PDA

I like watching this show more than Pinoy Idol. As an eternally frustrated chanteuse, I stand by to all the lessons taught by the voice mentors in every episode they air. Kitchy Molina, Monet Silvestre, Joey Reyes and headmaster Ryan Cayabyab are the teachers inside the Academy where the scholars get to live for four months of learning the fundamentals and becoming multimedia artists. What a perfect curriculum for a scholar living his or her dream.



From Wiki:
Pinoy Dream Academy (also known as PDA) is the Philippine version of Endemol's Star Academy. The format is similar to Big Brother, where a set number of finalists (billed as "scholars" throughout the series) would live inside the Academy for four months and will be trained by guest teachers to be multimedia performers. Activities in the Academy are being monitored 24/7 by the headmaster. It uses the tagline "The drama behind the dream".

What captures my interest more is the entire process they go through from scratch. From their first week they have been taught how to relax the jaw and exercise their facial muscles for enough air support, for better musicality and extended vocal range. All the while I thought singing was just belting out the words, but now I realized it is beyond the lyrics and harmony. To be an effective performer means you have to start with the technicalities and project your desired image to the audience. In the end, you come out as a unique artist, equipped with the talent and with the musical intelligence that will make you distinct from the other artists.

I really love this show despite its late airing schedule on television. And if I would play juror to these scholars, I would say their progress over the past weeks has been impressive and they are coming out better and better in each and every gala performance night.

Incidentally, the gala night is the best segment of the show for me. It kind of brings me back to the days where I joined singing competitions and aspired to be a singer. Seriously!