My favorite Top 2 contenders for the title of American Idol since Season 7′s David/David and Season 8′s Kris/Adam.

Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez

Who will be the next American Idol? Will it be this man with the first of four consecutive WGWG (White Guy With Guitar) Idol winners?

Or will it be this girl with the last female contestant to have won Idol prior to 2012?

We’ll find out in about a week. For me, I’m fine either way. I’m just glad it’s not one of the three P/Bitchy Sisters who all transformed into Bitter Sisters last night.

The news that rocked the Philippine K-pop universe this afternoon: YG has announced that the Philippines has been CONFIRMED to be a part of the Asia leg of Big Bang’s “Alive” World Tour.

Big Bang is sort of an ‘underrated’ K-pop act here. Their Pinoy fanbase is not as loud and mainstream as, say, Super Junior or SNSD or UKISS fans, but if you ask around, majority of silent K-poppers list Big Bang as one of, if not their favorite K-pop group. If the promoters play their cards right, we’re in for a hit concert that could rival or even topple that of Super Junior’s PH concerts.

Rumors say that the most expensive tickets could go as high as P15,000. Already, fans are complaining and saying that it’s a rip-off. Well, first of all, we shouldn’t compare it to the ticket prices in Korea because the logistics alone are different. Secondly, P15,000 for a full concert (roughly three hours) with no front act is no biggie considering that people paid php9,000++ for a 1-hour concert – oops, SHOW – of a Kpop superstar that had to share the stage with two more acts, or a show promoted as a K-pop concert where the Korean artists had lesser stage time than the guest performers from the Philippines. Thirdly, I think people who complain about ticket prices of international acts performing in the Philippines should read this blog post from chuvaness.com and enlighten themselves.

And lastly, let me tell you this: a Big Bang concert is worth every single cent that you’re going to shell out. They give a good mix of super-high quality performances and excellent fan service. The stage production alone will be worth your money. I am more than willing to risk my name and reputation – whatever that is – in saying this because I’ve seen them in concert and I can vouch for it. If you’re really a fan – as in a FAN and not some Kpop bandwagoner – ticket prices will be the least of your concerns.

And besides, I’m pretty sure there will be cheaper seats. If you can’t afford the VIP ones, you can always settle for the ones that you can afford instead of complaining about it. That goes for other things, too.

Screencap taken from this entry from memo-rain “[Eng Trans]12-05-13 Friends FM – 질주본능_Rain DJ”:

FINALLY! Someone had the guts to say it to Rain’s face! (Well, sort of.)

Whoever sent in this comment, I want to shake her hand really tight and say, “thank you very much!”

And, thank you, Kim Jae Wook, for reading that comment on air.

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Meanwhile… this is a nice news feature.

credit: ratoka at YouTube

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Ok, fine, I can’t help it. Disagree with me all you want, I just have to say this out loud.

credit: as tagged

I don’t care how expensive that coat and beanie are. It’s FUGLY. There, I said it.

WTF. And hot off the heels from the publication of this photo:

Things are not looking too ‘manly’ for Jeong Ji Hoon these days…

By the way, is it just me or the paparazzi photos from Dispatch don’t look very paparazzi? It’s quite obvious that Rain knows he’s being photographed. I’m not saying it’s staged (although it could be ); what I’m saying is, his inner publicity hog is evident in those pics. He knows he’s being photographed. If you’re someone who has experienced following him during his down time when he’s not in ‘Mr. Grouch’ Mode, you’d know what I mean.

…that this is the first time since Stuttering – ironically, the song that she sang when she got the lowest number of votes – that I got really impressed with Jessica Sanchez.

I mean, not taking anything away from her amazing talent, but after she got eliminated and saved by the AI judges, I have noticed a dip in her confidence. She has put a huge pressure on her shoulders every week and it showed in her performances. The swagger that we saw from her during the Las Vegas rounds was missing. She lacked emotional attachment to her songs and looked like a scaredy-cat when she’s not singing, as if she’s just waiting for the world to crush on top of her. She was too hard on herself.

I don’t know what happened but this week, the first thing I noticed from her is her bright aura. She looked so alive and relaxed in interviews, even cracking jokes every now and then. If I am into stupid conspiracy theories – which I am – I would think that Skylar Laine has been bothering Jessica and Skylar’s elimination did her good.

And then, there’s THE performance of the night: And I’m Telling You, I’m Not Going.

This is one song that has been sung by so many singers in this country that I have to admit that I didn’t expect much from Jessica. After all, she’s good but her style is just a dime a dozen here. However, Jessica floored me when she belted out And I’m Telling You… without much of a movement, without anything onstage with her except a simple backdrop and dramatic lights, with just her face and her voice expressing the song. Yet she was able to convey the message of the song and what it means to her. I have to admit, there were only two times when a performance of And I’m Telling You… gave me a lump on my throat, and this is one of them. (The other was by Bituin Escalante from a local production of Dreamgirls.) Randy was right, this song is one of the hardest song to sing, not just for the vocal dynamics but the proper emotion required to perform it well. I cannot fathom how Jessica was able to belt out those high notes without much movement from her body. This girl has lungs of steel. But most importantly, she finally showed an emotional connection with the song. Well, she’s been singing this since she was seven (which gave me a Rachel Berry moment: “I’ve been singing Don’t Rain On My Parade since I was two”) so she definitely has mastered it, but I think now is the only time that she can connect her own life experience to the song. That life experience being, that moment when she almost got eliminated. Truly, the line “and I’m telling you, I’m not going” suits her perfectly.

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On to other performances:

As everyone has predicted, Joshua Ledet got another standing ovation. Not only that, he was severely praised by the judges on his second song, which was really funny for me because they were going on and on about how they’ve never seen anyone perform This is a Man’s Man’s Man’s World the way Joshua did, and it was one of the best ever in any competition. Meanwhile, just last week, a certain The Voice contestant by the name of Juliet Simms absolutely slayed that song. I was thisclose to Tweeting a link of Juliet’s performance to Randy and Steven just to shut them up.

But JLo was right when she said, “it’s sickening”. Because for me, ‘sickening’ is synonymous to ‘disgusting’, and that was exactly how I felt after hearing them slobbering over Joshua’s performance. You know, Joshua has performances that really deserved a Standing O, but for me, this one is not one of them. Channeling Randy Jackson: It was just alright for me. Dawg.

As for Hollie… well, I got bored. I never thought that a rendition of Faithfully can bore me to tears. As for the second song, again, another note to the AI Judges: why are they blaming the song for Hollie’s inability to extract an emotional connection to it? Randy said that I Can’t Make You Love Me isn’t the right song to sing at this point in the competition because she should’ve taken advantage of her big voice, and I totally disagree with him. I want to slap him with this clip of one Allison Iraheta from AI Season 8. Allison also had a big voice, but she ditched that booming voice and sang that same song with tenderness and emotion, and it was, for me, her best performance in that season.

Lastly: Jessica and Joshua may have slayed their songs, but the best performance of the night for me – and a testament to the BS that the judges were saying about Hollie and I Can’t Make You Love Me – is Volcano by Phillip Phillips.

We must always remember that a good performance does not always equate to screaming one’s lungs out. Oftentimes, a tender moment like this is more than enough.

(Video credits: American Idol official YT)