Entertainment

1st Wish 107.5 Music Awards A triumphant night of music & charity

The Philippine Star

February 4, 2016 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines – The first Wish 107.5 Music Awards (WMA) staged last Jan. 26 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum was a huge success as thousands of music lovers gathered to witness an evening celebrating Filipino music.

Gerald Santos kicked off the program with his live performance of the Wish 107.5 jingle. This was followed by a jaw-dropping pop-rock medley of Elvis Presley, Queen and The Beatles hit songs performed by The Voysing, Jek Manuel, Sassa Dagdag, Juan Karlos Labajo and Darren Espanto.

The audience was further pumped up as Morissette Amon and Darren shared the stage to sing a duet of Sia’s Chandelier. They had previously performed the song individually inside the Wish 107.5 bus.

Singing classic love songs such as Almost Paradise, Perfect Combination, Always and Way Back Into Love were Leah Patricio, Maki Ricafort, Daryl Ong, Morissette, Paolo Onesa and Beverly Caimen during a stunning duets’ medley.

Another medley followed, with Marlo Mortel, Jason Fernandez, Brad Go and Nyoy Volante crooning acoustic classics such as Sound of Silence, Dust in the Wind, Tears in Heaven, More Than Words and Be With You. Jessica Reynoso and Maki also shared a duet of R&B/Motown hits.

Capping off the performances were Leah and Beverly's powerful duet of Beyoncé's Listen.

A total of P1.1M was given to six different beneficiaries personally chosen by the winners of the major award categories in the WMA.

World Vision was the chosen beneficiary of Darren, who won four major awards, namely: Best WISHclusive Performance by a Young Artist for Chandelier, Wish Ballad Song of the Year for I Believe In Me, Wish Original Song of the Year for Stuck and Wish Young Artist of the Year, received a total of P400,000.

Food for the Hungry Philippines received P300,000 as Jason Dy’s selected beneificiary. He won three major awards — Wish Urban Song of the Year for Milagro, Best Wishclusive Performance by a Male Artist for Stay With Me/See You Again mash-up and Wish Male Artist of the Year.

5th Gen’s beneficiary, the Divine Mercy Mobile Center of Music and Arts Therapy, was granted a financial assistance worth P100,000. 5th Gen took home the award Best Wishclusive Performance by a Group for its single Contagious.

The wish-granting station also donated P100,000 to I Fight Against Human Trafficking, the chosen charitable institution of Yeng Constantino. The OPM star won the Best Wishclusive Performance by a Female Artist for Ikaw.

Another P100,000 cash assistance was extended to each of the chosen beneficiaries of Sponge Cola and Morissette — Child Haus and Home for the Angels, Sta. Ana Manila, respectively.

Sponge Cola’s hit single, Move On was hailed as the Wish Alternative Song of the Year. Meanwhile, Morissette was named as the Wish Female Artist of the Year.

The presenters of the awards were Wish 107.5’s very own jocks — Faye, Jelly Kiss, Ray Holiday, Flynn Rider, Alice and Princess Leigh — accompanied by some members of the panel of judges Isah Red, Cory Quirino and Andre Alvarez.

Real-life couple Robi Domingo and Gretchen Ho served as the hosts of the event.