JOGJA MEMOIR

kemaren hari jumat tepatnya tanggal 9 Oktober 2010, jam 9 pula.. aku berangkat ke Jogja, bareng ma temen - temen naik avansa
kita berempat dan perjalanannya cukup jauh, diselingi ujan deras dijalan yang bikin licin jalanan, sehingga membuat gerak mobil sedikit pelan.
ya mirip orang jawa bilang " alon - alon asal kelakon", dalam perjalanan kami penuh dengan canda tawa, becanda so ga bikin ngantuks tapi sayangnya ditengah perjalanan ku mengalami mual, dan pusing tentunya, gila baru kali ini, bisanaya ci ga sampai gitu paling langsung muntah, hahahaha
dasar pembawa bencana tuh pusing, akhirnya gwe tepar dimobil dan bersandar dipangkuan temanku, dikasih minyak telon eh minyak kayu putih kayaknya, lumayang hangat dan itu membuatku ngantuk dan mulai tertidur....
selang waktu beberpa lama, perjalanan sudah sampai Magelang, dan saat itu pula aku terbangun, aku tidak tahu aku sendiri merasa aneh dengan tubuh ini, hanya bersentuhan dengan mobil dan mencium bau bensin sudah membuatku mual, malah dibilang " dasar orang kampung naik mobil saja muntah" hahahaha Itu ungkapan dulu, tapi untungnya mereka tidak keberatan ketika aku memuntahkan seisi perutku kedalam mobilnya, aku tidak bisa menahannya sama sekali, tidak ada waktu ngomong untuk bilang "minta plastik dunk" namanya orang kebelet kayak mau melahirkan saja.. Andy, Andy, Andy, dari dulu sampai sekarang tidak pernah berubah (omonganku dalam hati) semoga tidak ada yang marah, altho' dalam hati mereka mungkin menyimpan rasa tidak enak, "au ah lap, yang penting depan aku mereka tidak ngomong apa - apa, hehehe
tidak lama kemudian kami sudah nyampai diJogja dan muter - muter kesana kemari nyari tempat penginapan yang semuanya terlihat sudah penuh dan tidak ada tempat yang kosong, kami melewati Malioboro yang saat itu malam hari tepatnya hampir pagi ya sekitar jam 2 malam kami baru menemukan tempat singgah, tepatnya hotel gtu, "jangan pikiran macam - macam loh" hehehe
dan anehnya pada malam dimana kami melewati hotel disana, ternyata ada pasangan muda - mudi eh tepatnya ga muda lagi ding udah tuir, xixixixi
ibunya Bule tulen dan dan bapaknya, tepatnya mirip om - om ma tante - tante gitu deh, hahaha tanpa panjang berpikir mereka, mereka berbuat senonoh didepan rumah dan dilihat banyak orang mereka hanya cuek dan terus melanjutkan minum alkohol sampai kami lewat untuk yang kesekian kalinya, mereka betah sekali, dasar bule tidak tahu diri kalau sudah nafsu pasti tidak kenal tempat.
ingin ku sampaikan dengan bahasa inggrisku yang lumayan jago, bahwa kau "bitch, go to hell n do it there" lol......
itulah hal yang aneh, eh tidak aneh menrutku sudah menjadi hal kebiasaan untuk mereka melakukan hal - hal seperti itu, bahkan konyol dan menjijikan, aku bersumpah serapah " laknat kau manusia zina" hehehe
tapi kembali kenormal lagi, sudahlah itu hak mereka, ngapain aku ikut - ikutan segala seperti tidak ada pekerjaan saja.
sesampainya dikamar hotel, kami kelaparan dan memutuskan untuk membuat POP Mie saja, daripada harus keluar jauh warungnya choiiiiiyyyyyy, masa harus muter - muter lagi, capek deehhhhhhh
jam 3 pagi itu kami baru selesai makan, lama nunggu airnya mendidih ci... pada akhirnya aku harus mandi dan membersihkan muka dulu sebelum akhirnya kami tertidur pulas dan bangun kesiangan. Perjalanan dimulai ketika aku mulai menampakan wajahku menyambut datangnya mentari, mentari yang saat itu malu untuk keluar dari sarangnya, terhalang oleh awan gelap yang menutupi kota Jogja....
masih ada bagian lain sampai disini dulu besok saya ceritakan kembali lanjutannya, ada kejadian seru tidak boleh terlewatkan hwhehehe

charice biography

Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco (born May 10, 1992), better known as Charice, is a Filipina singer who rose to popularity through YouTube. Dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as the Most Talented Girl in the World, she is the first Asian artist in history to land in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart.Crossing over to television acting, she has brought her vocal prowess to the hit TV series Glee where she plays a recurring character named Sunshine Corazon.
Early life

