DO YOU want to become the next to become the next Philippine idol?

Well, to get there, you have to have the talent, the looks and the stomach to get through many auditions (including embarrassing ones). And perhaps let?s add some luck because you will surely be competing with thousands of hopefuls. And chances are they might be better than you in two of the three categories I just mentioned.

If you?re watching ?American Idol,? you can tell by now that you have to have the whole package to make it. A friend of mine once told me that ?talent is no longer just the barometer of success today. Creativity is.? What does he mean by that? We will get to that later.

Singing sensation

For starters, the barrier to success today is a bit tricky. Let?s take Charice Pempengco, for example. Remember that she was this little girl who was defeated in a local singing competition. But thanks to YouTube, a popular online video sharing website, she?s getting more recognition worldwide and is now labeled an international ?singing sensation.? In fact, she?s on her way to doing her first movie in Hollywood.

Just to give you a brief history of Pempengco?s rise to stardom. It started in 2007 when she was asked to do some recording in Sweden. A video of her doing a song from the movie ?Dreamgirls? became a hit on a Korean video-sharing website. This got her invited to Korea to sing.

Apparently, her performance in the Korean show was posted on YouTube. Later, producers of the ?Ellen Degeneres Show,? an American talk show, saw her YouTube video. From there, we can say that it was all history. All in all, it took Charice two years to get where she is now. It happened in such a short time, and there?s no stopping her.

Journey

Arnel Pineda, another Filipino singer, also got his break in 2007. Again, thanks to YouTube, he?s now the frontman of popular American rock band Journey. Pineda has been performing for more than 20 years.

Pineda?s video showing him singing cover songs from Journey and other American bands landed on YouTube. He was still with his band, called Zoo, when Journey guitarist Neal Schon saw him.

To cut the story short, Schon later got to Pineda and asked him to audition for the band. And, well, as they say, history was made, once again.

Dancing inmates

These two examples are perhaps exceptional. But you might be wondering how could these relatively ?unknown? talents land a movie contract in Hollywood or a gig in the same venue where Manny Pacquiao knocked out Ricky Hatton. (You can read more of how YouTube works and how to post video clips in the sidebar).

Let?s find some local examples.

Have you heard of the CPDRC inmates? Ring a bell? What about inmates doing a ?Thriller?? The CPDRC ? which stands for Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center ? and its inmates were asked one day to dance Michael Jackson?s ?Thriller? as part of their choreographed exercised routine.

Byron Garcia, a security consultant for the local government, then shot a video of these dancing inmates and posted it on YouTube.

What happened next was phenomenal. The video became ?viral.? Millions of people saw it. In fact, on Dec. 19, 2007, Time Magazine found the video fifth on its list of ?most popular viral videos? of the year. Perhaps this is purely a coincidence. But the inmates of CPDRC shot to stardom also in 2007, thanks to YouTube.

Lipsynching duo

They?re not drag queens. But they are good at lipsynching and impersonating other singers. Filipino brothers James Ronald and Rodfill Obeso, now known as Moymoy and Palaboy, invaded people?s computers with their comic renditions of popular songs.

Incidentally, they also started in 2007. They?re now seen on local TV and are contract artists ? a big leap from their early days of lipsynching in front of their computer and a mobile phone camera.

Their laugh-out-load renditions of songs from Queen (?Bohemian Rhapsody?) or even the theme song of the TV show ?Marimar? were hits on YouTube. The ?Marimar? video, for instance, has already collected more than seven million views around the world.

The duo has also earned several accolades on YouTube. They are No. 40 in ?Most Subscribed (All Time)-Comedians? and No. 22 in ?Most Viewed (All Time)-Comedians.?

What made Moymoy Palaboy a hit? Lipsynching on YouTube is not new. But perhaps luck has a lot to do with it. One of the more popular lipsynch video is that of Spice Girl?s ?Wannabe,? which was also an instant hit among viewers on YouTube.

?Happyslip?

How popular are they now? The duo?s YouTube channel has more than 70,000 subscribers to date. Their move from YouTube to mainstream television also illustrates their success. And because the duo is known for lipsynching, it (or its manager) never allows anyone to record its real voice. This keeps the mystique of Moymoy Palaboy.

Filipino-American Christine Gambito is an exception on this list of YouTube Pinoy idols. Growing in the United States, Gambito who uses the moniker Happy Slip (as in half-slip worn by ladies back then) is a huge hit on YouTube because of her one-woman sketches.

