Christian Bautista to play Victor Magtanggol’s nemesis

Asia’s romantic balladeer Christian Bautista joins GMA-7 Network’s newest singing competition “The Clash” on July 7 as one of its judges together with Ms. Lani Misalucha and Ai Ai delas Alas. The show is hosted by Ms. Regine Velasquez-Alcasid.

The show features one-on-one battles among aspiring singers who are aiming to annex the title as the country’s next singing superstar.

“What makes the competition different is that each clasher pits himself or herself with an opponent right from the start. It’s not like there are 10 contestants and one will be picked as winner in the end. We will choose one winner every night until only one remains and is declared the champion,” said the handsome balladeer of “The Clash.”

How does a clasher get his vote on competition night? “A clasher will get my vote if he or she chooses the right song and sings it well,” says Christian. “When it comes to performance, they have to connect with us and the TV audience to make us feel their song.”

Aside from singing well, the audience will also get to know more about a clasher’s story and why he or she is chasing the dream. The clasher will be sharing his story with the audience.

“We need to do that so that the audience will get to know the clasher well. In this age of social media, even without TV exposure, once a video goes viral, an aspiring singer gains instant followers. The people are exposed to his video and they can relate to the singer’s story,” he said.

Christian admits it’s hard to choose a winner, especially if both clashers are very good singers and performers.

“If the clashers who faced each other are both good, it is hard to come up with a decision. Sometimes the vote is unanimous because we can readily see who did well in the competition. But if there are two good clashers who performed and the scores are tight, it’s hard to pick the winner. If there’s a tie, we need a tiebreaker. But even we judges don’t agree always. We have our own choice that is different from the each other.”

Sometimes, he says, it happens that a clasher is good in the first part of the competition, but won’t be as impressive on the next round.

“The clasher should always give a good performance. That’s the hard part. How can we help him move on to the next round if the clasher’s performance is not that good compared to the last time?” said Christian. “Even if you were good the last time, the next time you set foot onstage, you should be even better.”

Christian also said that the choice of competition song is also important. “Sometimes you’d think the song that you have chosen is good enough but the other clasher chose a better song and did it well. If that happens, you already know who the judges will pick.”

In other news, Christian is playing a kontrabida role to Alden Richards in “Victor Magtanggol,” the new teleserye that the Pambansang Bae is doing on primetime.

“I still don’t know how bad my character is but I am Alden’s nemesis. I know I’m a bad ass. I’m not that bad at first but I am going to be real bad as the story progresses,” said the singer.

This is the first time that Christian is doing a villain. “For a change, I want to do something out-of-the-box. I don’t want to get stuck doing goody-goody roles.”

Christian also confirmed that he is getting married at the end of the year but he can’t give complete details yet.

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The Executive Committee of the 2018 Metro Manila Film Festival announced last Friday, June 29, the first four official entries to the yearly filmfest.

They are as follows:

The Anne Curtis-starrer from Viva Films titled “Aurora” to be directed by Yam Laranas; “Fantastica, The Princess, the Prince and The Perya” starring Vice Ganda and the starlets Maris Racal, Loisa Andalio and Maymay Entrata to be directed by Barry Gonzales and is a co-production venture by Star Cinema and Viva Films; “Girl in the Orange Dress” from Quantum and MJM Productions featuring Kim Chiu, Jessy Mendiola, Jericho Rosales, Sam Milby, Tom Rodriguez and Keith Thompson to be directed by Jay Abello; and “Popoy En Jack The Puliscredibles” starring Vic Sotto and Coco Martin, co-produced by CCM Films, Mzet and APT Entertainment to be directed by Coco himself.

As you can see from the choices, it is the usual suspects in the festival – Vice Ganda, with Vic and Coco teaming up this time. Will Vic and Coco finally wrest the box-office title or will Vice still reign supreme?