SB19’s Nase and Ajero to coach on ‘The Voice Kids’

Strictly speaking from a showbiz perspective, the most exciting development is that GMA7 is the only network to feature two members of the country's leading pop band, SB19, in the cast of a weekly
primetime show, Voice Kids, which begins airing on 15 September at 7:05 p.m.

Those two are Stell Ajero, the band’s lead vocalist and choreographer, and Pablo Nase, the band’s “pinuno” (leader), who writes their songs and produces their records. Nase is also the chief executive officer of 1Z Entertainment, the company the band formed about a year ago to manage their business affairs.

Having Nase and Ajero on the show may suggest that Kapuso is the only network capable of affording the talent fees of SB19’s Nase and Ajero, in addition to those of the network’s top male superstar Dingdong Dantes and major stars Julie Anne San Jose and Billy Crawford.

Dantes is the show host, while San Jose and Crawford are fellow coaches alongside Nase and Ajero. The latter began his successful involvement with GMA7 as a host of Voice Generations last year. Ajero appears to be the first SB19 member cast for an entire season of a show on free TV. Before his stint on The Voice, SB19 members had not taken on regular TV roles, possibly to avoid conflicts with their group engagements. However, this September, two of them will appear in a single GMA7 show with multiple guaranteed episodes, potentially running for more than the standard 13-week season typical of Philippine television.

Nase replaced Chito Miranda, the frontman of the long-running band Parokya ni Edgar, as a judge on Voice Generations, the new edition of The Voice in Asia, pioneered by GMA 7 in the second half of 2023. Upon learning that Miranda wouldn’t be able to return as a coach for the first season of The Voice Kids on GMA7, network executives quickly sought a replacement.

One of the first names that came to mind was Nase. This was because the Kapuso team behind Voice Kids had already seen him at work during a guest mentorship last year on The Voice Generations. They felt he would be a fitting addition to the panel, which already includes his bandmate Ajero.

“We saw how Pablo related to the talents. He was very meticulous and had a strong sense of what he thought was good. He had a lot of input, and we found that truly inspiring,” vice president for Musical Variety and Specials Gigi Santiago-Lara told reporters in a recent interview.

Same group

Initially, the production wasn’t sure if the franchise owner, ITV Studios, would allow two artists from the same group to be on the panel. Thankfully, the idea was eventually approved.

At that time, though, the Kapuso production team for Voice Kids hadn’t informed Nase that they were considering him to join the show as a mentor. They worried that Nase might not accept a stint that would last for months.

“Our impression of him was that he was very serious and focused on his craft. Baka ayaw niyang mag-TV (We thought he might not be interested in doing TV),” the team said.

Fortunately, the SB19 star accepted the offer.

Ajero’s and Nase’s likely high-paying engagement in Voice Kids is timed to avoid conflicts with the band’s existing or upcoming commitments. Reality competition shows are typically taped well in advance of their scheduled airing. This is especially true for grand finals of competition shows that are not broadcast live. In the Philippines, some grand finals are recorded up to three months before their broadcast. Editing the footage into coherent and exciting episodes can take at least a month, as each episode builds on the previous one.

For example, when Marcelito Pomoy, the Filipino singer known for his ability to sing in both male and female voices seamlessly, competed in a season of America’s Got Talent: The Champions that aired from January to March 2020, the entire competition was secretly filmed in a large studio with a live audience in 2019. The audience members, who were auditioned, paid and sworn to secrecy, were not allowed to discuss what they had seen until the entire season had aired. The show’s production team, of course, ensures compliance with these secrecy rules through non-disclosure agreements that audience members sign beforehand.

When the grand finals of America’s Got Talent: The Champions aired on NBC in March 2020, grand finalist Pomoy was already back in the Philippines and knew he had placed only fourth overall in the final sing-off. He remained silent about his placement to avoid potential lawsuits and to ensure he could continue performing in the US, including for Filipino communities. Even now, Pomoy continues to do modest solo shows in the US.

If you’ve been watching reality singing competitions in the US, you may have noticed that on-camera conversations avoid mentioning anything current to prevent viewers from suspecting that the show was taped many months prior, rather than just a few months ago.

