The Sacred Riana
The Sacred Riana was declared Season 2 winner of “Asia’s Got Talent” last Thursday evening after getting the most text votes. The creepy Indonesian illusionist beat two Filipino acts in the Top Three, dance group DM-X Comvaleñoz (2nd place) and beatboxer Neil Ray Garcia Llanes (3rd place).
The winner was chosen via SMS votes. The Sacred Riana was among nine grand finalists, which included a third Filipino act, the other dance group, Urban Crew, from Las Piñas City.
The judges—dancer-singer Jay Park, singer Anggun and producer-musician David Foster—assured all the departing grand finalists that leaving the tilt was not the end, but the beginning of their entertainment careers.
“It’s almost as if you’re an alien with vocal cords that are different from other humans,” Anggun told “human beatbox” Llanes after his performance last week.
Park was likewise enthusiastic about Urban Crew’s number: “Almost flawless performance, but you guys blew me away when you flipped off the stage—crazy!”
Foster, meanwhile, praised the cross-dressing, high-jumping DM-X Comvaleñoz from Compostela Valley: “You are clearly in show business.”
In the final episode, The Sacred Riana, the enigmatic, twitching magician who was in character during the entire competition, invited Park and a few other audience members to a seance onstage, during which the table “moved” several feet across the area.
DM-X Comvaleñoz
Foster suggested in jest that Riana should “work on her social skills,” as she constantly ignored the judges’ questions and showed no emotion onstage. She won $100,000.
The Filipino shadow-play dance troupe El Gamma Penumbra topped the first season of the AXN talent show in 2015. —OLIVER PULUMBARIT