A merry mishmash

On Dec. 11, we stayed up way past our bedtime to catch the special Christmas show of Charice on TV5. She has a busy performing and recording schedule in different parts of the globe, so it was great that she was able to find a window to give her homeboys and homegirls a Yuletide treat.

However, the show’s set and lighting design put us off because there was nothing special about them. And, when Charice went onstage to sing her first number, we found her in good voice, but she looked rather frumpy, dressed in a tight pants and big coat ensemble, with a glitter top under the coat—perhaps for that celebratory, Christmas-y flavor?

Alas, the big coat made her look even shorter than she is—and her really high stiletto heels didn’t help her silhouette, either. On top of that, she had a big and curly hairdo to make her face look less broad, but she kept fussing with it to get it out of her face, until it became a major distraction.

So old, so wrong

Did she have a stylist who made her come up with an ungainly look like that, so old and wrong for a young musical sensation like her? If she did, she needs a better one.

It was a good thing that Charice’s famous pipes were in fine working condition, so all was not lost. We also appreciated the fact that she no longer thought it necessary to come up with one birit high note after another to keep fans enthralled, astounded and stupefied.

Now 19 years old, the former child and teenybopper star has clearly learned something from her many performing forays overseas, and we hope that our local admirers will now also understand that sheer technical vocal display and prodigious singing and bleating are not the way to go if you want to impress more discriminating and sophisticated listeners.

However, while we appreciated the young singer’s increased awareness of the need for variety, nuance and contrast in musical performance, we were disappointed with her show’s repertoire, which was a mishmash of Christmas tunes, cuts from her albums, other singers’ hits, a “tribute to Michael Jackson” medley, etc. Charice worked hard to sustain the musical focus of her show, but its excessively eclectic repertoire made it end up as an un-merry mess.

This was unfortunate, because the young star now has it in her to headline a show that can go beyond simply giving her fans what they want. An authentic concert for a singing star like her should focus on what she feels is the right mix of songs to define and express herself as an artist and person at this stage of her musical development.

Missing element

In so doing, she cannot just entertain but also share her thoughts and feelings in musical terms, so her audience gets to truly understand and empathize with her, and what makes her sing her heart out.

It’s great that Charice wants to make her fans happy, but she shouldn’t forget her own musical expressiveness in the process. Yes, a great show is all about the singing—but it’s about the heart, too.

In her Christmas “special,” that was the missing element, and that really is too bad—because after the many tests and challenges that life has thrown her way of late, Charice has become a sensitive person and artist who has a lot to express and share.