Pempengco was born in Laguna, Philippines. Raised by a single mother, she helped support the family by joining amateur singing contests at age seven, from town fiestas in various provinces to singing competitions on TV. She is said to have joined almost a hundred singing contests.
In 2005, Pempengco joined Little Big Star, a talent show in the Philippines loosely patterned after American Idol. Eliminated after her first performance, she was later called back as a wildcard contender and eventually became a finalist. Although she was a consistent top scorer in the final rounds, she only finished in third place based on text voting.
Pempengco made minor appearances on local television shows and commercials, but essentially had fallen off the radar after her stint at Little Big Star. It was not until 2007 that she gained worldwide recognition after an avid supporter started posting a series of her performance videos on YouTube under the username FalseVoice. These videos received millions of hits making Pempengco an internet phenomenon.
Career
[edit] Discovery (2007–2008)

In June 2007, Ten Songs/Productions, a music publishing company in Sweden, invited Pempengco to a demo-recording after producers saw her Little Big Star videos. She recorded seven songs - six covers and an original song entitled "Amazing".[9]

For being one of the finalists of Little Big Star, she was invited to the South Korean talent show Star King. On its October 13, 2007 edition, she sang "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" and a duet with Kyuhyun, from Super Junior.[10]

After watching her Star King performance on YouTube, Ellen DeGeneres extended an on-air invitation to Pempengco to guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She flew to the United States for the first time and performed two songs on the December 19, 2007 episode of the show - "I Will Always Love You" and "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".[11][12][13]

Following her American debut on Ellen, she made a second appearance on Star King as the "Most Requested Foreign Act" of the show. On its December 28 edition, she performed Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and sang a duet with singer Lena Park.[8]

In January 2008, she was invited to the Malacañang Palace where she performed for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.[14] She returned to the international scene when she guested on the April 8 episode of The Paul O'Grady Show in London, England.[15]

Her self-titled Philippine debut album Charice was released in May 2008. The mini album, consisting of six songs and six backing tracks, was awarded gold certification in the Philippines in October 2008.[16] The album eventually achieved platinum status in 2009.[17]

Pempengco appeared on the May 12 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode entitled the "World's Smartest Kids", where she performed Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing.[18] After the show, Oprah Winfrey contacted David Foster to see what the legendary music producer could do for Pempengco.[6] She performed with Foster for the first time as one of the entertainers on the May 17 opening of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Connecticut.[19]

She made her debut on the international concert stage in Foster's May 23 tribute concert, Hitman: David Foster and Friends, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. She performed a medley of songs from The Bodyguard as well as her standard, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".[5] A CD/DVD of the concert, including Pempengco's The Bodyguard medley, was released on November 11, 2008. The show was aired several times on PBS and other public television networks starting in December 2008 under the Great Performances banner.[20]

One of the singers at the concert was Pempengco's idol, Andrea Bocelli.[21] Bocelli subsequently expressed interest in performing a duet with her[22] and personally invited her to be a guest on his birthday concert "The Cinema Tribute" held on July 20 at the Teatro del Silenzio in his hometown of Lajatico, Tuscany, Italy. Aside from her solo performance, she sang a duet of "The Prayer" with the famous tenor in front of more than 8,000 people.[6][23][24][25]

She was invited to perform for the Feyenoord's Centennial Anniversary in the Netherlands held on September 26. Before a crowd of about 50,000 football (soccer) fans, she sang the team's anthem, "You'll Never Walk Alone."[26]

When she guested on the "Dreams Come True" episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show on September 9, Oprah referred to her as "The Most Talented Girl in the World." She sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" with David Foster on piano, after which Oprah surprised her with an appearance by Celine Dion via satellite, who invited her to sing a special duet at New York City's Madison Square Garden as part of Dion's Taking Chances Tour.[6][27]

She performed her promised duet with Celine Dion on September 15. They sang "Because You Loved Me," dedicated to Pempengco's mother. The performance received rave reviews in The New York Post and The New York Times.[28][29][30] The duet was eventually featured on the September 19 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.[31] She would then perform at the Andre Agassi Grand Slam for Children Benefit Concert at the Wynn Las Vegas casino resort.[32][33]

