of the Philippines, Eddie Mesa was one of those who impersonated Elvis Presley (with Cora Adajar as his “tomboy” counterpart), and many local Frank Sinatras, Bert Nievera among them, vied for the listening public’s addled approbation.

It was all quite “colonial,” of course, but that was the temper of the times.

It’s even more disturbing to see that, 60 years later, we’re still going that gaya-gaya musical route. It just goes to show that we’ve learned precious little on our circuitous journey toward genuine pop-cultural independence!

In any case, when we watched “EB’s” “Ka-Voice ni Idol” portion last week, we saw that, while the yen to kowtow to foreign singing stars remains the same, the famous singers being emulated or imitated are no longer the Sinatras and Presleys of old, but current faves like Bruno Mars, Christina Aguilera and Rihanna.

So, how well did their emulators fare? “Christina” was way too chubby but got the singing fairly right, “Bruno” was both a visual and aural mismatch, and “Rihanna” was, for us, the best singer of the three, even if she didn’t work hard enough to xerox her idol’s idiosyncratic look.

Fact is, for a musical impersonation to really hit the spot, the local exponent has to be both aurally and visually credible. So, last week’s contestants needed to work much harder to achieve the required seamless “tribute” to their respective musical idols.

A good example of the perfect musical fit was the performance months ago on another “celebrity copy” competition on local TV, which was won by a contestant who xeroxed Christopher de Leon.

In our view, however, the real winner was the female finalist who impersonated singing sensation, Adele—because she impressively looked and sounded eerily like the British recording star!

Other prospective singing hopefuls on “Ka-Voice ni Idol” would do well to redouble their own efforts, so they can hope to similarly stand out—and win!