Mitoy Yonting wins some, loses some

YONTING. Grassroots appeal

Mitoy Yonting’s debut studio recording, “Hanggang Wakas,” comes on the heels of other releases from “The Voice of the Philippines’” alumni, like Klarisse de Guzman, Paolo Onesa, Myk Perez and Janice Javier.

It took Yonting, the popular singing tilt’s first grand champion, almost a year (he was “crowned” last September) to release his curiously uneven solo album, “Hanggang Wakas.”

Having said that, we can’t find fault with Mitoy’s prodigious singing, especially when he scales the stratospheric notes of Aegis’ “Minahal Kita,” “Hahabol-habol” and his self-penned duet with Bassilyo, “Magulang”—which give his repertoire its grassroots appeal.

Mitoy’s power as a vocalist in undeniable—but, it’s also this “invincibility” that makes his renditions occasionally strident, piercing and shrill, even in his rock-tinged cover of Florante’s “Handog.”

Metallic tone

Fortunately, Yonting’s metallic tone is leavened in “Somewhere,” by the participation of his coach, Lea Salonga, Mitoy reserves his catchiest treats for videoke aficionados: He sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” in its “countrified” form, renders “Solitaire” with all the soul he can muster, and knocks his medley of Air Supply classics (“Every Woman In The World,” “I Can’t Wait Forever,” “Here I Am”) out of the ballpark!