As Star Magic’s year-long celebration of 25 years of honing Filipino talents comes to a close next month, the anniversary continues to intensify as ABS-CBN’s talent arm and premier Filipino network TFC gathered some of the biggest names in the Philippine entertainment industry for “Star Magic 25: A Grand Celebration in Singapore”, held last October 29 at the Zepp @ BigBox at Venture Avenue.
The Filipinos in Singapore were in for a starry night as some of Star Magic’s most successful artists came together to share their gratitude for their fellowmen’s continued support.
Grateful for the fan support for their television shows, live concerts and other pursuits, Piolo Pascual, Jericho Rosales, Maja Salvador, Enchong Dee, Jed Madela, Inigo Pascual, KZ Tandingan, Maymay Entrata, Edward Barber, Eric Nicolas, and Kathryn Bernardo, Daniel Padilla, translated their gratitude into exciting performances.
Kicking off the celebration was their fitting opening to the tune of “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by Justin Timberlake.
First to share their performances were the Philippines’ own dancefloor royalties Salvador and Dee. Firing up the dance floor, Ultimate Dance Floor Princess Salvador sang and danced to “Cheap Thrills” by Sia, and performed her original hits “Dahan-Dahan” and “Haplos”. Meantime, the Dance Floor Heartthrob pumped up everyone with his song and dance performance of his hit single “Chinito Problems”.
From dancing to singing, Star Magic has been known to develop world-class talents and Madela and Tandingan proved it that night. The crowd was in awe when Madela performed the classic hits “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King and “Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin” by Joey Albert. The World Championship of the Performing Arts Hall of Famer also got some members of the crowd emotional with his performance of the song “Go the Distance”, as the lyrics somehow speak of the Overseas Filipinos’ (OFs) journey. Madela also sang the inspirational hit “I Believe”.
For her part, Soul Supreme Tandingan showcased her versatility in performing different genres like rap when she did her own rendition of Gloc 9’s original hit “Sumayaw Ka”, as well as in ballad when she performed her big hit “Mahal Ko o Mahal Ako”, which she interpreted at the biggest Filipino competition for song composition at Himig Handog in 2014.
Joining their first Star Magic tour are Teen Singing Sensation Inigo Pascual, and the up-and-rising love team of Entrata and Barber, popularly known as MayWard.
Inigo could not hide his excitement as he entered the stage as he saw how the audience reacted as performed his hit single “Dahil Sa’yo”. The crowd could not contain their excitement as well as he channeled fellow Teen Heartthrob Justin Bieber by performing “Despacito” originally created and performed by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee.
Meantime, Entrata and Barber were grinning from ear to ear when they performed their single “Baliw” and Toni Gonzaga’s “Mahal Kita Kasi” for the Singapore crowd. Barber also got everyone cracked up when he tried to deliver his message in straight Filipino albeit with a German slang. He told the crowd, “Para sa inyo, Tagalugin ko ito — umaapaw po talaga ang puso ko sa pasasalamat (I will try my best to say this in Filipino – my heart is filled with gratitude because of everyone here)”.
From the newest hit love team, Star Magic and TFC also brought The Philippines’ Premier Love Team, Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla. More popularly known as KathNiel, the teen superstars top bill the top-rating series “La Luna Sangre” where they face the mission of putting down their arch nemesis. But during the night of October 29th, they had one mission – to give their fans a performance to remember.
Bernardo first performed the song “Sit Still Look Pretty” by international artist Daya. Padilla then joined her onstage, and together, they performed the theme song of their recent film with the same title, “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, an original hit by the legendary Elvis Presley.
When it was his turn to perform, Padilla ran after Bernardo to stop her from leaving the stage, but the latter encouraged him and said “Kaya mo ‘yan (you can do it)”! and ran backstage. Padilla serenaded their fans with the song “How Sweet it is to be Loved by You” by Marvin Gaye.
From one charming leading man to another, loud cheers of “ang guwapo mo, Echo” welcomed Rosales when he got on stage for his solo performance. The Asian Drama King had everyone singing with his hit single “Pusong Ligaw”, and the song “Manila” by classic OPM group Hotdog, a song which also resonated well with Filipinos outside the homeland.
Meantime, the crowd couldn’t help but do a shout out of a line from a famous soda’s Philippine ad, “I love you, Piolo!” when the Ultimate Heartthrob appeared onstage singing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by Frankie Valli and also performed “Kailangan Kita”. Pascual also took the chance to get up-close with his fans.
The excitement doubled as Pascual and Rosales performed the song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by the classic international group Queen, together.
Meantime, Nicolas role was to inject extra entertainment and laughter and he truly delivered.
In the end, the prime artist performed an encore to the Star Magic 25th anniversary theme song “Ikaw ang Magic ng Buhay Ko”.
On top of the exciting performances, some fans got the chance to have a photo opportunity with the Star Magic artists. Some got even luckier as they were chosen to join the surprise photo opportunity with Pascual and MayWard.
At the end of the starry night, the artists were as thrilled and grateful as the audience for being able to share their gift of talent and be inspired to continue Star Magic’s pursuit of excellence in their craft.
Kicked off in October 2016 in Australia and in April 2017 in the U.S. and Canada, the last leg of celebrations will happen in December in Dammam on December 1.
For more updates about upcoming TFC events, visit facebook.com/TFCSingapore. Connect with fellow global Kapamilyas and follow @KapamilyaTFC and KapamilyaGlobalPR on Twitter and Instagram.