Comedienne and author Ethyl Gabison, 42, who is professionally known as Ethel Booba, won the first ever “Tawag ng Tanghalan” celebrity edition. It is a singing competition in the ABS-CBN variety show “It’s Showtime.”
Including Booba, seven celebrities competed in the grand finals of the singing competition, which aired live on ABS-CBN on November 9, 2019. The others were Thor Dulay, Apple Chu, Ana Ramsey, Brenan Espartinez, Roxanne Barcelo and Jason Fernandez.
The grand final round had two parts. In the first part, Booba sang “What Kind of Fool am I?” originally by Sammy Davis Jr.
From seven grand finalists, three were chosen to compete in the second round. Aside from Booba, the other contestants who made it to the Top 3 were Barcelo and Fernandez, who sang “Diamonds” by Marilyn Monroe and “Mangarap Ka” by AfterImage, respectively.
In the second round, Fernandez sang “Next In Line” by AfterImage while Barcelo sang “How Did You Know” by Chiqui Pineda. Booba sang “I’ll Never Say Goodbye” by Regine Velasquez, who also has a version of “What Kind of Fool am I?”
To choose the winner, text and online votes from the audience were combined with the scores of the judges namely Ogie Alcasid, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Randy Santiago, Karylle, Nyoy Volante, Mitoy Yunting, Jolina Magdangal, Karla Estrada, Dulce and Louie Ocampo, who served as the punong hurado (chairman of the board of judges). The viewers were given only the commercial break to send their votes.
In the end, Barcelo earned 23.39 percent of the combined audience votes and judges’ scores putting her in the third spot. Fernandez earned 36.79 percent making him the runner-up.
Booba received 39.82 percent making her the grand champion. Watch the full episode of “It’s Showtime” on November 9, 2019 here:
CONAN Daily 