In November, she and David Foster guested on Good Morning America to promote Foster's tribute album, Hitman: David Foster and Friends. She performed The Bodyguard medley and "I Will Survive."[34][35]
[edit] Move to the United States (2009–2010)

In January 2009, Pempengco performed at two US presidential pre-inaugural events in Washington, D.C., namely the Martin Luther King Jr "Realizing The Dream" gala at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and at the "Pearl Presidential Inaugural Gala" at the Mandarin Hotel.[36][37][38][39]

In February, she performed at two post-Oscar award events: Oscar Night at Mr. Chow's and Oprah's Oscar After Party held in Kodak Theatre.[40][41][42] She debuted a new original song entitled "Fingerprint" composed by Robbie Nevil and produced by David Foster.[43]

In April, she appeared in the season premiere of Ti lascio una canzone, an Italian musical variety show televised from Teatro Ariston in the city of Sanremo.[44] She performed "I Will Always Love You", "I Have Nothing", "The Prayer", and "Listen".[45] Later that same month, she would go on to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in front of 57,000 baseball fans during the Los Angeles Dodgers 52nd season home opener at Dodger Stadium.[46][47]

In May, she released her Philippine second album entitled My Inspiration. The album consisted of 12 tracks, including "Always You" and a cover of Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World" performed as a duet with her mother.[48] The album was certified gold in the Philippines within two months after release,[49] and then platinum in December 2009.[50] Also in May, she would again perform at a David Foster and Friends concert held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.[51]

On the May 18 episode "Finale: Oprah's Search for the World's Most Talented Kids" of The Oprah Winfrey Show, she debuted her first internationally released single "Note to God", written by Diane Warren and produced by David Foster. The single was made available for digital download on the same day and debuted at #24 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, #44 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, #9 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles chart and #35 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.[52][53][54] Later that same month, she was again invited to sing at the Ti lascio una canzone show as a special guest.[55][56]

She staged her first major concert called: Charice: The Journey Begins on June 27 at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Philippines to a sold-out crowd.[49] Her guests included Christian Bautista, Kuh Ledesma and Little Big Star finalists.[57]

Pempengco contributed to two Christmas albums in 2009. The first as David Archuleta's duet partner for the song "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" in his Christmas album entitled Christmas from the Heart.[58] The second is a compilation Christmas album entitled A Very Special Christmas Volume 7 in which she contributed her own rendition of "The Christmas Song".[59][60] She was one of the headlining acts in the David Foster and Friends 10-City North American Tour that ran during the fall of 2009.[61][62]

She made a cameo appearance in her first feature film, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, released in North America on December 23.[63] She is also part of the official movie soundtrack with her rendition of "No One" by Alicia Keys accompanied by The Chipettes.[64] Later in the month, she appeared on Singapore Idol's grand finale episode as a guest performer, where she performed two of her signature songs, The Bodyguard medley and "Note to God".
Voice

Prior to her American performances, it was reported that Pempengco never received any formal vocal training apart from informal voice lessons from her mother.[78][5]

In an ABC News interview, David Foster mentioned that she has the ability to mimic other people's voices, which, according to him, is a characteristic of good singers.[79] In a separate interview, Josh Groban stated that Charice's voice is one of the most beautiful voices he has heard in a long time.[80] The New York Post once called her a vocal prodigy for being able to sing 'big songs' even in her tender age.[29] Ryan Murphy, the executive music producer of the hit US television series Glee, has described her voice by stating that "when that girl opens her mouth, angels fly out."

