Charice Pempengco

Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco (born May 10, 1992 in Cabuyao City, Laguna, Philippines), popularly known by the mononym Charice, is a Filipina singer who rose to popularity through YouTube. Dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as "the most talented girl in the world", she released her first international studio album Charice in 2010. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number eight, making Charice the first Asian solo singer in history to land in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Her single "Pyramid", featuring singer Iyaz, is her most successful single to date. It charted within the Top 40 in a number of countries after its debut on The Oprah Winfrey Show where Charice sang live vocals. Crossing over to acting on television, she joined the cast of TV series Glee as Sunshine Corazon. She released "Before It Explodes", written by Bruno Mars, as the lead single from her second international studio album, Infinity.

In March 2012, she signed on to be one of the four judges of the Philippine version of The X Factor, which began airing on ABS-CBN in June.

Iyaz

Keidran Jones (born 15 April 1987), better known by his stage name Iyaz, is a British Virgin Islands singer-songwriter and dancer from Tortola, signed with the record label Beluga Heights Records. He is known for his singles "Replay", "Solo" and "Pretty Girls". He released his debut album Replay in 2010.

Life and career

1987–2010: Early life and career beginnings

Iyaz was born in 1987 to a musical family. He grew up in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Iyaz studied digital recording at New England Institute of Technology. He was featured on the track "Island Girls" by Out Da Box Family, which achieved radio success in the Caribbean.Sean Kingston found Iyaz through his Myspace page in 2008 and later signed him to a recording contract with Time Is Money/Beluga Heights. Michael Nguyen introduced him to producer and Beluga Heights head J.R. Rotem. He released "Replay" in 2010, which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at number 1 in several territories, including the United Kingdom. His second single "Solo" was released in February 2010, and peaked at number 32 on the Hot 100. He also took part in recording the Haiti charity single, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti". His debut album, Replay was released in 2010, and he was also featured on Charice's single "Pyramid". In an interview with HitQuarters, Rotem described Iyaz's creative perfectionism: