All Things New - And Better! - For These Male Singers

The concert titled "One: The World Tour"

to be held on at the Music Museum on

September 15, 22, 23 and 24 bears watching because of the sexy dance number to be done by Juaquin Garcia. He was a former member of the teen program "That's Entertainment" and who later became a member of the male group Wise Guys, but now has gone solo. Juaquin is the voice behind the revival hit "Leaving Yesterday Behind" popularized by Keno during the 80s.

The singer admitted having second thoughts when their director Rowell Santiago and their musical director Louie Ocampo told him about the sexy dance number that needed to be incorporated with the song. "But I trust direk Rowell and Sir Louie so I agreed to do it," said Juaquin.

But Juaquin won't say how sexy the number is going to be. He wants it to be a surprise to the audience. He won't even want to say what song he's going to sing. "But I really have to go sexy with the song so the number would have an impact. Kasi kung basta kakanta lang ako, the number would fall flat," added Juaquin who would wear a special costume created by designer Arielle Agasang for that number. "I really would have to go sexy for the number to have an impact. I sure hope I will be able to pull it off."

He finally got the courage to go sexy and Juaquin feels confident doing it on the concert stage, not in the movies. He turned down several offers to do sexy films a few years back, no matter how tempting they were, with the chance to co-star with Joyce Jimenez and Rossana Roces as added perks.

"I am nervous with what I am going to do but even if I go sexy, I feel the audience won't really notice that much, since I believe they'd still would want to hear me sing," said Juaquin.

Juaquin vows the audience won't feel shortchanged with his sexy dance number and if ever they would be, they'll just have to shout more and he'd give them something more. Joining Juaquin in "One: The World Tour" is Faith Cuneta.

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Jed Madela, the grand champion in the recently concluded World Championship of Performing Arts held in Hollywood, is the newest addition to the "ASAP 05" ever-growing roster of world-class talents. He was formerly welcomed in yesterday's telecast of the Sunday noontime show of ABS-CBN.

Jed competed against close to 4,000 contestants from 51 participating countries in the grand event staged in Hollywood, California. He won the ultimate title, Grand Champion Performer of the World, when he bested all the world champions from the different categories and divisions (dance, vocals, acting, modeling and instrumentals), who all competed for the plum award.

The Philippine representative also bagged the Champion of the World titles in the Male Vocals Division, Duet Division (with Rizza Novales). Jed also swept all the gold medals in the categories he participated: Male Vocals pop category, Broadway category, Gospel category, original category; Group Singing pop division: pop duet category (with Rizza) and broadway category (with Rizza).

Shortly before he left for the worldwide competition dubbed as the "Olympics of Performing Arts," Jed lamented he would not be able to appear in "ASAP 05" for several weeks as he is in the States for the competition. He added that he is almost a mainstay of the ABS-CBN Sunday noontime show since he is there almost every week.

In the presscon that ABS-CBN called to formally announce Jed being a member of the "ASAP 05" family, he did two song numbers sans a microphone, with his strong and powerful voice reverberating in the presscon venue. If we're not mistaken it was our first time to attend a presscon wherein a singer did that. Truly impressive!

So starting September 11, Jed is now an official member of the "ASAP 05" family. "I am truly honored. Kapamilya na talaga ako. Mayroon na akong tahanan na matatawag. I've finally found a home," said the award-winning singer.

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Young singer Mark Bautista also launched at "ASAP 05" yesterday his latest single titled "I Need You." Coinciding with the TV launch of his new single is the simultaneous launch of the song in several radio stations namely YES FM, Energy FM, IFM and DWRR. Meanwhile, "Dream On," Mark's new CD-Lite album from Viva Records which contains the song "I Need You" will be launched on Thursday, September 15 at 5pm at The Garden of SM North EDSA in Quezon City. The CD-Lite also contains "You Win The Game," "If By Now," "When Will I See You Again" and the title track "I Need You."