Himig Kapatiran Choir at the Himig Caviteno Choral Festival. We weren't really planning on joining the competition. It was Jen Bustillo (Ate Chikay) and Joyce Amigo (Ate Joyce) who pushed us to join the competition.
They repeatedly said that joining the competition was something we should do, we already have songs to pick from (because of almost a year of practice for our 25th anniversary concert). We could just enjoy the moment and have fun in joining the competition.
We were all hesitant at first, especially when people from the competition came and recorded us during one of our rehearsals (later we found out it wasn't for a pre-judging test, but for an avp). But then, after our concert, everybody jumped in and it was like, what the hell, let's just join the competition.
February 18, 2011
The day before the competition, Dave Miralles (Kuya Dave) and Ginger Silva (Ate Ginger/ Dyosa) had to make a very difficult decision. They had to remove one member from the group (well not really from the group but from joining the competition).
The limit was 21 members, we were 22. The only way to go was to have a quartet and distinguish which amongst us would be removed. Each group was composed of a soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Each group sung Only You and Bahay, I felt the tension in the room. Everybody was fidgeting and singing those two song repeatedly. Nobody could stay where they were seated and everybody just kept on moving from one place to another. Each group sung, even though the two songs had been sung and practiced for almost an eternity, people were still making mistakes, thank you tension and stress.
In the end somebody had to go. And we were down to 21 members, us and our conductor Ate Ginger. We still practiced until almost 12 midnight.
February 19, 2011
It was "The Day", everybody was nervous but we still had a laugh here and there. Especially when we were fixing ourselves up. We were Pucca girls as styled by Melody Tinasas, Kuya Dave and Jubert. We even shared lunch together before the big event.We got there at SM Rosario early, and it was funny when we walked into the Cinema Hall the Choir being shown at the AVP was us! For me and Hazel, it was a sign that we were going to do well that evening.
As usual, we had fun even before the competition began. Ate Ginger picked lucky number one and we started fixing ourselves up. I remember putting funda and blush on the guys, because the "make up artist" there just dabbed her brush into some unknown powder and put it in the guys faces,really make up artist ka?We were nervous but we still had fun waiting for the competition to start, we were laughing at random things, while Ate Ginger was furious because of the delayed start of the program. I, however, observed something sad, the other group looked unhappy and nervous (nervous ka na nga unhappy pa).
The Competition
As we went on stage, it was a now or never kind of feeling. We waited for Ate Chikay's interview avp to end, Ate Ginger repeatedly smiled at us and told us to smile, I started laughing for some unknown reason.We started to sing, and I felt nice, people were taking videos and photos of us. I guess we all remembered what Kuya Dave and Ate Ginger repeatedly told us, feel the song and have fun. The mood changed when we sang Bahay, Jubert said that he was close to tears when we sang that song. Singing about poverty doesn't really spell good vibes.
HKC Grand Champs
And it all got down to the announcement of winners, Ate Ginger told us not to expect anything, and really we didn't expect to win, we had no choreography and that's10% of the score. When they announced the 2nd and 1st runner-up and said that the grand champion's score was 90.57, I was like that could not be us, but the crowd kept pointing to us, and they were saying "number 1!"
And it was announced, we won! Everybody was hugging each other, the sopranos and altos had a group hug that not even a needle can penetrate
we won, and we didn't even had a choreo for our performance but we won.
After a year of practice for our concert, and for this, it was worth it, every sweat and tear, after all the tardiness on reporting for school or work, the haggard nights of going home around 11 pm or 12am. The countless debates on which songs to sing. It's all worth it, to see Jhang in a super fit uniform, to hear Topher's voice which hit the right notes, to see Ate Ginger and Kuya Dave smile, to hear beautiful songs and have a family that will stand by you forever, who would scream at you and nag you when you do something st*pid and horrible. It's all worth it.
