‘Convincing’ start for new singing tilt for kids

Jhon Clyd Talili

No sooner had the 2016-2017 “revival” season of “Tawag ng Tanghalan” announced its winners earlier this month on “It’s Showtime” that the singing tilt launched its “kids” edition on the popular noontime show!

As expected, the new singing tilt for children has attracted many gifted junior vocalists, four of whom were tapped to launch the competition in a big, “convincing” way last March 13.

We noted that all four buena mano bets were proficient singers, and that some of them were really young—unlike past singing tilts for children, which were dominated by 12- or even 13-year-olds.

We saw this preference for “real kids” as a good sign, indicating that some lessons have been learned.

There were a couple of 11-year-olds, but they were still small enough, and thus “acceptable.” In the future, however, we hope that the tilt accepts contestants only as “old” as 10.

Another upbeat sign that lessons have been learned from past rocky and bumpy experiences is the choice of songs for the juvenile singers to perform.

In the past, we were shocked to hear pint-sized warblers essaying much too “adult” anthems, like songs about betrayal, unrequited love and even “flaming” passion, but the “Tawag Kids” tilt features a more child-friendly lineup.

Yes, there are still a few inappropriate selections that include negative lyrics about the dark side of romantic love, but these are kept to a minimum. Edit them out completely, why don’t you?

On the other hand, after watching the tilt for three days, we note that there’s an unwelcome tendency to make kiddie contestants intone song lyrics that are too ideationally mature for children to naturally think or utter.

Even if the songs are agreeably and suitably inspirational, the lyrics are couched in language that’s too verbose and self-consciously “serious” to make the grade as a song for child performers.

Thus, we’ve been getting too many songs exhorting listeners to be heroic, think of the country first, etc.—all worthy virtues, to be sure, but too self-consciously and artificially “profound” for kids.

A good song choice for child singers should be simple, direct to the point, honestly felt and naturally phrased for young people to believably articulate—no multisyllabic words or “motherhood” statements, please!

The kiddie singing tilt’s first telecast ended on a real high when it “discovered” its first daily winner, Jhon Clyd Talili.

He was an obvious standout who got everyone thrilled and excited, because he was everything an outstanding child singer in these parts should be:

He was small, looked Filipino and had a clear, bright, high sound that could also be warmly expressive when needed—no kneejerk birit belter, thank goodness.

Trouble is, who can measure up to an exceptional
combination of musical virtues like that?

True enough, for the next three days, Talili held on to the “daily champion” title and, with a couple more victories, could become the new tilt’s first semifinalist. How talented, lucky and plucky can a child singer get?