New girl group out to develop the next Nadine, Yassi

Boom Ganda

In a country that is not lacking in talented young folks who would do anything to be part of show business, is there room for a new singing-and-dancing girl group in the Philippines?

Of course there is, according to Vic Entertainment Inc. big boss Vic del Rosario.

On Dec. 3, Del Rosario introduced Ppop Generation: Boom Ganda, the entertainment group’s latest attempt in creating a local performing group that could rival those from South Korea and Japan.

Ppop Generation: Boom Ganda is a sing-and-dance group of 45 girls, aged 13 to 18. The group is a venture between Del Rosario’s Viva Live! And RTM of Japan, led by talent manager Masatoshi Mano and creative producer Ryota Naito. The group will perform all throughout 2019, from Tuesday to Saturday, starting Jan. 8 at the Teatrino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Live experience

“The idea is to create a group that can only be fully appreciated… if you see… [it perform] live. The whole idea is the live experience,” said Del Rosario. “Hopefully, they can eventually build a fanbase. This kind of live experience is being done in Japan, in Thailand, in China… [and is] sold-out every day.”

He added, “So we’re hoping that with the skill of our talents, it’s going to [generate good] word of mouth. Eventually, I think they’ll be able to fill Teatrino.”

The group is under the supervision of choreographer Geleen Eugenio, who also heads Viva’s Artist Development Center, with voice coaches Sushi Reyes and Zeb Zuniga.

Ppop Generation: Boom Ganda is Viva’s attempt to create a local group that aims to rival the ones from other Asian countries. Ppop stands for Pinoy pop, just like Japan’s J-Pop and South Korea’s K-Pop.

“Ppop actually began in 2009,” Eugenio said. It began with the all-girl group Pop Girls, whose former members include now-popular stars Nadine Lustre, Yassi Pressman, and Shy Carlos, and boy group XLR8, which included AJ Muhlach. Other Ppop group include Sugar ‘N Spice (Yassi’s sister Issa Pressman was a member), UGG and After 5.

“Within those groups, stars were born. As you can see, something came out of the talents coming from Ppop. They were well-chosen and taught rigidly on how to speak, act, sing, dance and perform. They become total performers at an early age,” she added.

‘Bongga’

Geleen hopes the girl group Boom Ganda will also develop stars like Nadine and Yassi.

For Boom Ganda, all members were chosen via a rigorous audition process. All 45 members of the group also went through a yearlong training.

“It’s like they went to school. They train for eight hours in a day—three hours for dance, two hours for voice, two hours for character development, and one hour of speech,” she said.

Geleen believes Ppop Generation: Boom Ganda has a place in local entertainment.

She explained why: “Their edge is they are really singers. Another edge is they really dance. You can expect superstars [from the group] as they grow. There is no way to go wrong because [the group] is really bongga.”

For tickets, contact Ticketworld at 8919999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph, or Viva Live at 6877236.