Her characters are all inspired by her family. Her stories are about her life. Because of her Filipino ancestry, she was recently invited to the country by the Department of Tourism to become an ambassador to younger Filipino-Americans. She toured popular spots in the country, capturing her trip on cam and sharing it with the rest of the world.

Again, coincidence, but it was in March 2007 when her video ?Mixed Nuts? was nominated for the top 2006 YouTube Video Awards for comedy. She placed second. This has somehow catapulted her to stardom on the Internet.

Her current accolades on YouTube are being No. 5 in ?Most Subscribed (All Time),? No. 6 in ?Most Subscribed (All Time) Directors,? and finally No. 13 in ?Most Subscribed (All Time) Partners.?

She also has more than 300,000 followers on YouTube, with more than 10 million views chalked up so far on her channel. Such staggering figures you only get on the Internet.

Skirts

?While growing up, my mom was always quick to remind me to wear a half slip with my dresses or skirts. She would say ?Be sure to wear your hap eslip!? So I grew up thinking the term was always ?happy slip,? until I was corrected by classmates who asked me if I had a sad slip as well,? Gambito?s FAQ on her YouTube channel reads.

Why did she choose to use HappySlip as her screen name? ?Not only is it a funny phrase from the past ? but it reflects what I?d like people to feel when they watch these videos. Hoping they will ?slip into happiness? while watching, and that it would help to brighten up their day,? she adds on her FAQ.

Birth

There is really no surefire formula for becoming a YouTube idol. Just think about tens of millions of people uploading videos on this online video-sharing website every day. What are the chances that you get picked from all other mundane content you now find on YouTube.

Here are some ideas that would perhaps explain why YouTube has become a hit.

Founded in February 2005 by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, YouTube is relatively a young online service that was born under the Web 2.0 movement. Before YouTube?s birth, it was quite a chore e-sharing home videos on the Internet.

Replay value

It was this problem that Hurley and Chen solved. But they went beyond this idea, as they allowed people to make video clips posted on YouTube viral ? meaning it is easier to distribute using faster, broadband Internet connections.

Viral also means people can redistribute content, giving videos ?replay value,? which you don?t find on television. This means you can always go back to viewing a favorite and funny video by Moymoy Palaboy, then share it with friends (distribution) and even give props (feedback) to people who posted the video.

YouTube has also proven to be a cheaper platform for video distribution and sharing, recently a bane for some video-content owners, as their content is getting ripped and distributed on this online video-sharing website.

This has somehow prompted YouTube to go into partnership with known content owners, including CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA and The Sundance Channel.

And I also forgot: Google bought YouTube in November 2006 after it realized the advertising potential of this growing online community.

Tipping point

Here?s another interesting observation: It seems that the tipping point for most of these YouTube idols was in 2007, barely two years after YouTube was launched. Based on my readings, 2006 was the year YouTube became an Internet phenomenon. But it was in 2007 when most of YouTube stars emerged. That might also be a coincidence.

As word caught on about YouTube, which has dramatically changed the way we interact on the Internet, people have started creating their own videos ? thanks to cheaper mobile phone cameras, webcams and video software, and computers ? and sharing them online.

Good videos get props ? as demonstrated by the number of views and viewer?s feedback they receive. Bad ones are forgotten.

Just to give you an idea how big YouTube is, here are some facts from the website: ?People watch hundreds of millions of videos a day on YouTube and upload hundreds of thousands of videos daily. In fact, every minute, 10 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.?

Who are these people? YouTube?s users are aged 18 to 55 years and are evenly divided between males and females, according to the website.

YouTube says that 51 percent of users go to the website weekly or more often. And 52 percent of the 18- to 34-year-old users share videos often with friends and colleagues. They fall under a generation of users who were born into the infant years of the Internet age.

Community

YouTube is just the beginning of an evolving community on the Internet. We now have other sites like Facebook, where YouTube videos are also posted. The web is heading toward a more community-based and user-generated platform for interaction.

Websites like YouTube will continue to create new celebrities without the help of traditional media. Just try typing ?YouTube celebrities? on Wikipedia and you will find a host of them ? two of them I just identified in this article.

The new generation will get used to the idea that videos are shared online, and that they can catch their idols on YouTube anytime of the day at their own convenience. As a bonus, they can be their own next idol. All they need is time, guts and a bit of luck, and perhaps a lot of online friends.

(Erwin Oliva is with Inquirer.net.)