Melai is grand champ of ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’

Melai Cantiveros gives a smashing performance singing Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” during the pre-finals night of “Your Face Sounds Familiar” on Saturday at Newport Performing Arts Theater in Pasay City. PHOTO from “Your Face Sounds Familiar” Facebook Page

Actress Melai Cantiveros is declared the first grand champion of ABS-CBN’s talent show “Your Face Sounds Familiar” on Sunday night at the Newport Performing Arts Theater of Resorts World Manila in Pasay City.

Melai came in like a “Wrecking Ball” when she turned into American pop star Miley Cyrus and performed the song during the pre-finals night of the celebrity singing and impersonation contest on Saturday.

Wearing a white crop top and underwear, she sang Cyrus’ pop ballad while canoodling with a sledgehammer and later swinging on a wrecking ball.

The 27-year-old comedienne got 51.93 percent of the total votes.

Acoustic singer Nyoy Volante slipped to the second spot with 24.51 percent of votes while R&B artist Jay R finished third with 16.1 percent.

Actor Edgar Allan Guzman got the fourth highest number of votes with 7.47 percent.

Nyoy belted his best impression of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” while Jay R strutted to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and EA busted some Chris Brown moves to “Turn Up The Music.”

Melai will take home P1 million and another million for her chosen charity.

“God works in mysterious ways talaga,” Melai said during the awards night on Sunday, thanking the judges and viewers who voted for her via text message.

The other celebrity performers who became part of the show were Jolina Magdangal, Karla Estrada, Maxene Magalona and Tutti Caringal.

Developed by Dutch media company Endemol, “Your Face Sounds Familiar” features popular celebrities who undergo transformation to impersonate iconic singers. The Philippine franchise of the show started airing on March 14. With reports by Rissa M. Camongol, Inquirer.net, and Marinel R. Cruz, Philippine Daily Inquirer