It’s not everyday that someone can completely master a singing style, but to find a person who can perfectly perform in two different voices? That’s the epitome of rare, but luckily enough, people as talented as Marcelito Pomoy have done that ability.
Despite being a seasoned singer extremely famous in his homeland of the Philippines, the US only knew about Marcelito in 2020 for his outstanding participation in “America’s Got Talent” – AGT – and from then on, the rest of the world couldn’t help but become enthralled by his talent and impressive ability to sing both in tenor and soprano.
Though lots of things have been said about Marcelito’s career following the show’s end, we’re here to answer all the questions you might have about it! Stay with us to discover his whereabouts, career progress, personal life and so much more!
Where Is Marcelito Now?
Despite being placed fourth in the second season of “America’s Got Talent: The Champions”, that didn’t slow down Marcelito’s career at all. His growing fame in the US opened many professional opportunities for him, such as successfully touring the country with his show “The Voices Of Marcelito” in 2022, offering his fans a wide musical repertoire of original songs and covers.
Regardless of his worldwide popularity, Marcelito and his family are still based in the Philippines. As seen on his social media, his visits to the US and Asian countries are always career-related and temporary, though he admits that these trips aren’t as easy as they seem: ‘the feeling of being away seems tiring, but gotta keep going for my family’, he wrote on his Instagram page.
Regarding his personal life, in 2022 he and his wife Joan celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary and also welcomed their second daughter whom they named Marchesa Janoah in June that year. While it’s unclear what projects Marcelito has in mind for the future, for now he keeps working hard in making his dreams come true.
Participation In “America’s Got Talent”
By the time Marcelito Pomoy debuted on the stage of “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” in 2020, he had already won his native country contest “Pilipinas Got Talent” in its second season. While unknown for the most part to the American audience, Marcelito confidently set foot on the show’s stage with his wife Joan, who patiently translated the judges’ comments for him.
Soon enough, Marcelito left the audience open mouthed with his performance of “The Prayer”, skillfully switching between Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli’s parts with his otherworldly vocal skill. Marcelito obtained a standing ovation, and advanced to the show’s semifinals, where he confessed that his main motivation for joining the competition was to provide his young family a ‘great life’. Once on the stage, Marceilto sang “Time to Say Goodbye” by Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, receiving huge praise for his heartfelt rendition especially by judge Howie Mandel, who affirmed Marcelito had ‘the best shot at winning this whole thing’.
The finals saw Marcelito performing Dion and Peabo Bryson’s “Beauty and the Beast”, but his following mash-up act during the finale wasn’t enough to gain him the competition win, ultimately placing fourth, but stil the highest place for a foreign act in the season.
Opinion On The Show
Regardless of his huge talent and super star status in his home country, Marcelito Pomoy initially had lots of doubts about joining “America’s Got Talent: The Champions”. According to an interview with “Tonight With Boy Abunda”, he felt that participating in the American version of the show would somehow erase his past victory: ‘I’m a champion in the Philippines. If I lose in a somewhat ordinary way, it is like my winning is gone’ he confessed.
Despite his fears, the encouragement from his wife Joan and his own will to pursue his dreams eventually took him to the US, signing up for the audition which went viral on the internet. However, while Marcelito’s run in the second season of “The Champions” was truly memorable, his last performance got him a ‘predictable’ comment from Simon Cowell, making his eventual defeat somewhat expected.
Not winning the competition wasn’t enough to discourage Marcelito, as he affirmed in an interview with The PhilStar Global: ‘Well, I am very happy and I feel like a winner because of the positive feedback from people not just in the Philippines, but around the world’, he enthused. All in all, it’s great to see Marcelito not only challenging himself professionally, but also to know he appreciated his time in “America’s Got Talent” as much as his fans do.
What Other Contests Was He In?
Although Marcelito Pomoy owes his fame in his home country to his participation and victory in “Pilipinas Got Talent”, the show wasn’t his first try at talent competitions.
Back in the early 2010s, Marcelito had already auditioned for “Talented Pinoy”, a popular contest show in which talent scouts on the hunt for new artists decide whether contestants are deserving of passing to the next phase. Unfortunately, Marcelito didn’t go far in the show, almost cutting down his dream of stardom so early.
However, life had greater things in store for Marcelito. In 2011 he joined “Pilipinas Got Talent” in its second season, advancing to the second round with a 23,71% of audience votes.
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The rest of the competition wasn’t easy, but Marcelito was able to show his talent at full force with his multi-voice performance of the aforementioned “The Prayer”, immediately gaining everyone’s heart. Though the audience’s choice was quite divided, Marcelito surpassed his strong competitors, the dancing duo Happy Feet by over one percent of the votes, winning with 19.56% in total.
Winning meant more than just fame and money for Marcelito, though. His inspiring life story prompted the search for his lost family all around the country, finally finding them shortly before his victory, definitely putting the perfect ending note to Marcelito’s run in the show.
Who’s Marcelito?
