A Videoke Challenge rematch

It is on record that in the history of K! The One Million Videoke Challenge, I was the first contestant to have been voted out—unjustly I still insist to this day.

But rather than go to the Supreme Court to contest the judges’ decision, I just accepted an invitation to return to the show sometime ago—this time determined to prove to everyone that I’m not really all that hopeless when it comes to singing. Never mind the fact that I don’t really like singing much and that I’ve never been to a videoke joint in my entire life.

My objective was simple. Just to make sure that I was not eliminated in Round 1—again. If that happened, I probably would have migrated to wartorn Iraq—never to return to this country ever, not even as a headless ex-hostage.

Mercifully, I survived Round 1 because it was Chynna Ortaleza who was first taken out by lone judge Jimmy Santos.

But victory was sweet and I wanted more so I aimed to make it past Round 2. The second round was all about Tunog Local and we had to sing Babaero by Randy Santiago. That song I know and I merely breezed through it. Unfortunately for KC Montero, the song was alien to him. He was obviously still a young boy in America when that song—first used in the Maricel Soriano-Randy Santiago movie, Si Taray at si Teroy — hit it big here in 1988. It was the Am-boy’s turn to go. Bye, KC. Give my regards to Geneva. And to Heaven, too.

Round 3 was the most difficult: Soundtracks. Here, we had to sing the theme song Kung Alam Mo Lang from the movie Alabok sa Ulap — a local film I don’t remember at all (strange for somebody like me who watches a lot of Tagalog movies).

Neither was the song Kung Alam Mo Lang stored in my memory bank. It was supposed to have been sung by Joanne Lorenzana. Now, I remember Joanne Lorenzana and I even remember that she lives (I don’t know if she still does now) in Brookside in Cainta and that her neighbor there was Carlo Orosa. I also remember her sister, Beth, who also used to act as her manager. But I have no memory of Kung Alam Mo Lang at all.

Luckily, when they played the minus one of the song, I was able to ride on to the melody. And this much I discovered at that point of the game. In K! The One Million Videoke Challenge, you don’t necessarily have to be in tune to win the game. In fact, you can sing a pop song there — rap style, kundiman or even recite it as a balagtasan. You can still win for as long as you know the lyrics. And you can even guess the lyrics if you have enough common sense. That was what happened to me in this round— twice. I just guessed the lyrics and I made it through this phase of the contest. Regine Tolentino, who doesn’t speak Tagalog well, didn’t and she was the next to go.

On to Round 4, which I felt was the easiest because the song was the ever-popular Bato sa Buhangin. Too bad for Phoemela Barranda, she wasn’t very familiar with the song. (I don’t know where she had been all this time because that song enjoyed countless revivals.) She had to go in this round.

As for me, I was very much pleased with myself because I never thought I’d reach this far. For somebody whose original dream was merely to survive Round 1, hey, this ain’t bad.

And so we reached Round 5 with just me, Pekto and Susan Enriquez. The song this time was supposed to be the easiest — so said host Allan K. It was I Believe I Can Fly from Spacejam. Although what he said was true, I have a little story about this song.

Six years ago when I was trying to survive in Boston, I lived in the house of a cousin whose daughter played the video of Spacejam over and over again. But never did I watch the film. I would just hear the movie play while I was in another part of the house — soaking in my misery. Since that period was a bad time for me (my hungry years), I tried to block off memories from that phase of my life. Every time the song I Believe I Can Fly was played on the radio therefore, I would turn it off or tune in to another station. I just wouldn’t want to listen to it. I couldn’t bear hearing it.

But the song came back to haunt me at a most crucial moment of my life — when I was trying to regain the reputation I lost earlier in this program. However, I was determined not be defeated by this song and I decided to make a go of it. The song is really easy to sing even for a non-singer like me and in time, I became so confident singing it that I didn’t even bother to look at the lyrics sheet below me. But disaster struck when at one point, I looked down and saw a blank space staring at me and my mind just went blank. I knew the missing word, but I just got confused and blew the whole thing. I really don’t understand what happened to me there. All I had to do was sing the part "through that open (that was the missing word) door" and I goofed. Out I went.

Everyone then came up to me — including Jaya — and said, "Sayang" because I was supposedly doing so well in the contest. While people around me felt bad, I didn’t. I was proud of myself to have reached that far — Round 5. For someone who was eliminated in Round 1 the first time around, that’s quite an achievement. Imagine — this time, I was in the top three. It was Pekto who placed first, then Susan Enriquez and then ME! If that were the American Idol, I would be in the same level as Jasmine Trias.

I drove home the happiest loser that evening. Behind the wheel, I kept telling myself, "You reached Round 5! I am so proud of you!"

But the K! One Million Videoke Challenge story doesn’t end there. Last Saturday after Startalk, Lolit Solis and I were approached by the K! crew and asked us to sing part of a song I’m not even familiar with. (They were supposed to use it in one portion of the show.)

When we asked if there was a corresponding talent fee to it, they said no. In that case, let’s get it over and done with. We had other things to do — like eat the pancit that was brought by our writer, Yani Bautista, who was celebrating her birthday.

And so, Lolit and I went over the song while reading the lyrics written on Manila paper and we were like a Patsy-Lopito act that had turned disastrous. But we didn’t care at that point. There was pancit waiting for us next room and we had to get our share before others beat us to it.

Early this week, however, I got horrible feedback about how badly I sang in K! Oh no, my earlier "achievement" had been negated by that one segment I didn’t even want to do in the first place. Now, my reputation had been ruined again— and by the same show!

I should have gone to the Supreme Court the first time.