Michael Johns, currently on a mini-tour in the Philippines, managed to squeeze in a guest spot on the popular Filipino TV show ASAP in between appearances at local Manila shopping malls.
I’ve got a question.
Who are those horribly out-of-tune chicks singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” with Michael? If I’m being perfectly honest, I’m a little freaked out.
Also, are the subtitles really necessary?
thank you purps. recap please?
Bonus: Check out the billboard pics on MJO.
Check out the video after the JUMP…
MJ, this is an initial appearance by (the other) MJ. I think he just arrived here. The actual mall shows are scheduled Tuesday to Friday (Manila time) this week. I’ll give you a recap after I go to a show, but that will probably be sometime Saturday as I am likely to go only to the last show on Friday.
When I saw him today, it was at a Mossimo-sponsored fan M&G session at the Glorietta mall. I didn’t get a pass (I was late because I watched him on ASAP before I left for the mall) but I did see him up close when he went out the store. :)
Well it definitely looked like Michael was having a good time up there! Wish we could have had Michael singing Bohemian alone, but he still sounded and of course looked amazing. Loved all of the smiles while he was up there…such a cutie pie!
Can’t wait to see the rest of his perfomances in the Philippines; thanks for posting MJ.
I hoped they paid him a lot for that sad mess. Those girls are so bad my Westie started to bark and I had to turn the sound off!
Err…those three girls were winners of three different AI-like singing competitions back here. As they appear on the screen cap: Yeng Constantino, who won Pinoy Dream Academy; Sarah Geronimo, who won Star For A Night (when she was 14); and Rachelle Ann Go, who won Search For A Star. The last two are (sorta) predecessors of Oprah’s and David Foster’s latest baby, Charice (who is also a constant ASAP guest artist).
Belters are pretty popular here. So is karaoke; hence, the subtitles. Heh. :b
ETA: I’m not a big fan of any of these girls (I do like Charice, though), but still…ouch to the comments! Yikes! :/
LOL What a mess… next time do that to another song please, don’t kill BR.
Anyway, thanks for the video.
Forget about the girls, Michael sounds absolutely AMAZING!!! His voice is perfect!!!
Thanks for posting, MJ!
Hmmm,interesting…..still love MJ, but I would have preferred the crazy dancing girls from a few days ago,lol. Well, not really.
purplesmile ~
He should have been on SOP and sang with Jaya and Regine (I’m a fan but I think they’re two of our country’s best divas). That would have been a trip of awesome proportions.
Awww…. I didn’t think the girls were bad. They definitely had a few good moments. They sing a lot better than some American stars, like Taylor Swift. Sorry.
LOL. It looked like Michael was *thisclose* to cracking up in the middle of it. At least he’s used to cheesy group numbers by now.
Nah, the girls weren’t that bad–Michael sounded awesome.
Truth!
they should’ve had ramiele!
I don’t think they sounded that bad… what sounded bad was all of them together.
I agree with Connie D. the girls didn’t sound that bad to me, except for maybe that awkward high pitched bit in the middle, i’ve heard way worse though. Micheal sounded great.
Michael sounded great. He is a good sport. The girls did ok, the
middle not so good. But his voice near the end, Michael
just nailed it. He was drop-dead gorgeous in this video.
LOL, the girls in the background aren’t that bad when on their own. I guess they just lacked practice.
Michael Johns at ASAP.. oh, how random. Haha.
life on the d-list….
Michael was great. Can’t get enough of his voice. For he girls they were good, except for a couple of places. I still liked it. When its live your gonna have some of that………. so… Shrugs
Oh, dear!
That was unfortunate.
He did a fine job of it alone on Idol- I wonder why anyone felt that he couldn’t handle it alone here?
Is this a professionally produced tour or just something he put together himself?
hi everyone!..i’m new here….
btw,
(ouch) about the comments on the girls….lol
coz i know them….and i like them too….haha…
i just watched that video a while ago..and the one bad thing i gotta say is that, the people are not very welcoming in there…i don’t see someone clapping…such a shame..coz i myself is a filipino…if i were there..i’d probably SCREAM and CHEER for Michael…..he’s amazing….
i guess they are not that familiar with american idol…..so that would be why…
Oops! I’m sure they are very nice girls, I just thought their singing was terrible.
Michael was fabulous, and a good sport through it all.
First dancing girls in Australia, and now backup singers!
Well, technically they weren’t exactly backups. But they should have been. Michael would have only needed them for the opera part. He could have sung the rest of the song perfectly by himself.
