While watching Jessica Sanchez on “American Idol”, I kept thinking how all the judges- along with Oprah and Ellen- should make an effort to visit the Philippines. Sure, Jessica Sanchez has a very good technically-perfect voice and she can “be” and sound like “another” Whitney or Maria or Alicia. My big problem is that I still have no idea what SHE sounds like- her OWN sound- as, week after week, she stands there and sings covers of other people’s hits. Then came all that so-called “drama” about her “save” which I personally think was cornball audience manipulation and with this poor girl caught in the middle of it all. It reeked of a gimmick waiting to be played out and last week was D-Day and nothing to do with how “America has voted.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29bXzZlmWDM
Away from the show, the perception and image of Filipino musicians being great “copyists” have been around for decades and all those Filipino covers band that play for very little money in many all-night clubs where everyone is too drunk to listen to the playing or the vocals and just want to dance to something familiar, only helps to perpetuate this image. It is a perception and also a problem which the Filipino music industry has not bothered to fix. It’s a very old-fashioned industry which still signs up the same over-dramatic balladeers, welcomes the talents of MOR artists like David Foster and various unknown American singers with one hit- a ballad- to their names and turn their backs on the TRULY original bands and singers out there. The music industry has not moved that much from the days when American singer-songwriter David Pomeranz managed to have one hit in the Philippines with one of his songs and which, somehow, helped him to sell almost 500,000 copies of his cheesy and schmaltzy record.
The mantra for many of the A&R people in the Philippines- and many have been in there jobs for way too long in what is a very small music market- is Schmaltz And Cheese Sells and with many still looking for “the new Martin Nivera”, the country’s answer to, well, let’s be kind and say, Barry Manilow or Engelbert Humperdinck. There was also an incredible young singer from the Philippines named Regine Velasquez. She was around 19 at the time, she was very pretty, and was signed to Universal Music as part of a worldwide deal.
The Hong Kong Chinese music executive who signed her up wanted to turn her into some young version of La Streisand and would go on and on and on about her ability to sing a “high C” and how we should hear her sing “People” and how it made him cry. It became very tiresome to listen to when here was a girl with such a very special talent and then seeing this talent being “moulded” by such a musical moron. For example, despite George Michael having an album out with the same name, he insisted that “no one would care” and released her record and which was also called “Listen Without Prejudice”- a thinly veiled message to Hong Kong music fans not be “prejudiced” by her being a Filipina. To make DOUBLY sure that there would be no “listening without prejudice”; her face was almost completely covered up and with her hairstyle changed to look like Chinese diva Faye Wong.
Though he and I nearly came to blows for such a dumbass- and racist- marketing move, he had found her, he had signed her to UMG, her folks trusted him and he had first dibs on everything about the A&R and marketing of her debut album. Being a mish-mash of bibs and bobs and no real musical core, despite an awful duet with Hong Kong’s leading singer at that time- Jacky Cheung- the record flopped and, eventually, UMG felt that Regine Velasquez was a lost cause. She returned to the Philippines, became an icon over there, and is now happily married and with kids. But, man, what a wasted opportunity with her recording contract.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNP-qp7xFdU
Watching the “American Idol” judges fawning over her and listening to the comments of Jimmy Iovine and those “guest mentors”- Akon? A mentor?????- my great concern for Jessica Sanchez is that she’s gonna go the way of another Filipina- Charise- and Regine Velasquez. In other words, they will take a young girl, make her sound much older than she is and have her record David Foster-type schmaltz and with her ending in that fast-growing rubbish pile of young singers who have been made to look- and sound- older than they are. Remember Renee Olstead and all those other pre-pubescent girls who recorded standards and were almost freakish by being teen versions of much older singers? The only one of these girls I have time for is Nikki Yanofsky. This girl is the real deal.
As for the Philippines and the very good musicians and bands out there, the country really need mentors- International mentors- and who will come over, listen to some of the new, young bands, be wowed by their musicianship and create a brand new sound for their music and, at the same time, help erase this widely-held image of the Philippines being the musical epicenter of copyists and a lounge singers for 5-star hotels. I’d hate to see Jessica Sanchez end up like this. This kid has been around the block, she’s been on so many of these television talent shows, this is now her biggest opportunist to make it and if she doesn’t get the proper musical direction and career advice, she won’t be the only one screaming.
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