Maureen "Mau" Flores Marcelo is the winner of the first season of Philippine Idol in 2006. Born on May 13, 1980, for a time she went by the stage name of Samantha Brown. Her father is an American citizen of African and Spanish blood from Puerto Rico while her mother is Filipina. The father left when she was four months old, then her mother died when she was 14.
Hailing from Lucena City, Mau started singing at age 7. By her 20s, she was a veteran of singing competitions, including the Star for a Night singer-search, and has won in over 200 amateur singing competitions.
Prior to Philippine Idol, Mau had also recorded a self-titled album of ten songs composed by her stepsister's husband under the name Samantha Brown. Currently, Mau lives with her long-time partner Ritchie Bonilla and their 2 children.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Mau Marcelo
Monday, December 10, 2007
Asian Idol Participation
The first season was hosted by Amelia "Ata" Natasha and Daniel Mananta, both from Indonesian Idol, and Malaysian Idol's Soo Kui Jien.
Each participating country had its own system of determining its representative.
As a kickoff to Asian Idol, all six contestants were introduced through a special presentation called Road to Asian Idol on December 8, 2007. Meanwhile, fans of each contestant will be able to choose the song they want their Idol to perform before the Asian Idol performance show. The Idols performed two songs each—one in English and another in their native language.
In addition to the coverage of Asian Idol, RCTI ran a series of features called Asian Idol Extra between late November to mid-December 2007.
Every competing country sent a judge to serve as the contestants' critics, but comments from only three judges on each performer were shown due to time constraints.
Special guests in the Results Show included American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian, Indian Idol judge Alisha Chinai, and Vietnam Idol judge Siu Black. It also featured performances by Rivermaya, Peterpan, and Agnes Monica.
The production of Asian Idol was put up with the help of the production crew from Australian Idol.
Participation details
The table below lists the contenders in Asian Idol and the songs that each performed. It also lists the representative judges and the TV networks that participated in the show. Kazakhstan's franchise is also listed below because it was originally in the line-up of countries for the show. Gold background indicates the winner of the competition and the songs performed.
Asian Idol Franchise - Representative Idol - English song:
Indian Idol - Abhijeet Sawant - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
Indonesian Idol - Mike Mohede - I Believe I Can Fly
Malaysian Idol - Jaclyn Victor - For Once in My Life
Philippine Idol - Mau Marcelo - Reach
Singapore Idol - Hady Mirza - Beautiful Day
Vietnam Idol - Phuong Vy - River Deep - Mountain High
Sunday, December 9, 2007
RP bet leading ‘Asian Idol’ poll
Marcelo has 33.51 percent of the 970 votes cast up till the evening of Dec. 8. She is followed by Vietnam’s Phuong Vy, with 23.92 percent; Indonesia’s Mike Mohede, 20.62 percent; Malaysia’s Jaclyn Victor, 12.78 percent; Singapore’s Hady Mirza, 8.04 percent; and India’s Abhijeet Sawant, 1.13 percent.
Perci Intalan, ABC 5’s head of Creative and Entertainment Production, told Inquirer Entertainment that the result of the online poll was largely indicative of the contestants’ current standing in the regional contest which is being held in Jakarta, Indonesia for the first time.
“Mau’s closest competitor seems to be Vietnam’s Phuong. Mike, on the other hand, was chosen by Indonesians in a contest among four local ‘Idol’ winners. I heard that Malaysia’s Jaclyn is a superstar in her own country, though.”
Voting system
“In sum, they’re all strong contenders,” explained Intalan who had seen the contestants’ performance videos in the “Road to Asian Idol” TV special, aired on ABC 5 last Saturday.
According to the web site, viewers will be asked to vote for two contestants to eliminate “population size … as a determining factor. It takes into account any potential national bias.”
The system was formulated by FremantleMedia, “Idol” franchise holder, to ensure a level playing field.
It’s mathematical, Intalan agreed.
However, he disagreed with the strategy being proposed by some Filipinos in websites and blogs. “To help Mau, they suggest that voters pick Mau as first choice and the weakest candidate as second. The thing is, we have no way of knowing who’s the weakest,” he clarified.
