Astrafellas wins Akapela Open 2016

Another a cappella group from the Philippines is poised for stardom after it won the Akapela Open 2016 finals.  Astrafellas, which hails from Baguio, is the latest champion to emerge from the annual competition. It now follows on the heels of Akapela Open discoveries, Acapellago, the winner of years 2013 and 2015 and Pinopela, the winner of 2014.

Akapela Open is the fast-growing and much-talked-about contest for contemporary a cappella singing for groups of five or more singers spearheaded by the Music School of Ryan Cayabyab. It is the first of its kind in the Philippines and aims to promote the love for contemporary a cappella singing and the appreciation for vocal harmony performance. The finals night was held last Nov. 5 at the Meralco Theater and Astrafellas, a group of five guys was declared winner. Incidentally, Pinopela is also from Baguio.

This year’s competition required the finalists to perform a Christmas song by a Filipino composer and a number of their choice that was especially arranged for their group and which has not been performed anywhere else. Astrafellas sang Munting Sanggol as its Christmas number and the Astrafellas Boyband Medley composed of boyband hits that were especially arranged for the group. By the way, the boys were also named Best Arranger of the contest for their work on their songs. 

 First runner-up honors went to the Conchords which comes from Quezon City. They did Greedy and Tuloy Na Tuloy Pa Rin Ang Pasko while the second runner-up was Doo Wop Sounds, an entry from South Korea who performed One More Night and Sana Ngayong Pasko. The other finalists were Calafellas, Fratoneity, Gvabs, Mvibe, PhiSix, Street Voice and Ten Thousand.

Tasked with the job of choosing the winners was a truly prestigious panel of judges, whose knowledge of music and singing cred is unassailable. 

They were Jonathan Velasco, an international adjudicator, a voice pedagogue at the University of the Philippines College of Music and the choirmaster of the Ateneo Chamber Singers: Mark Anthony Carpio, choral conducting teacher also at the UP College of Music and the choirmaster of the internationally famous and multi-awarded choir, the Philippine Madrigal Singers. 

Tobias Hug, international adjudicator, the beatbox of Beatvox, was bass and beatbox of the legendary Swingle Singers for 11 years and is the artistic director of the Vocalmente Festival of Italy; Moy Ortiz, songwriter and the bass singer and music director of The CompanY; and Ronnel Allen (Happy Lemon) Laderas, award-winning bass and arranger of the Acapellago.

The five-member group is also named Best Arranger of the contest

Speaking of Acapellago, the year 2016 will go down as one of the most eventful in the group’s history. Aside from the phenomenal success of their version of the kiddie tune Tatlong Bibe, Acapellago was named champion at the A Cappella Asia Pacific Championship League in Singapore over the best a cappella groups from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore. Aside from that, Happy Lemon was named Best Bass Performer and soprano Michelle Corpus was named Best Lead Vocalist. Acapellago also won the Audience Award.

Pinopela is also doing very well in international circles.  The group won as overall champion of the A Cappella Championships held last July in Singapore, the same honor that Acapellago won in 2015. Pinopela won gold in the International Category and the Judges Choice awards. The Gold In Looping trophy went to member Zsaris Mendioro and Anthony Castillo got the honors for Most Impressive Vocalist.

The entries into the showbiz mainstream of Acapellago and Pinopela were very well received and the popularity of the American a cappella pop group Pentatonix all over the world is at an all-time high. This means that this is, indeed, an excellent time for Pinoys to look into more prospects for a cappella singing. 

There is nothing for them to lose if music and concert producers will take the time to see what the a cappella style can do for their products. Aspiring singers should also make it a point to listen to and watch a cappella artists in performance. Nothing to lose here, too, for them. At the very least they will acquire a better knowledge of what is in tune or not.