Botox Princess

Guess who was just recently in town? It's no other than the Queen of Botox... CHARICE! Yes, Charice Pempengco ITSELF, the new poster child of Botulinum toxin. Sad, but true.

So fresh from Belo's clinic, Charice did not hesitate to show off her new face to her fans in Bangkok last Friday. Of course go ang bakla from Surigao, di ba?

I expected to see only at most 200 people to watch Charice in Siam Discovery. Afterall, who would want to watch Charice in BKK except Pinoys, di ba? So I thought it was going to be one intimate concert.

When I arrived there one hour before her performance, I was dumbfounded to see a crowd filling the ground floor of the small-ish mall. And then there were also quite a good number of people on the upper floors looking over the atrium.

Soon enough, a bigger crowd formed. I'm not exactly good at estimate crowds but the audience could easily reach about a thousand, but that's a wild guess. Of course there lots of Filipinos but the Thais definitely outnumber the Pinoys. There was a good number of Thai school girls and baklitas holding signs to welcome Charice to Bangkok. Many of them were even singing to her songs, which was played while we waited for the Botox Princess.

It was a long wait indeed because the starting time was moved to half an hour later. Goodness, my Louboutins were already killing my feet. Anyway, suffer for botox... ay, Charice.

With the time extension, more people came in and I could hardly move as the people pushed towards the stage. I was soooo not ready to die in a stampede for Charice, please lang. Mystica pa siguro, keri lang. Charing! Ay, Charice!

Anyway, there was a front act... some winner of Academy Fantasia (Thailand's American Idol). I love her, she's so skinny and tall!!!

When Charice was called on stage for the pre-peformance interview the crowd erupted in screams and cameras started flashing all over the place. First thing I had to check was her jaw muscles, if indeed they're smaller, or at least frozen. Hmmm... not really.

But I was more concerned she would have a locked jaw in the middle of the interview. I prayed to the Virgin, and somehow it worked coz Charice charmed the crowed, even saying a few Thai lines.

Also, Charice's English has improved quite a lot since I first saw her on Ellen and Oprah. Recall: "I can't bilibit!". There's a new sense of confidence from the girl this time. She seemed relaxed, although not exactly spontaneous either. There's definitely a big room for improvement on her language skills especially now that she's appearing on Glee. 

And so Charice sang about five songs. It was quite mind-blowing how such a small girl could pack a huge voice inside her. Well, that's a given of course; that's what got her on Oprah to begin with.

More than the voice, I guess she really has a strong appeal coz she could charm the crowd. She knows how to engage them, working them before she belts out an out of this world note. I could tell she enjoys performing when the crowd is responsive and so she stimulates them even more.

And no, thank the Virgin, no locked jaws during her performance.