MANILA, Philippines – Gwyn Dorado isn’t any stranger to huge levels.
She was only a 10-year-old pupil when she joined Asia’s Received Expertise in 2015. Again then, she breezed by her audition with ease, effortlessly belting out her personal rendition of Katy Perry’s “Roar” with a big guitar in tow.
She would proceed to impress each the judges and viewers together with her high-note-laden performances till she finally completed the prestigious expertise present as a finalist.
It got here as no shock, then, when she re-entered the highlight as “Dorado” in a completely new area — South Korea’s Sing Once more 4 — and managed to turn out to be the lone foreigner to make it to the present’s finals.
She even pulled off a second-place end on the present, defeating two different Korean contestants to say her spot. It was a historic run for Dorado, and it’s one which will probably be remembered for placing Filipino expertise on the map but once more.
A brand new area
A recording artist for years already at this level, Dorado started her actions in South Korea in 2024 when she signed below the company AO Leisure, and from there, began singing the OSTs of a number of reveals.
It was lastly time for her to be found by a much bigger viewers. Then got here Sing Once more 4, the South Korean music present devoted to giving rising, lesser-known, and undiscovered artists, soloists, and band members one other shot at touchdown below the highlight.
On the present, Dorado was a transparent frontrunner from the beginning, delivering a constant stellar efficiency and receiving excessive reward from well-known judges reminiscent of Women’ Technology’s Taeyeon, Tremendous Junior’s Kyuhyun, Davichi’s Lee Hae-ri, Code Kunst, Yoon Jong-shin, Lim Jae-beom, Baek Ji-young, and Kim Eana.
However earlier than Dorado started to showcase her vocal prowess, one of many first stuff you would discover about her was her Korean speech. Dorado had realized the language till she spoke it fluently, permitting her to speak with the producers and coaches with ease.
It was an early indication of her drive to succeed it doesn’t matter what — and he or she did so, in a rustic that wasn’t her personal, besides.
When the present started, contestants had been tasked to hitch teams that captured their circumstances, reminiscent of much less widespread singers who’ve already had a profession for some time, one-hit wonders, and contestants from earlier seasons, amongst others. Dorado was positioned below the “Audition Skilled” group, which consisted of artists who succeeded in previous expertise reveals however aren’t but well-known.
The 21-year-old singer auditioned for the present with a chilling rendition of the traditional Korean ballad, “As Time Goes By,” incomes passes from all eight judges to rapidly advance to the subsequent spherical.
Excellence it doesn’t matter what
Dorado excelled each on her personal and with a companion. In episodes 4 and 5, she was paired with Pink Fantasy’s Kim Ye-chan, with whom she sang Park Jung-woon’s “On a Night time Like Tonight.” The pair obtained 4 “Once more” button presses, permitting them to proceed their journeys on the present.
In episodes six and 7, Dorado then went head-to-head with impartial artist Sanha. The Filipina received the 1v1 battle together with her efficiency of “One Late Night time in 1994” by Jang Hye-jin after 5 out of eight judges voted in her favor.
Sanha, nevertheless, nonetheless moved on to the subsequent spherical after she obtained an extra cross.
When it lastly got here time for the highest 10 elimination spherical, Dorado proved that she rightfully earned her spot in spite of everything eight judges pressed their “Once more” buttons after her cowl of Yoon Jong-shin’s “Rebirth.”
Within the high 7 elimination, Dorado then bought six out of eight “Once more” button presses together with her model of Roy Kim’s “Solely Then.”
Maybe Dorado’s most iconic efficiency, although, was when she sang “I Need You” — an unique tune Kim Do-hun produced for her. Not solely did she cross this spherical, however she did so with flying colours, incomes a rating of 981, the very best rating ever achieved by a contestant all season.
Street to a robust end
Heading into the finals, Dorado was now the lone international contestant within the high 4.
She already offered a robust displaying within the first of her two last performances, singing Exhibition’s “Etude of Reminiscence,” and incomes 781 factors — placing her in first place.
She adopted this up with “Gentle Up,” produced by GroovyRoom, incomes a near-perfect rating of 799.
The ultimate rankings, nevertheless, had been decided after calculating every contestant’s early on-line voting scores (10%), the streams their new songs obtained on Melon and Genie (20%), the judges’ last efficiency scores (30%), and dwell voting (40%).
It was male singer Lee Oh-wook who finally took the crown with a complete of 1,415.30 factors, with Dorado claiming second place with 1,409.54 factors.
Kim Jae-min and Slowly ranked third and fourth, respectively.
Dorado put up a great struggle till the very finish. As a prize, she will get to take house 30 million Korean received (round P1,232,459.69) to assist her profession and the actions she’ll be doing after the present.
Clearly, Dorado’s Sing Once more 4 stint alerts an thrilling new starting for the younger singer. Whereas she has but to share her plans shifting ahead, Filipinos’ celebration of her expertise reveals that it doesn’t matter what path she chooses to take, she’s already made the Philippines proud. – Rappler.com