In the end, the “Asian Idol” system renders the second choice as the more crucial vote, Intalan asserted.
He also cautioned Filipinos not to put Mau as their first and second choices because their votes would be deemed “invalid.”
“If they only vote for Mau and leave the second slot empty, their votes will also be considered null and void,” he said.
Details on the voting have yet to be finalized, said Intalan.
Needless to say, Filipinos can course their votes through all the local cell phone companies, he related.
The contest’s web site also said that each county had been asked to send its own judge. An early list in Wikipedia named the following jurors: Indonesia’s Indra Lesmana, India’s Anu Malik, Malaysia’s Paul Moss, Singapore’s Ken Lim, Vietnam’s Siu Black and the Philippines’ Pilita Corrales.
Intalan also told the Inquirer that last year’s “American Idol” winner Taylor Hicks, “Australian Idol” champ Guy Sebastian and Filipino band Rivermaya had been invited to perform in the regional tilt.
RP bet leading ‘Asian Idol’ poll - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Asian Idol and Mau Marcelo
Asian Idol will soon be a reality. Support our very own Philippine Idol winner, Mau Marcelo competing.
So to all the followers of the first ever staging of PHILIPPINE IDOL, here are the dates you should watch out for:
On December 8, 2007 the network will bring you the primer, “Road to Asian Idol”.
On the 15th of December, watch out for the all important, “Asian Idol Performance Night”.
The night after, December 16, we will air the “Asian Idol Results Show”.
Asian Idol will be staged in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Inside the Philippine Idol Finale Night at the Big Dome
The Philippine Idol Finale at the Big Dome , the Araneta Coliseum rocked!
Jan Nieto, Gian Carlo Magdangal and Mau Marcelo hug each other after their Finale number. After all these months of hard work , tears and laughter, it must be a relief for them to have reached this far.
It is a close fight for all three of them. Since Philippine Idol started, it was Gian whom I thought will be the First Philippine Idol . The Finale show revealed a lot. Though I have never really liked Jan Nieto from the start, he grew on me the last 3 shows, Tonight, I liked him because he showed so much energy in his songs. He definitely raised the bar for the finale. I will not be surprised if he wins the Philippine Idol title.
Before anything else, I was wondering why there were many vacant seats in the Araneta Coliseum. I thought all the tickets were out. Sadly, there were so many vacant seats at the upper boxes. The Philippine Idol fans were looking all over for tickets. So I am wondering, what happened to these empty seats?
As usual I didn’t get my reserved tickets because of some miscommunication. But thanks to Evelyn Joseph who recognized me and my husband at the gate. We got patron seats and got seated a few seats behind the jduges.
The sounds were terrible. In fact at the beginning I could barely hear the judges’ comments. The venue rocked with the cheering fans of Jan , Mau and Gian. The noisiest and most organized belonged to Jan Nieto. In blue and silver pompons, the fans rooted and yelled loudly.
The songs sang by the Top 3 were as follows:
1. Gian Magdangal: Impossible Dream, Volare, Flying Without Wings
3. Jan Nieto: My Love Will Always Be with You , Sway, Evergreen
3. Mau Marcelo: Love Takes Time To Heal, Balut, On My Own
And the winner for each round in my opinion are as follows:
First Round- Jan Nieto
Second Round- Jan Nieto
Third Round- Mau Marcelo
Monday, October 1, 2007
Philipine Idol Top 12 Finalists
1.Armarie Cruz, 27
2.Jellica Marie Mateo, 23
3.Cherry Ann “Apple” Chiu, 22
4.Paula Patricia Chavez, 23
5.Reymond Sajor, 27
6.Paul Andrae Ybañez, 26
7.Miguel Mendoza, 17
8.Jan Kurt Nieto, 24
with the wildcard winners
9.Kenneth Dingle , 23
10. Gian Magdangal, 24
11. Stephanie Lazaro, 27
12. Maureen Marcelo, 26