Is Lyca Gairanod the new Nora Aunor?

NORA Aunor, “Tawag ng Tanghalan” grand champ. DON RAPADAS

For many years now, TV-film producers have been eagerly searching for “the new Nora Aunor,” a child singer-actress from the “wrong” side of the tracks, whose golden voice and dusky Pinay looks would captivate the fiercely empathetic masses and propel her to genuine superstardom. Many eager aspirants have tried to do exactly that, with varying levels of success.

The most effective aspirant was wee Aiza Seguerra, who was as spontaneously quotable as Niño Muhlach before her and was, like Nora, “very Pinay”—but wasn’t at the time known for her singing (as she is now).

So Aiza did become a big star in her own right, but a “new Nora,” she wasn’t.

What about Janice de Belen? She was very popular as a child star, but didn’t have a powerful singing voice and was obviously middle class, rather than impoverished. Julie Vega? Again, very popular, but too tisay.

So for a very long time, Nora wasn’t “succeeded” by anybody else—not even her adoptive daughters, Lotlot and Matet de Leon—because like Julie, they were tisay.

Well, don’t look now, but a lively prospect as the “new Nora” has just entered the show biz scene by way of “The Voice Kids,” the first winner of which, 9-year-old Lyca Gairanod, is, like the juvenile Nora before her, “vulnerably” tiny, looks duskily Pinay, has a powerful singing voice, comes from an impoverished background, has become her large family’s breadwinner—and has won the hearts of the multitude.

Wee superstar

A perfect fit? Could be.

Will she actually emerge as a wee superstar in her own right, become a major musical-drama draw even in adulthood, win a ton of acting awards, make a humongous pile of money, lose most of it, become famously or infamously controversial, almost become a National Artist, and marry Christopher de Leon in groovy wedding rites at the beach? Ah, maybe not Christopher de Leon?

We’re being facetious, of course, but our point is that, while Lyca is our most promising candidate to date for the “new Nora” crown, the actual outcome of her ascendancy depends on many different factors, and how each of them plays out in the next few months and years. Mainly, it depends on how she’s handled by her parents and new managers, handlers and mentors.

Xerox copy

LYCA Gairanod, “The Voice Kids” winner

If they too cynically and cleverly copy “the Nora formula for super-success,” that would definitely be a problem, because Lyca would consequently be dismissed as a “Xerox copy” of the original Superstar, and thus end up as second-best.

No, Lyca’s handlers now have the infinitely more difficult task of figuring out what makes her click as Lyca—and then focus on how to further enhance that X factor, not “the Nora effect,” which can never be duplicated without coming off as hokey and exploitative.

The question now is, do Lyca’s new handlers have what it takes to insightfully take this next big step? Their new initiatives in the next few months will provide the answer to that crucial question.

Yes, it’s all about this little girl, but the viewing and listening public’s perception of her will be heavily influenced by how she’s “projected” in the media—and that’s not her decision.

We suppose her handlers will be well-compensated, so it’s their job to see that she succeeds to a financially profitable, “super” extent—without their losing firm focus on “this little girl,” Lyca, who’s on her way to stupendous success—hopefully her way!