No offense to the girls or anything, it’s just a lot of the parts they sang I would have prefered Michael did. He probably would have sounded better, too.
Trust me, American Idol is HUGE over here. People patronized it more than our own franchise. And I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard DC’s “Always Be My Baby” on the radio, being sung at variety shows, etcetera. Archie is also very popular here with “Crush” on the track for being song of the year in one of the biggest radio stations here. But Michael Johns isn’t one of more the popular idols here, which is why I was shocked that he was coming here in the first place.
As for the girls, from what I know - those are some very talented girls, especially Sarah Geronimo. My guess is that they lacked the time to practice, it was probably an impromptu performance. They should’ve just let Michael sing alone.
But Archie and Cook are more popular everywhere, not just the Philippines. That doesn’t mean Michael doesn’t have a good amount of Philippine fans. Cook is extremely popular over there and most Cook fans are also Michael fans. It’s the same case in America. We know he has a lot of American fans, and his songs aren’t on the radio or anything.
From what I read about Michael’s recent meet and greet, it went very well.
I’m sure Michael has his fans here, but there are still others aside from Cook and Archie who are more popular than him here. Anyway, I was just replying to the comment that AI must not be that popular in the Philippines that’s why he didn’t get that much applause from the audience, because on the contrary, AI is very, very popular here.
I think Michael might sound good with Jaya, yep. But SOP’s production is so much cheaper than ASAP. If he guested on SOP, the cheese would’ve been to much higher proportions than what we have right now.
RAWRR. MJ sounds hot! More of this please and less of drecky Christmas songs. I know, I know, it’s for charity. Still, they could’ve picked a better song.
ETA: I agree. Let him sing the whole song. Those girls are good but they are harshing his rockstar mojo.
I rather enjoy hearing Michael singing. I can’t watch him sing….he’s an awkward performer.
Those backup singers are pretty affected.
Given MJ’s set up, I expected the gals to sound worse than they did. Group numbers like that, where each person sings a line to get their own attention, are really old fashioned, so that’s just kind of hard to watch. then, it was obvious that those girls aren’t in some group and don’t sing together, so then I thought, why are they singing together? I feel for MJ walking into that situation–another cover group number again. I’m sure he’s royally sick of it.
Questions:
1. What type of show is ASAP08? Like American Bandstand? Or is it music/variety like Ed Sullivan was?
2. What’s the story with these “mall” shows MJ is doing? His concert is in the mall? Do people pay to attend? (If so, how does the producer ensure that the people attending have paid if it’s in the open in a mall??) If they don’t pay, how does MJ get paid? The shopkeepers?
1. ASAP is a musical variety show shown every Sunday on one of the two most popular TV stations in the Philippines, ABS-CBN. It’s a sing and dance show. The most popular artists (including winners of various local and international singing competitions) in the ABS-CBN roster host and perform in the show, along with guests. There’s a little more info on MJ’s wiki link in her post. (I am not a viewer of this show, but I watch little bits of it every now and then.)
2. The Ayala Malls concerts are a regular promo event for the Ayala Malls chain. Artists previously brought in include Elliott Yamin, Taylor Hicks, Constantine Maroulis, Colbie Caillat, Vanessa Carlton, Sean Kingston. The shows are practically free. Some malls may have a certain purchase requirement (receipts are exchanged for tickets before the show), but only for fans to get seats and M&G passes. Anybody in the mall can watch the shows, as long as they get a good viewing position.
Ayala Malls pays the artists (a good amount, I heard), so whether there are 5 or 5,000 people watching, the performing artist does not have to worry (except maybe for his ego).
Mall shows are free but you have to PAY to actually get a good, comfortable seat (like near the front). Everyone else can watch but they would be standing in the back with the crowds. Elliott Yamin and Vanessa Carlton have done shows here (same venues, I hang out at those malls every weekend). I saw Vanessa Carlton.
ASAP is a show where our actors and actresses pretend they can sing and dance. Trust me, as bad as this may seem, this is actually a decent performance as far as the show goes. At least it was live, most of the time they just lipsync, and not even to their own voices but a ghost singer.
“A.S.A.P.” is the acronym for “A Sunday Afternoon Party” a variety show (sing, dance, cry on birthdays….lol)…not a fan of the show. Am not a fan also of any of these girls only because of their singing style…they each tend to belt it out all the time…much like Whitney, Celine, etc. singing style, too noisy and annoying for me JMHO……….Hence Ramiele became instantly popular when she made top 24 on Idol…(hmm I heard somewhere that Ramiele too is in the country with Danny Noriega)….yea that show is just that………a variety show……..