Maher Zain Biography

Maher Zain was born on 1982 in Lebanon. His family moved to Sweden when Maher was only eight, where he continued his schooling. Maher got his first keyboard when he was only ten. He later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering. During his teenage years, he like to spend late nights at school with his friends where they would sing, rap, compose and experiment with music in every way.
Singer & songwriter Maher Zain is the new star of Modern Islamic Music with his meaningful songs that aim to inspire and entertain people and send a message of peace and hope to the world. Quick Facts & Links: Name: Maher Zain Age: 28 Years old Nationali...ty: Swedish (of Lebanese origin) Education: BA in Aeronautical Engineering Previous Job: Music Producer Worked with in the past: RedOne: Akon, Lady Gaga, etc Album Name: Thank You Allah Number of Tracks: 13 Release Date: 1st of November 2009 Record Label: Awakening Records Facebook Page with close to 400,000 fans: http://www.facebook.com/MaherZain Music Videos: 1- Palestine Will Be Free Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foSbqLi6U10 2 A- Insha Allah Music Video English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfXIF2Mm2Kc 2 B- Insha Allah Music Video French version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvger_C4LN8 2 C- Insha Allah Music Video Turkish version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPZPpnqtexI 2 D- Insha Allah Music Video Arabic version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PACjNsQF0Z0 3- The Chosen One Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbICjWI7Vrw Biography: Leaving behind a lucrative career in the mainstream music industry in New York wherein he worked with internationally renowned producer RedOne who has worked with chart-topping artists Akon, Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias and the late Michael Jackson to mention just a few, Maher chose instead to make music which reflects his roots of being both European, Arab and Muslim and he is working with Awakening Records (who launched the career of British artist Sami Yusuf) to inspire the youth across the world. In early March 2010, Maher's debut album Thank You Allah (released by Awakening Records) was the No.1 highest selling album on Amazon (in the world music section). Maher has already had concerts in Sweden, Canada, Australia, US, UK, France, Egypt, Algeria, and Bahrain to mention just a few. With his passion, incredible talent and unique style, the sky is the limit for Maher. Maher’s first musical inspiration came from his father, who was a singer himself, performing locally in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Tripoli - Lebanon. Fascinated by the music and instruments, Maher got his first keyboard when he was only ten and ever since music officially became an integral part of Maher’s world. His family moved to Sweden when Maher was only 8, where he continued his schooling, and later entered university and got a Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering. With things changing around him, one thing remained the same - his strong passion for music. He would spend late nights at school with his friends where they would sing, rap, compose and experiment with music in every way. It didn’t take him long to realize that music became an integral part of who he is. After being involved for a while in the music scene as a music producer, Maher was introduced to RedOne, a gifted music producer who was fast rising in the music scene in Sweden. Maher started working with RedOne and later moved to New York. For a few years he was in the middle of the hot rush of the NY music industry, working with chart topping artists such as Kat Deluna on her debut album including smash hits ‘Whine up’ and ‘Run the Show’. Maher had what many would describe as a dream job for someone so young in such a glamorous business, but for Maher it felt like this was far from what he would call ‘the dream’, “I loved the music but I hated everything that surrounded it, it always felt like something wasn’t right”. In January 2009, Maher Zain decided to work on an album that reflects his identity – Arab, Western and Muslim - and signed with Awakening Records. Maher’s debut album Thank You Allah reached the number 1 spot on Amazon’s World Music charts and number 9 on the R&B charts. In January 2010, in a music competition organized by Nujoom FM (Egypt’s biggest music radio station) Maher’s track ‘Ya Nabi Salam Alayka’ was voted as the Best Song for 2009. Runners up included big names like Hussein Aljismi, Mohammed Mounir and Sami Yusuf. Maher has already performed at sold out concerts in Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Holland, Sweden, and the US amongst others and is fast becoming the ‘next superstar of Islamic music’. Maher Zain’s album mixes the sounds of R&B with traditional spiritual, soul and contemporary pop music, not just updating spiritual music and inshad but fearlessly reviving it with contemporary flair. Maher’s debut album Thank You Allah is an instant classic of great power and timeless, unassailably intense spirituality. Maher is fast becoming recognized as one of modern Islamic Music’s seminal voices after his ground-breaking single and animated music video “Palestine Will Be Free,” his music video “Insha Allah” shot on location in London and directed by famous British director Mike Harris who has worked with Coldplay and Madonna among others, and his latest video “The Chosen One” - about the life and the peaceful teachings of Prophet Muhammad - shot in Los Angeles. Maher Zain is clearly poised to take up modern Islamic Music to a new level. As a supremely gifted artist and producer, Maher brings his music to a wider audience not by watering down his message, but by making songs of supreme power, conviction, and glorious beauty, fusing elements of R&B, traditional spiritual music, pop, Arabic and Turkish music into daring arrangements. After his experience in the Music Industry, Maher feels blessed to able to finally find the right way, put his talent to its best use, and produce music that is closer to his roots, and he feels like it’s his turn now to help others through his music to do the same: “If I had one thing I’d like to tell people out there it would be that it’s so easy to see the right way if we just open our eyes and look properly; that’s what happened to me.”