Kudos to Rommel Gacho for cooking up the dazzling finals night. The opening number started with a song from the five hosts for the night: Raymond Gutierrez, Dennis Trillo, Carla Abellana, Dingdong Dantes and Nancy Castiliogne. Then past winners and finalists joined them on stage, including Jennylyn Mercado, Mark Herras, Mike Tan, Aljur Abrenica, Kris Bernal, Yasmien Kurdi, LJ Reyes, Dion Ignacio, Chariz Solomon, Paolo Avelino, Prince Stefan, and others. Then came the five finalists along with the Avengers, contestants who've been eliminated. The Avengers re-created the sequence of their eliminations with the help of their various mentors in acting, dancing, music, etc. like Gina Alajar, Jai Sabas, Barbie Chan, Abbygale Arenas and Douglas Nierras, who also did song numbers with them to the tune of songs like "Poker Face", "Paparazzi", "Nobody But You", etc. It's truly a riotous and rousing production number.
The five finalists then did solo numbers. Four of them did song and dance acts that seem to have been lipsynched. Only one didn't do an upbeat number but it's obvious she's singing live, Sarah, and she showed she's a real singer. Diva and Sarah then did a number with past female winners: Jennylyn, Kris Bernal, Ryza Cenon and Jewel Mische. Conspicuously absent was Starstruck 3 winner Jackie Rice, who chose to attend the birthday of a relative after all the breaks GMA-7 is giving her lately. Enzo, Steven and Rocco sang with Aljur, Mike, Mark, and Mart Escudero. Mike stands out among them on stage so we're wondering why his career is languishing.
Special awards were given to the Avengers. Nina Kodaka - Still Standing Strong Award. Rox Montealegre - Breakthrough Dance Performance Award. Rye Burgos - Fighting Spirit Award. Fianca Cruz - Reyna ng Runway. Zeryl Lim - Vavavoom Award. Sef Cadayona - May Ibubuga Pa Award. The Warrior Princess - Princess Snell. Ian Batherson - Staying Alive Award. Piero Vergara - Future Hitmaker Award.
This is a good batch and we have no doubt that runners up Diva, Enzo and Rocco will no doubt make it on their own. Some of the Avengers are so promising that GMA should give them good breaks soon, notably Piero, Ian, Rye, Rox, Princess and the very charming Nina who has such a winning presence. We're sure some of them will be like Cristine Reyes, the first one to be eliminated in Starstruck 1 but who's now a bigger star than some of the winners.