I’m not sure if she’s already here or if she has Danny with her but she will be a guest on an Ogie Alcasid concert sometime December. I’m guessing some local record company will sign her after that.
Performing on one the most popular shows in the Philippines that airs on one of the two major TV networks in the country, with three local singers, each with a huge fanbase of their own–I’d hate to think doing all that here would automatically qualify any foreign celeb as D-list. I’m Filipino BTW;)
Actually, most upcoming foreign acts that play Manila score that sort of gig. (Even some established acts have done that. If I recall correctly, even a few NBA stars–since bball is also big here–have guested on such shows when their sked permits.) And yes, they’re often compelled to perform with local singers. Exceptions would be really HUUUUGE mainstream acts on world tours like Beyonce who just fly in and out of the country to perform. And indie or harder rock acts, like Metallica, Beck, Plus/Minus, Beastie Boys, Incubus (a few artists that played Manila without hitting the noontime show circuit).
Anyway, appearing on noontime shows like ASAP is either a good gauge of public interest, or an opportunity for promotion of an artist’s main event plus extra mileage. It’ll likely get the guy featured in short interview clips on entertainment segments of news and talk shows of the same network. So I think Michael’s post-Idol career is hardly in trouble yet.
It’s interesting to read an outsider’s take on this cultural oddity of ours, BTW. Some of our best rock bands with cred, even the legendary ones, have been also ‘compelled’ to appear on noontime shows at one point in their careers. The bands that start out indie then make it big and are signed to major labels, and end up being made to promote themselves this way by their labels. Some resist the cheesefests (and mockingly tank their performances on these shows–I think the Eraserheads, Parokya ni Edgar, and Kamikaze have done that when they were younger). Others just go with it and stay pros throughout the ‘ordeal.’ A brilliant Pinoy power pop band called Itchyworms even made an entire CD on these shows as theme, called “Noontime Show.” I guess it’s based on their experience of having to go that promo route as well.
Sorry to stray, just thought I’d share some more context for the clip. Personally, I’m always a fan of Michael’s voice. He’s my fave and I look forward to catching one gig here. I wish he sang something else on ASAP because I’ve always thought Queen covers are inherently cheesy, so that didn’t help his cause there. Heh. But what makes up for it, and I love him more for it actually, is, as people pointed out, he was evidently such a good sport instead of a snob (which would’ve been ironic coming from an AI alum). I like that he even threw in a compliment for one of the local singers. I bet Filipinos will embrace him for that.
Interesting post, rural juror. Personally, though, I’ve never had the inclination to watch any of these shows. I cringe at the thought of sitting through hours of these cheesefests. Also, from the few snippets of past shows I’ve come across while flipping channels, the banter of the hosts and guests that appear on these variety shows, is just terrible. Singers who perform on these shows don’t even bother to memorize the lyrics to songs they sing (and end up reading from giant idiot boards in the audience)! Oh, well. I guess I’m not part of their target audience. That said, perhaps if David Cook were to make an appearance when he comes over, I might make an exception! Ha-ha-ha!!!
By the way, thanks for the clip, MJ! Would never have seen it were it not posted here. Michael did great on that stage! I’m sure he was received warmly at the network. Hope he enjoyed the experience. :)
MJ’s guest appearance on ASAP is actually very interesting. I don’t remember any of the other Ayala-invited artists, AI alum or not, appearing on a TV show like MJ did. Usually, it’s just radio for them and perhaps a couple of news bit features or brief, taped interviews for some TV show that not too many people watch. ASAP, on the other hand, cheesetastic and sucktastic as it may be, is a pretty big show. Some big showbiz person/people must like Michael.
I also read that MJ was at last night’s afterparty (at the Alchemy) for Chris Brown and Rihanna, who did a back-to-back concert at the Fort Open Field (to about 70,000 people, I heard).
Mj is great but the girls - aww but they were cute. I actually love Charice, Miss Purplesmile introduced me to her long ago, check her out - only 15 years old and compared to Miley Cyrus at 15? eek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CVloLBxcMQ
Perhaps Michael will start a trend ;)
I have to thank all the Filipino fans for giving us some insight to this show and this tour. I am so surprised at how many fans Michael has in the Philippines. You guys rock. This is the first time I’ve followed any American Idolist for so long and so closely, much less an overseas gig..lol. so its all very interesting to me as well.
In any case I am very happy for Michael he is given this opportunity..haha more Michael for us MJ fans…