Injudicious instances in kiddie impersonation tilt

Lyca Gairanod as Tina Turner

A hitherto recondite issue is gradually making itself more apparent on “Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids”: It’s the wide range of ages of the “child” contestants involved.

They’re as appropriately juvenile as Alonzo Muhlach at 6 and Xia Vigor at 7—and not-so-young as Elha Nympha and AC Bonifacio at 12.

The glaring difference in ages is distending or perhaps even distorting the competition, since the older youths have an advantage in their more fully developed singing voices and vocal range, so they tend to do better in the impersonation numbers they perform.

It’s too late to do much about the mismatch now, but we hope that the kiddie tilt’s next edition will limit the field of contestants to kids only up to 10 years old. That way, the contestants will be more evenly matched.

The tilt’s next season should also disallow the impersonation of “sexy” stars, and the performances of romantic and passionate songs. Keep it clean and innocent, folks, that’s what child talents deserve.

Some TV people may scoff that those changes would make the tilt bland and boring, but we submit that child talents’ welfare and right to behave like children trump other, more “show biz” considerations.

It’s also becoming clearer that the current tilt sometimes subjects its young contestants to injudicious challenges, like Xia Vigor being made to sing and rap with a raspy “male” voice to impersonate rocker Axl Rose. Voice teachers all over the land must have been groaning as Xia strained her young voice to sound older and “hot.”

Also injudicious was the decision to make Lyca Gairanod impersonate “sensuous” singer Jessa Zaragoza. The poor girl did her best, but she was simply out of her range and depth, and her “seductive” gestures were inappropriate.

Still on Lyca: People who believe in the potential of “The Voice Kids” winner are disappointed, because this season’s impersonation tilt has been showcasing her weakly and poorly, to date.

Why not make her impersonate Nora Aunor right away, so she can finally score big and perhaps win points—for a change? (Lyca, who won as Tina Turner last week, will imitate Ate Guy this weekend. –Ed.)

As a talent tilt winner, Lyca deserves better showcasing, as befits her stature and promise. Some of the other bets still have to prove themselves, but she already has—and that should be acknowledged and count for something.

Another promising bet, Alonzo Muhlach, has a different problem entirely. Fact is, singing isn’t his forte, so he’s often upstaged by the real singers in the tilt. Given this deficiency, Alonzo’s handlers shouldn’t have made him join the singing impersonation tilt in the first place.

But, now that he’s “forced to do good,” the best they can do is to insist that his performance numbers have a strong comedy quotient to them, because that’s Alonzo’s forte.

Why should Awra Briguela be given the comedic edge in his assignments, while Alonzo flounders as a vague Harry Styles or Rico J. Puno?

As the tilt’s youngest contestant, Alonzo should be given extra help and opportunities to shine, so special showcasing and nurturing for him are logically in order.