Top 5 Pinoy Idol to face last elimination night

After surviving chains of elimination nights and showcasing an amazing amount of talent, five hopefuls live on to clinch their fate of being crowned as the very first "Pinoy Idol."

"Pinoy Idol" is now down to the wire of choosing who among Daryl Celis, Gretchen Espina, Kid Camaya, Jayann Bautista, and Ram Chaves will move on to the last leg of the competition.

The stakes are high at this point. The Idol stage neither breaks nor defines their chances of gaining foothold in the music industry. This Saturday, the five hopefuls will have to take their courage in both hands as "Pinoy Idol" holds its last elimination night. Two more contenders are about to end their journey in the Idol arena.

The performance of their life is about to happen and only three spots remain in the finals.The five hopefuls should double their efforts, in choosing the perfect song, connecting with the audience and scraping up enough votes to surpass the elimination. It will be a tense Sunday night, as the viewers wait to see who will emerge as the final three. The competition among the five idols is getting more intense as the finale draws nearer.

Predictions are growing as to who among the idols would break each other's necks in the grand showdown. Only three will take the final show and it will definitely be an exciting and extreme battle. The race is getting nearer to the finish line and each contender is poised to give their best piece before the judges and the voting viewers.

Kid and Penelope, Made Their Dads Proud!

Penelope and Kid are on top of their game with their "Father's day" song performances. Kid's "Gone Too Soon.. " was thoroughly heartfelt. And it was a travesty and an outright disrespectful of Wyngard Tracy to say that "Hindi naman nakakaiyak" when Ogie is apparently trying to hold back tears and Jolina just couldn't bear it anymore.

It was quite a smack on Wyngard's face when Jolina told her "Wala kang emosyon".. and the ever too-proud-to-be-an-actual-human Wyngard declared "Wala talaga." Wow, how heartless can you get.

Penelope once again did a very clean performance for a very difficult "Papa, can you hear me."

Toffer Rei ends his Idol journey tonight

Toffer Rei one of the rockers in the group ended his journey tonight. Daryl and Ram joined him in the bottom three.

The left seven finalists - Penelope, Jay Ann Bautista, Gretchen Espina, Warren Antig, Daryl Celis, Ram Chaves and Kid Camaya.

Warren Antig, booted out of Pinoy Idol

The fans of Pinoy Idol expected that two of the remaining finalists would be eliminated tonight. In fact, an article came out on a newspaper stating that two of the finalists would be sent home tonight.

“Tomorrow night, there’ll be a huge shock that will change the competition forever,” said Pinoy Idol host, Raymond Gutierrez during the Basil Valdez Gala Night. However, all were disappointed that only one was eliminated a while ago.

Nevertheless, the voting public of Pinoy Idol made the right decision tonight. Tonight, Warren Antig ended his Idol journey after giving a not so good performance. During last night’s gala performance, he received a very negative comment from judge Wyngard Tracy. The elimination of Warren came out as a relief because many people think that he should have left the competition long ago.

Next week, two of the remaining finalists would be eliminated from the competition. Come August 17, we will have our first Pinoy Idol.

The remaining finalists are Kid Camaya, Jay-ann Bautista, Ram Chaves, Gretchen Espina and Daryl Celis. In the end, three finalists would be competing for the Pinoy Idol title. The Pinoy Idol Finale would commence on August 17, 2008 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia.

The first Pinoy Idol would be receiving a recording contract from Sony BMG, a talent contract from GMA Artist Center, a brand new car worth 1 million pesos, 1 million pesos cash from SM Supermalls, and a condominium unit from Avida amounting to 2.2 million pesos.

Warren Out, Finals on Aug 17!

As most of you already know, Warren bowed out of the competition and gave his all for his final performance last night.. Next Sunday, 2 will be eliminated and there's going to be a three-way battle for the finals on Aug. 17.

 

And once again, Pinoy Idol came up with one of their "dedication" songs theme, this time with "My greatest Idol performance." Didn't they already have "The greatest performance of my life" theme...  Lame as ever.

