Such amazing kids!

SEASON 1 discoveries (from left): Darlene Vibares, JK Labajo, Darren Espanto and champ Lyca Gairanod

I am officially over halfway through Blind Auditions for the second season of “The Voice Kids,” and allow me to say this: Oh my goodness!

Season 1 gave us a wonderful start. We discovered some incredible talent as illustrated by the diversity of our Final 4—Lyca Gairanod, Darren Espanto (who has a solo concert to celebrate his birth anniversary at the Mall of Asia Arena on May 29), JK Labajo and Darlene Vibares.

Everyone who landed on each of the four teams were actually so different, but wonderful in very unique ways.

For Season 2, our tireless staff combed the country from north to south to find even more amazing young talent. My jaw has been hitting the floor since our first taping day, and there’s no sign of that stopping. Many of the kids that we didn’t turn for showed more than just a little potential. How they’ll sound in a few years will certainly be something to watch for in the near and not-so-near future.

Exercising restraint

As always, we have a Talpa consultant on the set (for this season, we have Mauritz Briët), keeping us honest, offering plenty of advice and encouraging us to really go for the great talent.

(Talpa is the production company based in the Netherlands which originated “The Voice” franchise.) My personal difficulty is exercising restraint because all these kids are so good!

Not just good.

Many of them have huge personalities as well as gorgeous faces, the kind you’d expect to see on the silver screen or the TV screen. Many times I have turned for a beautiful voice, and was pleasantly surprised to find someone beautiful to see as well.

Of course, we aren’t able to take everyone in, and we have had to mete out some disappointing blows, but surprisingly, this bunch of kids is incredibly resilient and good-natured. I remember seeing more children cry the last time; this season, it seems we’ve gathered children with sunny and optimistic dispositions, with really open faces and warm smiles.

We have kids with all sorts of different hobbies (many of them cook and share their wares with us… others are into arts and crafts and share their creations)… different talents outside of singing (there was a poetry recitation, some martial arts and dancing)… and different ambitions (a couple of the kids expressed their desire to become doctors someday, which impressed me).

Also from the kids, we heard diverse reasons for joining the show. But the one that we got many times over was this: “I want to make my parents proud.”

My dears… you have all done that, and more.

To the ones who made it through to the Battle Rounds, congratulations! That was just Step 1 in this very lengthy journey. May you learn much, make many friends, and more than anything else, have a fantastic time!

Thanks!

Thank you to everyone who watched “Cream Silk Portraits” last weekend! We hope that our stories have served to inspire you to reach your dreams. All of us have made (and are still making) our wishes come true.