GAIRANOD. Exciting work in progress.
Lyca Gairanod, the 10-year-old Season One winner of “The Voice Kids,” is a work in progress—and we like what we’re seeing (and hearing), so far: In her sleek solo debut album, “Puede Nang Mangarap,” Lyca essays age-appropriate themes (Andrei Panaligan’s “Sa Isang Awit”) and alluring melodies (Noel Mahinay’s “Malalampasan”) that refine the coarse edges of her brassy and battle-ready pipes.
It doesn’t hurt that prolific songwriter Jungee Marcelo is behind the hook-heavy title track that cleverly sidesteps excessive mush and cheesy lyrics with a vibrant arrangement that feistily incorporates Gairanod’s in-your-face performing style into the fun and fizzy mix.
Other significant charmers: Lyca encourages her followers to shrug off their woes (Muriel Jamito, Emman D’Great and Jaydee Gungon’s frisky “Ngumiti Ka Lang”), think positive (Jude Gitamondoc’s “Kung Kaya Mong Isipin”), find time to relax (Jamie Rivera’s Meghan Trainor-inspired “Tayo Ay Maglaro”)—and, in her ravishing revival of Carol Banawa and Marizen Soriano’s “Iingatan Ka,” show appreciation for the people who love us unconditionally!
From ‘Glee’ to ‘Supergirl’
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…not Superman! The latest superhero on the TV-movie block is genetically just as powerful, and is actually someone close to Clark Kent—it’s Kara Danvers aka “Supergirl,” whose series will debut on CBS later this year!
If the upcoming show is anything like the fast-paced pilot we’ve recently previewed, viewers are up for supercalifragilisticexpialidocious tricks and casting treats that will give Grant Gustin’s “The Flash” and Stephen Amell’s “Arrow” a run for their money: As baby Kal-El is whisked off to Earth before planet Krypton disintegrates, 13-year-old Kara Zor-El is given the task to look after her cousin.
Unfortunately, Kara’s escape pod is thrown off-course into the Phantom Zone, where she’s trapped for—24 years! When she eventually reaches Earth (still looking like a teenager), she’s raised by Fred and Sylvia Danvers as a “regular” human—after all, who needs her relative inexperience if earthlings can always count on the Man of Steel to protect them from wayward meteors, monsters and megalomaniacs?
Fast-forward 10 years later, the plane of her foster sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh), suffers engine failure—and Kara (the charming Melissa Benoist of “Glee”) is the only “metahuman” around to save the day!
She gets some help from coworker Winn (Jeremy Jordan) and photographer James “Jimmy” Olsen (Mehcad Brook), who has just transferred from The Daily Planet to The Guardian, where Kara works as the personal assistant of head honcho Kat Grant, played to caustic perfection by “Ally McBeal’s” Calista Flockhart!
Helping Supergirl find her rightful place under the superhero universe’s sun are Kara’s formidable foster parents, portrayed by actors who know whereof they speak: Dean Cain, who played the Man of Steel in “Lois & Clark,” and lovely Helen Slater, the original Supergirl!