Music champ takes pride in giving honour to country

How does it feel being the first Filipino Grand Champion Performer of the World out of an international singing competition that has been gathering the cream of the best singers from all over the globe?

By Guil Franco (Correspondent)

Published: Tue 1 Aug 2006, 12:21 PM

Last updated: Sat 4 Apr 2015, 4:24 PM

For Jed Madela, it's not as financially rewarding as what a four-time world boxing champion like Manny Pacquiao is enjoying, in terms of prize money and endless commercial endorsements from burgers to soy sauce, but it's simply giving pride and honour to the race he belongs.

Now on its 10th year in the US, the singing competition, dubbed as the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA, also known as the Talent Olympics) saw Jed winning in six categories and bringing home the grand prize last year.

"It was a dry-run on our part," he said at a recent interview in the Quezon City (Metro Manila) office of Universal Records, the company that released his debut album last year, "Jed Madela, Songs Rediscovered." According to him, Ida Henares, his manager back then, heard about the competition.

"Someone contacted her for that so she organised everything, from sponsorships of our plane fares to where we're going to stay for the duration of the week-long contest. I went there with Risa Navales, another singer that Ida handled. We didn't know anything about it. We went there as a trial and luckily, I won.

Then again, winning the grand prize over 3,000 contestants from 52 countries is no luck after all. First, you really got to have talent, the x-factor that other contenders didn't have considering in the United States alone, as Jed revealed, there were about 500 contestants. "Of course, homecourt advantage. It's easy for them to join. Other countries had 200 to 300 contestants. The Philippines only had two," he added.

There were six categories whereby Jed won the golds. For the pop category, he sang I'm Your Angel. For the original song category, meaning a composition from the singer's home country, he did Martin Nievera's old hit, Be My Lady. For Broadway (Home), pop duet (with Risa Navales, they sang (Last Night of the World), gospel (Take Me Out of the Dark), and for the final song that made him grand champion, it's Aerosmith's I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing.

He also brought home two Champion of the World plaques, one star trophy for the award Grand Champion of the World in the singing division and a huge diamond trophy for the most-coveted Grand Champion Performer of the World.