MANILA, Philippines—Charice Pempengco felt real good when she heard Americans scream each time she went onstage as a guest performer in the recent “David Foster and Friends” concert tour in the United States and Canada.

“It was wonderful because not only Filipinos, but also Americans, would be shouting as my name was being announced,” Charice told the Inquirer by phone on Tuesday.

The 10-city tour—which rolled from Oct. 21-Nov. 8 and took the 17-year-old Filipino pop star to Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Hollywood, Los Angeles, San Jose and Vancouver—was an offshoot of her stint as one of Foster’s singers in a previous concert that was broadcast on US television and released on DVD and CD.

Foster, the 15-time Grammy-winning Canadian pianist-composer who has produced hit records for Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, among dozens of others, has been working on Pempengco’s US debut album due next year.

“We just need one more song,” Charice said.  She added that a club mix of a single, “Pyramid,” from the album, will be available on iTunes next month. The pop version will be out on New Year’s Day 2010.

Earlier this year, Charice recorded her first international single, a cover of Dianne Warren’s “Note To God,” which is also included in her forthcoming album. Released as a digital download in May, the song reached No. 2 on Amazon’s Downloads Bestsellers chart and Hot New Releases section, and was No. 1 on the Movers and Shakers section. It was No. 9 on the iTunes chart.

Asked to describe how “Pyramid” sounds, Charice replied: “It’s like the songs of Miley Cyrus and Chris Brown.”

The still-untitled album will be released on Foster’s 143 label, an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records USA. Charice’s label mates include Groban, Buble, Renee Olstead and The Corrs.

Charice said people have been commenting on how her voice seems to have matured: “They say it has changed. It became fuller.” She surmised that this was a result of a better handling of the emotions she was putting into her performances. “I have a better understanding of the love songs, though I have not experienced falling in love,” she noted.

Meeting Timberlake

If there were other things that have given her thrills these days, it was meeting pop star Justin Timberlake in the US, which was arranged by her career mentor and adviser, Oprah Winfrey.

“He shook my hand. I got overwhelmed. But he’s not my crush, just my idol,” Charice said of Timberlake.

As the Inquirer chatted with Charice, she said she was relaxing in the four-bedroom “dream house” in Tagaytay that she bought as a gift to her mother Racquel. As the daughter who became the breadwinner not long after her father left the family (she has a younger brother), Charice’s wish was to “buy her mother a big house.”

She fulfilled that wish in January this year, out of her earnings from singing engagements abroad. The Tagaytay property is now her home base in the Philippines.

Her rising stature as a pop celebrity was further enhanced when the local distributor of Sennheiser, the world-renowned German audio electronics brand, launched yesterday the “Charice International Limited-Edition” Evolution 822S microphone.

This signature mic will be marketed locally, but will also be available online.

Charice’s cameo role in the animated-live action Hollywood film “Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel” will be seen when the movie premieres on Dec. 23. She also appears on the movie’s official soundtrack with her rendition of Alicia Keys’ “No One.”

There is talk that Charice will host a reality game show, to be produced by Winfrey and aired on the latter’s soon to open network—although Charice’s manager in the Philippines said there was nothing definite about the project.

On Monday Charice flies back to LA to resume work—and bring more honor and glory to her native land.

By Pocholo Concepcion, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted by Eve

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