Filipinos love music and we love belting out our favorite tunes as much as we love listening to them. Proof to this is the thousands of karaoke bars, kiosks, and music lounges that have sprouted all over the country. Night or day, storm signal one or three, in weddings and in funerals, a karaoke machine and a mic are never far off. There's always somebody out there belting out Aimee Torres' Pusong Bato.
Karaoke sessions are now ingrained in Filipino culture. Hell, the Philippines is even often referred to as the karaoke capital of the world. You can question the legitimacy or accuracy of such a tag but you can't take away the Filipino's enthusiasm for the microphone. Every now and then, we come across videos of Filipinos with their impressive pipes wowing crowds in streets, shopping malls, and on the stages of reality shows.
This brings us to Dodong, a blind
man from General Santos City, who is currently charming people on
Facebook with his great voice. Videos of him covering classic Filipino
and foreign songs have already been shared thousands of times online.
From
the looks of it, this is the beginning of something. That something can
be three minutes worth of fame or it can be one with longevity. We are
after all living in a country that's crazy for reality and noon time
shows. So don't be surprised if a few days from now you see Dodong
rocking out on the stage on national television. Here are two videos of
Dodong singing awesome covers of two classic OPM tunes - Ibang-Iba Ka Na by Renz Verano and Bakit Kung Sino Pa by Lloyd Umali. The videos were originally uploaded by Pobreng Nilalang on Facebook.
Dodong also sang covers of foreign songs. Visit Pobreng Nilalang's page on Facebook to view the videos. Dodong's eyesight was described as "malabo". He wasn't born blind. He started losing his eyesight while growing up. According to a post on Facebook by his sister Marnilla Millan, Dodong has three other siblings who have the same eye condition.