To prevent leaks of pre-taped episodes, audience members’ recording devices are temporarily confiscated and securely stored in the studio until the audience leaves the premises.

So, don’t worry if you can’t catch SB19 at any live shows while Voice Kids Season 2 is airing on Sunday nights over the next few months. The SB19 boys will still be able to perform their scheduled gigs wherever they are.

Solo concert

Another positive showbiz story is that fans of the all-girl pop group BINI seem to have accepted the addition of a third solo concert for their idols in November this year at the Araneta Coliseum, from the 16th to the 18th of the month.

The original plan was for a two-night concert at the Big Dome, but tickets for those two nights sold out within four hours of their release. Consequently, ABS-CBN’s Star Music, which manages the girls and primarily produces the November concerts, quickly scheduled a third night. However, not all BINI fans, known as Blooms, were pleased with the additional date. Soon after the announcement, the topics ‘LET BINI REST’ ‘LET THE GIRLS REST,’ and ‘NO TO GBC DAY 3’ trended on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

Unfortunately for those Blooms, Star Music has decided to proceed with the third night of the BINI concert, and all tickets for that additional date are now sold out. Star Music is clearly seizing the opportunity: strike while the iron is hot!

The question now is whether the millions in pesos spent on BINI concert tickets will impact the box office performance of Hello, Love, Again!, the highly anticipated reunion film of ABS-CBN’s Kathryn Bernardo and GMA 7’s Alden Richards, set to open on 14 November. Movie tickets are generally much cheaper than even the General Admission tickets for a live concert.

It’s possible that movie fans are largely different from the fans of the girl pop band BINI. Despite the Philippines being considered a poor country, there always seems to be an abundance of funds for entertainment among Filipinos. Music fans afforded Coldplay a concert at the Philippine Arena last year. We are a popular venue for concerts by numerous K-pop groups and even Korean actors who can also sing and dance. There’s always plenty of money for popular entertainers in this fun-loving country.

The only global pop megastar we seem unable to afford is Taylor Swift, whose concert venue requirement is at least 30,000 seats -- something we don’t have yet.

We might have one by 2028. In July this year, Clark International Airport Corporation announced plans to build a 35,000-seat arena in Clark, Pampanga, with an expected opening by 2028. The company might just pull it off and impress us all.

Composed of Jhoanna, Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha and Sheena, BINI has been making waves with their music and performances. Their most popular songs include “Salamin, Salamin,” “Pantropiko,” “Na Na Na,” “Lagi,” “Karera” and “Huwag Muna Tayong Umuwi.”

The group was formed in 2018 but was formally launched only in 2021, alongside their boy group counterpart, BGYO. They were trained by ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt Academy, headed by Laurenti Dyogi, who later became head of ABS-CBN’s television division. They worked hard and accepted engagements both near and far, performing with the energy and enthusiasm as if the audience were a huge crowd. By 2024, they had become the country’s top all-female band, starting to get fully booked as early as January.

Sandro’s medico-legal record

Meanwhile, here’s another showbiz-related development that is not positive at all.

There has been a leak of actor Sandro Muhlach’s medico-legal record concerning his alleged sexual abuse by independent TV contractors Jojo Nones and Richard Cruz.

The record appeared on the website Trending News Now on 31 August, as reported by pep.ph. According to pep.ph, the conclusion of the medico-legal record was: “Medico-legal evaluation shows no evident ano-genital injury at the time of examination but cannot completely exclude sexual abuse.

Muhlach’s lawyer, Czarina Quintanilla-Raz of the Puno Law Firm, reacted to the report: “We are appalled by the unlawful leakage on social media posts of the PNP Initial Medico-Legal Report of Sandro. The obvious attempt to give a false account of the incident by the perpetrators’ proxies shows gross ignorance of the law regarding how Rape through Sexual Assault is committed... We intend to hold accountable those who participated in violating Sandro’s privacy.”

On 1 September, Maggie Abraham-Garduque, the lawyer for Nones and Cruz, confirmed that the published medico-legal report is authentic, as it is part of Muhlach’s documents submitted to the Department of Justice, where the actor has filed a rape case against the independent TV contractors.

Abraham-Garduque will file her clients’ counter-affidavit with the Justice Department on 12 September.