Jake rises from the star of Charice
MANILA: With a wisp of moustache and an increasingly confident tenor, Philippine singer Jake Zyrus proudly talks about being a different person from his former self, global teenage music sensation Charice Pempengco.
Before revealing his transgender identity in June, Zyrus as Charice was the pride of the mainly Catholic nation, a diminutive girl belting out ballads on the US television series Glee and duetting with Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.
But Zyrus, now 25, said Charice’s success never felt right, prompting him to make a rare, courageous move in the conservative society by announcing he was a man.
“I felt like I had a wall. I could not express what I wanted to say, what I wanted to show. I could not show who I was,” said Zyrus ahead of his first concert slated for next month.
In a nation where same-sex marriage and divorce are outlawed, Zyrus admits his journey from the pigtailed girl in a dress to a man was a long and painful one.
He has been in the public eye since rising from poverty to becoming a YouTube star, whose covers of pop hits landed him on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, Barack Obama’s pre-US presidential inauguration galas and Oscars parties.
Zyrus first came out as a lesbian in 2013, a statement he now calls a “lie”.
“I thought that would be enough. For us here, you were either lesbian or gay. I was afraid that if I explained who I really was, people would not understand,” he said.
The decision to announce his transgender name on social media drew praise — but also ridicule. AFP