A fairy tale ending to a provincial lass who has struggled most of her life to enter the music industry and make a name for herself. Mau Marcelo, the First Philippine Idol beat city boys, Jan Nieto and Gian Magdangal. As soon as Ryan Agoncillo announced Mau’s name, the audience cheered and gave a standing ovation. Mau was beyond disbelief and her knees buckled over as she teared over the announcement.
The Idol concept has always been geared to the srtuggling and talented artist. Mau fits the concept of an Idol who gathered more than two hundred trophies later,but has not really made a career out of her talents. The Philippine Idol is the break she needs. Mau deserves to win this title. There must have been fans out there generous enough to pool resources to ensure she got votes. It was a close fight for all three. Imagine Mau won by a mere 1.42% . The more detailed info was that the winner had gotten 36.26 percent of the text-votes, the runner-up garnered 33.84 percent, and the third placer got a still respectable 30.90 percent.This also means that the other two finalists were deserving of the Philippine Idol title. That’s why I had no finalist in particular during the Results Night. Mau wins one million pesos plus a recording contract with BMG-Sony and management contract with FremantleMedia who developed the highly-successful American Idol reality singing competition. That’s quite a boost to her financial situation.
Mau winning the Philippine Idol competition could bring in mass appeal which might bring in high financial returns to any recording contract . It reminds me of Nora Aunor who had the talent but limited financial capability. This petite woman appealed to the masses. Mau will surely drive her own appeal with this big break. Let’s just hope Mau learns to have more self-esteem with this title.
A few hours before the show, my husband and I talked who might be the Philippine Idol. I said that if were were to follow the concept of the Idol reality TV show, the winner should be a nobody struggling to make it. I believed Mau was it but feared the votes were not enough. Not that Gian or Jan were undeserving struggling artists. Compared to Mau, Gian and jan led a better off economic existence. So yes, Mau is truly a Philippine Idol, one that the public can look up to, a role model for any struggling singer.