YFSF kids make great impersonators
A 13-year-old kid brilliantly aping Filipino rock icon Jose “Pepe” Smith, whom he doesn’t even know before, bagged the weekly top prize of P100,000 on ABS-CBN’s second season of Your Face Sounds Familiar (YFSF) Kids.
Theater talent, singer and film actor Noel Comia emerged as the winner in the second episode of the reality talent competition, which undoubtedly gathered the best young talents this season.
That Noel will excel early on in the competition is not really surprising. A former The Voice Kids contestant, Noel also won a Best Actor trophy for Cinemalaya’s 2017 entry, Kiko Boksingero, directed by Thop Nazareno. Noel, who rendered Pepe Smith’s
Beep Beep, complete with the latter’s signature swagger, is one of the 10, young contestants of YFSF Kids 2. For the Week 3, the Poging Lodi copied Tina Turner.
For every act in YFSF Kids 2, the judges — Sharon Cuneta, Gary Valenciano and Ogie Alcasid — were consistently in awe, if not amazed, at the spectacular transformation and performance of the contestant. The celebrity kids can impersonate not just the voice and dance moves, but also the nuances of their adult counterparts.
Marco Masa, who captured everyone’s hearts as Nathaniel in his first
teleserye, proved to be a real darling as Moira de la Torre and rendered the latter’s hit, Titibo-Tibo. Known as Anghel ng Masa, Marco was Bruno Mars in the pilot airing of YFSF Kids 2 and imitated novelty artist, Yoyoy Villame.
Half-Korean, half-Filipino Chunsa Jung imitated Meghan Trainor’s All
About That Bass, in the first episode then delighted the judges as Sandara Park when Chunsa sang 2NE1’s Fire. The Bulilit Kikay was excited when she picked Taylor Swift as her succeeding artist.
Bibong Astig Onyok Pineda revived his Bamboo impersonation in It’s
Showtime for his first act in YFSF Kids 2. Then, he amused everyone as apl.de.ap in Bebot. Audiences enjoyed his performances as Elvis Presley.
The Voice Kids Season 1 finalist Esang de Torres proved her mettle onstage in acclaimed theater musicals like Les
Miserables and Matilda. Now tagged as Kiddie Kontesera, she was Lady Gaga in her first act in YFSF Kids 2, then sang Cher’s Believe and impersonated her mentor Lea Salonga in The Voice Kids.
Precious Darling Krystal Brimmer first captured the hearts of the public when she played Annie onstage, then made audiences cry in the 2015 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) entry, Erik Matti’s Honor Thy Father. In YFSF
Kids 2, the Fil-Am talent proved her versatility as she did Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and Stevie Wonder’s Overjoyed. That was followed by Krystal’s Jessie J act.
Inday Wonder Sheena Belarmino was a grand finalist in Tawag ng Tanghalan Kids last year and even in Dance Kids. On YFSF Kids 2 pilot weekend, she readily slayed the competition when she became champion as Sarah Geronimo, rendering Tala.
In the second episode, Sheena proved her mettle as Whitney Houston and belted out I Have Nothing, despite her hoarse voice. Then, she excitedly accepted her next challenge as Chris Brown.
The Bigshot Trio — Mackie Empuerto, Francis Concepcion and Kiefer Sanchez — was a hit as Apo Hiking Society, crooning Mahirap Magmahal ng
Syota ng Iba. They also wowed the audience with the first group they cloned, The Bee Gees. Interestingly, the young boys even doubled up as Sheena’s instant back-up dancers as Sarah, much to the thrill of the crowd. Then, the trio performed as Salbakuta.
Guiding the YFSF Kids 2 are new celebrity mentors — Nyoy Volante, himself a product of the first YFSF, for movement; and Jed Madela, an erstwhile judge, for singing. They respectively replaced teacher Georcelle Dapat-Sy and Annie Quintos of The CompanY. Billy Crawford hosts.
Breakout child star McNeal “Awra” Briguela, who made his mark in the primetime soap, Ang Probinsyano, came out as the first big winner of YFSF Kids last year. This season, Awra hosts
YFSF Kids Breaktime online, seen prior to the actual airing of the program, with batchmates on the show — dance sweetheart Andree Camille “AC” Bonifacio and digital TV host Sam Shoaf, the son of singer Arnee Hidalgo.