PHILIPPINES: Filipinos in poor neighborhoods engage in "videoke" singing to forget about their everyday hardships

Record ID: 772384

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Filipinos in poor neighborhoods engage in "videoke" singing to forget about their everyday hardships
  • Date: 13th April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) SELLER OF VIDEOKE MACHINES, ROMULO CHUA SAYING: "In my opinion, it's the cheapest way of entertainment for us. For example, if you have one during a birthday party, you don't have to entertain your guests. Just show them the videoke, and they're free to sing."
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVAB1NNJSZZD6XHDLZR8BH0ZCTN7
  • Story Text: The Philippines' poor warm up their vocal chords and pick up the mic, in an effort to sing away their hardships. Filipinos love to sing. Every celebration, from town fiestas to birthday parties, cannot commence without the requisite song number.
    In fact, "videoke" machines or life size boom boxes carrying a selection of videoke songs with accompanying videos are a common sight in Manila's poor neighborhoods.
    "In my opinion, it's the cheapest way of entertainment for us. For example, if you have one during a birthday party, you don't have to entertain your guests. Just show them the videoke, and they're free to sing," says Romulo Chua, who loves videoke singing so much he started running a business selling videoke machines.
    Jun Vista, who works in a car wash, engages in videoke singing with his drinking buddies.
    "When we drink, it's not nice when you're the only one not singing. Even if you're out of tune, you have to sing," he says.
    With selections ranging from classic ballads to funky pop tunes, videokes provide a brief respite from everyday hardships in impoverished areas.
    "Here in the slum areas, when they have problems, they drink a little and sing videoke. For a moment, they forget about their problems," says Erlu Barcarcel, a clothes vendor.
    Jobless folk while away their idle hours on the videoke.
    Children dance to the latest beats and elders reminisce the good old days.
    The videoke machine even generates a score for every "performance."
    Dr. Vern dela Pena, a musicologist from the University of the Philippines, says: "Singing allows you to be somewhere else. It's a different time zone. You are like Frank Sinatra or whoever, you're into that song. And whether it's true that, whether the lyrics mean anything to you or not, it's a magical moment that is separate from ordinary life."
    According to a study conducted by the Social Weather Stations, a public opinion polling body in the Philippines, 3.4 million families in the Philippines have had to deal with hunger in the last three months.
    The situation is worse in the rural areas where 65 percent of the country's poor reside.
    But it's not only poverty that some are escaping. Nerissa Fernando, 22, misses her husband who works overseas and sings her blues away with the videoke.
    "It eases my loneliness because I sing our theme song and then I feel he's right beside me," she says.
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