 

It also appears that what I read on some tabloid is true that the Idol will have their finals night on MOA instead of Araneta Coliseum, since they could hardly get enough audience to fill up the place at the mall.

Kid Owns Basil Night; Warren, Kinawawa!

Kid Camaya is hands down the best of the night after one of the most challenging themes for Pinoy Idol as they choose the classics of the legendary and one of the most loved balladeers and composers of all time, Mr. Basil Valdez.

Although Jolina Magdangal sort of made a huge mistake for implying that Kid was even better than the original who is sitting right beside her. Oops.. can't take that back anymore.

Raymond by the way said at the beginning that the show is 2 weeks away from the finals night... meaning, it's most probable that the bottom 3 would be booted out tomorrow altogether.

Here's the ranking:

2. Gretchen Espina - very clean with Gaano Kadalas ang Minsan. She's classy, beautiful and clean.

3. Daryl Celis - very sincere and heartfelt once more with Hanggang sa Dulo ng Walang Hanggan. It's just that, singing a Basil song would be very difficult for any singer, hence, the obvious struggle. Nonetheless, it was a gallant move.

4. Ram Chavez - was good enough with Ngayon at Kailanman. I just don't get why do they need to make a weekly reggae versions of songs. I mean, who listens to reggae? I don't get it man!

5. Jayann - was all over the place. You is such a classic that should retain it's simplicity.

6. Warren - like what Basil said.. Nakakalungkot lang, yun lang ang masasabi ko. It's his time to go, it's been long delayed in fact.  Pero bagay sana ung arrangement na rock sa Kung Ako'y Iiwan Mo.

Up Close with Ram Chaves

Even when Ramon Chaves III placed third in the very first season of Pinoy Idol, he remained a very down-to-earth person.

Ram, as fondly called by loved ones, was surrounded by his wife and kid (named Ramon Chaves IV) and by friends at the lobby of Mallberry Hotel prior to this interview last Thursday.

Ram spoke fluent Cebuano throughout the interview with Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro, as well as the succeeding one with a Davao-based GMA variety show.

It would be a surprise for many to note that the now 26-year-old Ram started learning how to sing only at the age of 21, immediately after graduation.

After finishing his BS Business Management course at Xavier University in 2003, Ram joined his dad in Dubai to work as a kargador. His father is a limousine driver there at Burj al-arab, the hotel famous for its distinctive dhow shape.

A year later, Ram returned back to Manila where he worked at PeopleSupport as a call center agent.

When this writer told the Pinoy Idol first season second runner-up that he was also a former employee of PeopleSupport at its Cebu site, the mood became even more relaxed and casual.

"Aw, PS diay japon ka? Unsa ka nga account bai, EarthLink o Expedia," Ram high-fived this writer.

Ram also spent his secondary education days in Cagayan de Oro, graduating at Jesuit-owned Xavier University High School in March 1999.

Theirs was the last batch when XUHS was strictly an all-male institution.

When it became clear to him that singing was his passion, Ram formed a band in Manila called Sutil.

The band performs in bars, corporate events, even weddings.

"Kung naay gig, absent sa trabaho," he confessed.

Ram, whose mom is in the United States, has two younger siblings living at RER Subdivision, a brother in college and a sister in the elementary level.

"I'm thankful for what I have achieved. Everything I am now is because of God," he said.

Ram auditioned at the SMX for Pinoy Idol and confessed that he knew about his singing talent only while videoke-ing with his drinking buddies in Manila.

Aside from singing, he also loves playing basketball.

Among his influences is Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas.

The Pinoy Idol second runner-up counts his wife as his own idol. They've been married for barely nine months only since December 2007.

Expected to be welcomed into the GMA Artist Center fold, Ram can next be heard as the singer for the theme of the upcoming telenovela Una Kang Naging Akin.

"I never expected this. It's really an honor. Wow!" he said.