Our Philippine pride, Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach, was given a touching musical tribute a few days before she relinquishes her crown as the reigning Miss Universe. Her struggles as a breadwinner, a showbiz personality and a successful pageant queen were set into music and performed by the theater group, Stages.
One of the ancillary events of the 65th Miss Universe Pageant, Queen of the Universe: A Tribute to Pia Wurtzbach was held at the Harbor Tent of the Sofitel Philippine Plaza, CCP Complex. The 86 candidates vying for the title of Miss Universe were also present in the event.
Aside from the musical, the beautiful ladies and guests were treated to good food and fun activities, such as the #SingConfidentlyBeautiful Challenge courtesy of Grand Videoke, the country’s leading videoke brand.
This challenge was essentially a group singing competition, participated by 3 teams, all comprised of this year’s Miss Universe candidates. The rules were simple: each team must pick a song, sing it until the first chorus, and the group with the highest score wins.
The most memorable moment came midway during the final group’s performance. To everyone’s surprise, the Queen herself, Pia Wurtzbach, joined Miss Ecuador Connie Jimenez, Miss Guyana Soyini Fraser, Miss Jamaica Isabel Dalley, Miss British Virgin Islands Erica Creque, and Miss Paraguay Andrea Melgarejo, in singing Rihanna’s “We Found Love”.
This led to the delight of the more than 300 people in attendance!
Probably inspired by the crowd, the ladies from this group received a near-perfect score of 99 and eventually emerged as winners of the challenge. Each member of the team received a Grand Videoke unit as prize.
Pia, coaxed by the excited crowd, gave her own rousing rendition of the Taylor Swift hit “Shake It Off”. This to the further delight and elation of the well-dressed crowd. After the performance, the host awarded Pia with a Grand Videoke unit of her own.
“Pia has given us so much pride and joy to our nation, and we’re just glad that we are able to honor and thank her for what she’s done”, says Johenson Tan, Marketing Manager of Grand Videoke. “This is also our chance to showcase to the world our culture and our passions. And when we talk about passion, I don’t think there’s anyone more passionate about singing, than us Filipinos”, he added.
For more than 15 years, Grand Videoke has been nurturing the Filipinos’ love of singing by providing premium videoke experience in more than 170 countries. It is the first to introduce the revolutionary GeeVee™ Voice Command Feature, allowing one to just say the song title and start singing in less than five seconds! No need for a song book.
To protect consumers, Grand Videoke is also pushing for its Sing B4 U Buy advocacy. With a host of videoke products to choose from these days, it pays to be smart about investing in the right one. That’s why Grand Videoke gives potential buyers some useful pointers to consider such as: It must be from a trusted brand; It should make the process of finding songs effortless; It has a good song library with no song duplicated; It uses an internal storage system; just to name a few.
With the Sing B4 U Buy advocacy, Grand Videoke hopes to inspire more people to sing confidently beautiful, just like our very own Pia Wurtzbach! You can test out Grand Videoke at your favorite appliance stores and record bars like SM Appliance, Gadgets Hub at The SM Store, Astroplus, Odyssey, and Robinsons Appliance, and many more. You may also visit www.grandvideoke.com for a complete listing of stores.
The first group was composed of the French-speaking girls such as Miss Curacao Chanelle de Lau, Miss Haiti (and quarter Filipina) Raquel Pelissier Miss France Iris Mittenaere. They chose the song “Marvin Gaye” by Charlie Puth. The stunning women’s score 77.
Next to take on the Grand Videoke challenge were the Latinas Miss Nicaragua Marina Jacoby, Miss Mexico Kristal Silva, Miss Uruguay Magdalena Cohendet and Miss Argentina Estefania Bernal. They picked Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.” In one bit, Miss Venezuela Mariam Habach also joined in on the fun. The bubbly ladies scored 66
Miss Ecuador Connie Jimenez, Miss Guyana Soyini Fraser, Miss Jamaica Isabel Dalley, Miss British Virgin Islands Erica Creque and Miss Paraguay Andrea Melgarejo sang to their heart’s content the Rihanna song, “We Found Love in a Hopeless Place.”
