After more than eight months of grueling competition, Blaster Silonga, 17, emerged as the winner of “Eat Bulaga’s” “Music Hero: Battle of the Champions” in March.
The budding musician from Marikina City bested seven other grand finalists for the title of Ultimate Music Hero. He also took home a 500,000 peso prize.
Music Hero is a musical competition on Eat Bulaga that began last August. Instead of focusing on singers, the segment gave the spotlight to instrumentalists.
In “Music Hero”, musicians ages 19 years old and below competed against fellow musicians based on the instruments they played, until eight contestants were left for the show’s grand finals: Blaster (Electric Guitar Hero), Joaquin Rodrigo (Ultimate Drums Hero), Josh Espinosa (Ultimate Saxophone Hero), Zild Benitez (Ulitmate Bass Guitar), Brian Feliciano (Ultimate Flute Hero), Radlee Lacquian (Ultimate Acoustic Guitar Hero), Jim Tan (Ultimate Keyboards Hero), and Dominique Casacop (Ultimate Violin Hero).
To win the title, Blaster had to survive two rounds of competition: a band round, where he performed Bruno Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” with Joaquin, Josh, and Zild; and a solo round, where he performed Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.”
Blaster, a Grade 11 student at Berean Crosspointe International School in Marikina City, is a self-taught musician.
He considers Michael Jackson, John Mayer, and guitarists Eric Clapton and Paul Gilbert as his idols.