PINOY IDOL WINNER Gretchen Espina won the Awit Awards’ Best New Female Recording Artist category for her debut album, “Shining Through”. “I didn’t expect it,” she says. “It’s surreal, but I’m so happy that Awit recognized my music. I couldn't have done it without those who helped me make the album. I'm forever grateful sa mga taong tumulong.”
The triumph serves as another vindication of Gretchen’s talent who back in “Pinoy Idol” in 2008 was in the ‘safe zone’ all throughout the competition. With support from her management the GMA Artist Center, she is currently busy doing concerts, corporate gigs, and regional tours, as well as promoting her 12-track album released by Sony Music late last year. The album offers, apart from the carrier single “Kasalanan Nga Ba?,” her “Pinoy Idol” victory song “To You.” Recently she played Debbie Romasanta, bestfriend of Glaiza De Castro, in the hit kantaserye, “Diva”. She describes the acting experience as “totally different from performing on stage.” If given another chance, which is kind of likely after her passable teleserye acting debut, she’d like to do a kontrabida role with a twist --- someone who is sexy and mean but has her good side. The daughter of a congressman who plays the piano well, Gretchen has shown her musical inclination early on. As member of UP Singing Ambassadors she won first place as solo performer in an inter-collegiate competition held in Shantou University in Guangdong, China. When asked about her influences from the current crop of entertainers, she mentioned foreign sensations Katy Perry and Beyonce Knowles and labeled both of them as “versatile and bold.” She could very well be describing herself as well.
The triumph serves as another vindication of Gretchen’s talent who back in “Pinoy Idol” in 2008 was in the ‘safe zone’ all throughout the competition. With support from her management the GMA Artist Center, she is currently busy doing concerts, corporate gigs, and regional tours, as well as promoting her 12-track album released by Sony Music late last year. The album offers, apart from the carrier single “Kasalanan Nga Ba?,” her “Pinoy Idol” victory song “To You.” Recently she played Debbie Romasanta, bestfriend of Glaiza De Castro, in the hit kantaserye, “Diva”. She describes the acting experience as “totally different from performing on stage.” If given another chance, which is kind of likely after her passable teleserye acting debut, she’d like to do a kontrabida role with a twist --- someone who is sexy and mean but has her good side. The daughter of a congressman who plays the piano well, Gretchen has shown her musical inclination early on. As member of UP Singing Ambassadors she won first place as solo performer in an inter-collegiate competition held in Shantou University in Guangdong, China. When asked about her influences from the current crop of entertainers, she mentioned foreign sensations Katy Perry and Beyonce Knowles and labeled both of them as “versatile and bold.” She could very well be describing herself as well.
