Out of their league

New singing star, Angeline Quinto, is extra-happy these days, because her first solo album has just turned “gold.” To mark the event, she recently “dared” to do a special musical number on “ASAP” with no less than ZsaZsa Padilla and Sarah Geronimo. Alas, she was too daring for her own good, because the extended number showed that she was clearly out of their league.

ZsaZsa impressed us, not just with her admirable singing, but also with her felt rendering and understanding of her song. On the other hand, while Angeline’s singing was musically acceptable, her performance lacked self-confidence, emotion, insight, musical brio, texture and enjoyment.

More experienced

When Sarah joined them in the musical number, Angeline tried harder to “level up” to her equally young but more experienced “rival” for singing stardom, but again failed to measure up. And, when the three singers performed together at the end of the number, it was Angeline’s voice that sounded a bit “off.”

Relatively new singers like Angeline should realize that it takes time, years even, for performers to gain the experience needed for genuine star quality in performance

—and the process can’t be jump-started or fast-tracked. She should have given herself time to firm up her solo act before “daring” to “test” herself by performing with the likes of Sarah, and especially ZsaZsa.

A “golden” record citation is great as a sign of popularity and public acceptance, but honed and tested achievement is—something else!

Capabilities

Also doing less-than-sufficient work, this time as the main host of a “show biz news” program, “Limelight,” is Rhian Ramos. The lovely young comer obviously thinks she’s a really versatile talent, because we’ve seen her in all sorts of shows on the tube, but it’s clear that her estimation of her capabilities is overly generous and enthusiastic.

On “Limelight,” for instance, she looks good and reads her scripted spiels in a generically “lively” way—but that’s about it. She doesn’t infuse the program with her own point of view or personality, and is content with merely setting up entertainment reports researched and narrated by other people.

Part of the problem could be the fact that Rhian is too busy for her own good. She’s so “in-demand” that she goes from one TV format to the next without seemingly stopping, except perhaps to change clothes and retouch her makeup.

Shortcomings

It’s great that Rhian’s so popular with producers and directors, but “making hay while the sun shines” isn’t always a good thing, because it results in a new talent revealing or betraying his or her shortcomings.

Another TV talent who isn’t as versatile as she imagines to be is Alex Gonzaga. She hosts, dances, does sassy show-biz commentary—but, has yet to come into her own as a real comer.

Her big star-making turn on a TV5 soap, “Babaeng Hampaslupa,” wasn’t successful, because she didn’t invest her character with sufficient depth and insight. She merely went through the “dramatic” motions, and consequently missed the mark.

Can Alex still recover? Yes, but only if she stops being so “versatile” and realizes that genuine quality in performance isn’t easy as pie, but darned difficult to come by.