{"id":2797,"date":"2014-02-25T04:34:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-25T12:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=2797"},"modified":"2014-03-04T05:12:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-04T13:12:25","slug":"fil-am-malaya-watson-finalist-in-american-idol-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/02\/25\/fil-am-malaya-watson-finalist-in-american-idol-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Fil-Am Malaya Watson, finalist in \u201cAmerican Idol 13\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1904180_1451758431720393_1539524876_n.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2798\" alt=\"1904180_1451758431720393_1539524876_n\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1904180_1451758431720393_1539524876_n-300x128.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"128\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1904180_1451758431720393_1539524876_n-300x128.png 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/1904180_1451758431720393_1539524876_n.png 819w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Facebook Page of Malaya Watson<\/p>\n<p>Another Filipino pride.<\/p>\n<p>Fil-Am Malaya Watson, 16, from Southfield, Michigan, after singing Ray Charles \u201cHard Times (No One Knows Better Than I), landed as a Top 13 finalist in the 13th season of \u201cAmerican Idol.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with the Manila Bulletin, Malaya said, \u201cThis is a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to be on \u2018American Idol.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Malaya who has a Filipina mother said she\u2019s in the competition to represent the Filipinos.<\/p>\n<p>Though born in the United States, Malaya has a big heart for her countrymen in the Philippines. She revealed that she wants to help the Filipinos who were badly affected by Typhoon Haiyan, \u201cI want to give back to the Filipino people because of the disaster (Typhoon \u201cHaiyan\u201d) that happened to them in the Philippines. I want to help,\u201d she replied when asked what she would do if she won the &#8220;American Idol&#8221; title.<\/p>\n<p>According to Malaya\u2019s mother, she brought her daughter to the Philippines when she was in first grade and they\u2019re hoping that they can come back soon. Some of the simple Tagalog words that Malaya has already learned include \u2018Tatay,\u2019 \u2018Nanay,\u2019 \u2018Lolo\u2019 or \u2018Lola.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><b>Praises for Malaya<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Lopez believes that Malaya is \u201cdefinitely one of the powerhouses in this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Harry Connick, Jr. shared that \u201cMalaya is very talented. She is the kind of girl who could go to my school at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts because she is really young and raw. She has a lot of raw talent there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Host Ryan Seacrest has also good words for Malaya, \u201cI like her a lot. She is very interesting. She really works on stage. She really deserves to be in the Top 13 finals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Facebook Page of Malaya Watson Another Filipino pride. Fil-Am Malaya Watson, 16, from Southfield, Michigan, after singing Ray Charles &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":2798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[518,517],"class_list":["post-2797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment-ph","tag-american-idol-13","tag-malaya-watson","mauthors-katherine-marfal-teves","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}