May 10: Filipina singer Charice, is 21-years-old today.

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Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco – known professionally as Charice- was born May 10, 1992 in Laguna, Philippines. To help support her family, she began entering singing contests at age seven, from town fiestas in various provinces to singing competitions on TV. 


In 2005 Charice joined Little Big Star, a talent show in the Philippines loosely patterned after American Idol. Eliminated after her first performance, she was called back as a wildcard contender and eventually placed third. Charice made minor appearances on local television shows and commercials, but essentially disappeared musically after  Little Big Star.

It was not until 2007 that she gained worldwide recognition after an avid fan of hers, Dave Dueñas, under the username FalseVoice, started posting a series of her performance videos on YouTube. These videos received over 15 million hits.
Dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as "the most talented girl in the world," she released her first international studio album Charice in 2010. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number-eight, making Charice the first Asian solo singer in history to land in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart.

She released the single "Pyramid" which featured singer Iyaz. It is her most successful single to-date, charting within the top 40 in a number of countries. Crossing over to acting on television, she joined the cast of TV series Glee as Sunshine Corazon.

Charice has released a new lead single, "Before It Explodes," written by Bruno Mars, from her second studio album, Infinity. Soon after, another single, "One Day" was released on iTunes, which was co-written and co-produced by Nick Jonas. "Louder," her next single, which was bundled with another song, "Lost The Best Thing, was released on May 20.

In March 2012, she signed on to be one of the four judges of the Philippine version of The X Factor, which began to air on ABS-CBN in June. On June 2, 2013, Charice confirmed that she is a lesbian during an interview with Boy Abunda at The Buzz in the Philippines.

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For more about Charice, visit her Website at –

www.charicemusic.com

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