- Filipinos in Australia feel the love from ABS-CBN stars in “Kapamilya Fun Day”
- Balladeer Erik Santos and MOR 101.9 For Life! DJ Jhai Ho spread ABS-CBN’s #JustLoveArawAraw spirit Down Under through music and laughter
Love was in the air as The Philippines’ King of Teleserye Themes Erik Santos together with MOR 101.9 For Life! DJ Jhai Ho spread ABS-CBN’s #JustLoveArawAraw spirit at the “Kapamilya Fun Day” in Australia last May 3 at the Greek Hall, Orthodox Church Grounds in Darwin City, and May 5 at the DiverCiti Centre in Brisbane City.
ABS-CBN Australia Pty Ltd., through its flagship brand The Filipino Channel (TFC) brought summer celebrations to Filipinos Land Down Under via the “Kapamilya Fun Day” event with the theme #JustLoveArawAraw. #JustLoveArawAraw is the overarching theme for the summer season of the largest and leading Filipino-owned media and entertainment company, ABS-CBN.
This year’s “Kapamilya Fun Day” has a special place for Santos himself as he is also celebrating his 15th year in the industry. The first ever champion of the competition “Star in A Million” thanked ABS-CBN for the opportunity to interpret numerous songs used for its TV series and movies that the people have grown to love.
“ABS-CBN gave me the opportunity to sing more than 40 theme songs for its TV series and Star Cinema movies. This became my way of communicating with the people who appreciate my music. I’m so grateful to everyone who loves and supports my music,” Santos shared.
Sharing his gift of music with the crowd, Santos performed the songs “Your Love” from the TV series “Dolce Amore” and “I’ll Never Go” from the iconic film “One More Chance”. Meantime, hearts were moved when he performed his hit single “Kulang Ako Kung Wala Ka”. He also had a chance to do a duet with two lucky members of the audience, Tiffany Vasquez from Brisbane and Abet Tabiolo from Darwin, who won the Sing ala King of Teleserye Theme Songs contest. The contest took on the mechanics of widely followed reality competition “I Can See Your Voice” where participants guess who the real deal or “singers” versus contestants who are simply pretending, dubbed “see-ngers.” Tabiolo won for his ‘interpretation of Santos’ competition piece years back, “This Is The Moment”.
Meantime, DJ Jhai Ho basked in the high energy from the crowd who were singing and dancing with him during his performance of the songs Shiwakare by Sassy Girls and “Sumayaw-Sumunod” by the Boyfriends. “You guys are a fun and awesome crowd!” exclaimed DJ Jhai Ho.
Since it was his first time to perform in the cities of Brisbane and Darwin, DJ Jhai Ho took the opportunity to interact with both Filipinos and non-Filipinos through games. At the Brisbane leg, the DJ and now host of “Jeepney TV’s “Showbiz Pa-More” challenged the audience to an “Acting with Jhai Ho” contest where the winner Jo Hunter gamely did a romantic-comedy skit with him. On the other hand, some of the well-loved scenes from long-running series “FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano” were reenacted during the Darwin leg, where Harold Samay emerged as winner.
Proving that they have what it takes to groove, some members of the audience joined the “Katchi Dance Contest” where participants were challenged to a dance showdown to the tune of the song “Katchi” by Ofenback vs. Nick Waterhouse, a dance craze often seen performed in the variety show “ASAP”. In the end, the smooth dance moves of Jessica Glyde of Brisbane and Valerie Sumampay of Darwin elicited the loudest cheers from the crowd.
At the end of each show, the crowd, Santos, and DJ Jhai Ho all left the venue with their hearts filled with joy from the moments they shared with the Filipino community, inspiring them to continue spreading the #JustLoveArawAraw spirit wherever they may be.
For more updates about TFC events, visit facebook.com/TFCAustralia. Connect with fellow global Kapamilyas and follow @KapamilyaTFC and KapamilyaGlobalPR on Twitter and Instagram.
