celebrity duets: season 3 contestants revealed

after 2 successful seasons of the localized reality show celebrity duets, gma 7 will launch another set of contestants for its third season. this will start on august 29 and will replace another talent search, are you the next big star which was concluded last night.

the contestants this season includes:

> veteran actress and director gina alajar
> fashion designer maxi cinco
> entrepreneur joel cruz
> photographer nicollo cosme
> champion boxer nonito donaire, jr
> beauty queen janina san miguel

> model akihiro sato
> actor and producer jomari yllana

the show will still be hosted by couple regine velasquez and ogie alcasid. the judges for this season are freddie santos, danny tan and season 1's grand winner tessa prieto valdez.

image is from: http://www.starmometer.com/2009/08/19/celebrity-duets-3-contestants-revealed/

celebrity duets season 2: bayani fernando is declared the season's winner

after 12 weeks of intense competition, mmda chairman bayani fernando became the champion of the second season of celebrity duets. bayani fernando bested the 2 other finalists designer jc buendia and basketball player turned comedian turned politician joey marquez. previously eliminated contestants were fitness guru and host cory quirino, former miss international melanie marquez, celebrity chef jl cang, soccer player phil younghusband, and beauty queen carlene aguilar.

on the last night of competition, each finalist sang a duet with their favorite partner that they have previously sang with. bayani fernando partnered with pilita corrales, joey marquez sang with kempee de leon and jc buendia chose allan k. in the second round, they each sang with a new partner. bayani sang with basil valdez, jc sang with jonalyn viray and joey sang with pops fernandez.

but in the end, it was bayani fernando's text votes that was on top, earning him the top spot. as the winner, he will receive 1 millio pesos; half of which will go to his chosen charities; caritas manila and child house.

celebrity duets: carlene aguilar eliminated

after 10 weeks of elimination, the final three of the second season of celebrity duets philippines was known. and after all the performances, beauty queen carlene aguilar was the one eliminated just before the finale show.

the show started with a retro number from the remaining contenders. each of them then performed a duet. here was the night's duets in order of performance:

1. joey marquez with pekto nacua - "sexbomb"

2. bayani fernando with pinky marquez - "amor, amor, amor"

3. carlene aguilar with mocha - "lady marmalade"

4. jc buendia with franco laurel - "with a little help from my friends"

at the end of the night, the final three contenders that would advance to the final night was announced. the first one called to safety was bayani fernando. followed by jc buendia. it was down to joey marquez and carlene, with joey winning over carlene, booking an all-male final showdown.

carlene was the last female remaining in the contest. she performed duets with the likes of agot isidro, aicelle santos, rochelle pangilinan, duncan ramos, dulce, karylle, katrina halili, jay durias, maureen larazabal and mocha. she had more confidence now and has exhibited versatility, performing ballads, rock, pop song and even fast songs. lasting 10 weeks was definitely an achievement to this former mutya winner.

celebrity duets: jl cang eliminated

celebrity chef jl cang became the third celebrity voted out of celebrity duets last saturday. after melanie marquez and cory quirirno, jl got the lowest votes of the 6 remaining contenders after 2 weeks of voting since last episode was a pre-determined non-elimination episode.

the elimination came after 2 solid performances from jl. he started the show with some shaky and average performances. he found his niche last week with his duet with 6cyclemind's lead vocalist ney with "iskul bukol". last saturday, jl got good reviews from the judges after his rendition of the parokya ni edgar hit "mr. suave" with singing partner gian magdangal.

the remaining five contenders sang the following songs with their duet partners: carlene aguilar with partner karylle - "beautiful liar", jc buendia with partner joey generoso of side a - "tuloy pa rin ako", joey marquez with partner mike hanapol - " katawan", bayani fernando with partner julie ann of sugar pop - "somewhere over the rainbow" and phil younghusband with partner hayden kno" - "you've lost that loving feeling".

for me, the top three for the night was carlene, jl and batyani fernando. i would still go for jc buendia as the weakest performer last saturday.

celebrity duets season 2: week 5 is again a non-elimination week

week 5 of the philippine version of celebrity duets is another non-elimination week. this is the 3rd time in 5 weeks that the episode was non-elimination. the first two weeks were also non-elimination episodes also. the votes will be carried over to next week where another celebrity will be eliminated.

the songs and duet partners of the contestants for week 5 are as follows:

mmda chaiman bayani fernando with partner john lapuz - copacobana
chef jl cang with partner ney of 6cyclemind - iskul bukol
soccer hunk phil younghusband with partner sheree - i'm too sexy
comedian joey marquez with partner kyla - friend of mine
designer jc buendia with partner yasmien kurdi - raindrops keep falling on my head
beauty queen carlene aquilar with partner dulce - halik

for me, top 3 for this week would be chef jl, bayani fernando and carlene aguilar. the bottom group includes phil, joey and jc. i think the weakest performance this week was from designer jc buendia.