Born in Imus, Philippines in 1984, Marcelito Castro Pomoy surely didn’t have an easy upbringing. As the youngest of four children, Marcelito was helpless when his mother abandoned the family when he was a newborn, leaving him and his siblings under the precarious care of their father, who had just been imprisoned.
Having nowhere else to go, the young kids sustained themselves with the little food other people provided for them, making their childhood a tough one. It wasn’t long until Marcelito and his siblings were taken away from their father, being adopted by a policeman who is described as ‘kind-hearted’ on Marcelito’s old website.
While Marcelito had no news about his mother, in his teens he went back to live with his father in Surigao, where he didn’t stay long before making his way to Manila to find his estranged mother. Although the search didn’t take him anywhere, still just 16 years old Marcelito chose to stay in the city, doing odd jobs to sustain himself. It was during those tough years that he discovered his love for music in the solitude of his job cleaning a poultry farm, though he apparently wasn’t aware that his talent of switching his voice between tenor and soprano was unique.
Reuniting With Family
Despite working from such an early age, Marcelito Pomoy often refused the idea of auditioning for talent TV shows. However, his early 20s saw him changing his mind, and with the resolution of becoming famous enough to find his mother after all those years, Marcelito worked hard to win “Pilipinas Got Talent” at only 26 years old.
A Back-to-back with the Star Magic ‘Gives Back’ concert on Nov. 24, 2012 from 3pm to 12midnight in Venice Piazza Mall, McKinley Hill Taguig
— marcelito pomoy (@pomoymarceLito) November 20, 2012
While the prospect of obtaining the contest’s juicy money prize and a music contract would have been more than enough for anyone, Marcelito’s biggest dream of reuniting with his family was miraculously achieved, when his parents and siblings showed up shortly before the show’s grand finale. The reunion was emotional to say the least, and his mother reportedly asked him for forgiveness for her past actions: ‘I said to her, ‘(even) when you left us, you didn’t take care of us, you are still my family, you are still my mother, you gave birth to me’,’ he recalled in an interview with Push.com.
Although the reunion was short-lived as both of his parents already had family of their own and went back to their provinces, the experience of making such an important wish come true was incomparable for Marcelito.
Rise To Fame In America
Despite being recognized as a superstar in his native Philippines, Marcelito Pomoy still had a long way to go before taking his talent to the US stage. Nonetheless, opportunities sometimes come in the most unexpected ways.
According to an interview with Asian Journal, Marcelito felt his career went downhill a couple of years after winning “Pilipinas Got Talent”. In an effort to bring his career to the top, his wife Joan encouraged him to appear in “Wish Bus”, a show held by a local radio station in Manila: ‘We even fought because I really didn’t want to. I said ‘I’ll just handle the business’, saying that he wanted to abandon his music career to completely focus on his shop.
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His several appearances in the “Wish Bus” quickly became viral, thanks to people’s live reactions to it, eventually attracting the attention of TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who immediately wanted him on her show. However, Marcelito thought Ellen’s invitation was a spam email until his wife fortunately intervened. Soon afterwards, Marcelito debuted in front of American audiences in 2019 in “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”, naturally impressing everyone with his uncanny ability of singing in soprano and tenor, and taking the next step in becoming a worldwide star.
Music Career
Thanks to his victory in “Pilipinas Got Talent”, Marcelito Pomoy released his own music under his contract with ABS-CBN and Star Records. His first album “Duet Yourself”, released in 2011, contained four original songs, and his classic rendition of “The Prayer”.
His second album “Split” came in 2013, and contained 14 songs in total. However, he took a break from music the following years, briefly returning in 2017 with his single “Malaya Ka”, which followed the same line as his previous releases by singing it in his native Tagalog language.
While Marcelito’s music was warmly received by his local audience, his music didn’t become popular in the US until his participation in “America’s Got Talent: The Champions”. His success has been so massive, that nowadays Marcelito is not only solo touring America with sold-out shows, but also sharing the stage with other important Filipino celebrities such as former Miss Universe Catriona Gray and Actor Sam Milby.
Other TV Shows
Besides the contest shows which gained him national and international fame, Marcelito Pomoy has also appeared in several other TV productions in the last decade. He’s been a recurring guest in the show “ASAP” on CBS-CBN, also featuring in the talk show “’Good Evening, Vice!”. Other important appearances he has made through the years have been in “Kris TV” as a guest, “Wowowin”, and in the “ASOP Music Festival” live transmission.
While his presence on TV has been limited to interviews and performing, right after his “Pilipinas Got Talent” victory, the topic of whether he would give acting a try was widely commented on in the media. As reported by ABS-CBN News in 2011, Marcelito was indeed interested in acting, wanting to follow the steps of local action actors Ronnie Ricketts and Robin Padilla.
Although acting opportunities never knocked on Marcelito’s door during the earliest stages of his career, his growing international fame could be his best chance of making another one of his dreams come true.
Business & Philanthropism
Upon winning “Pilipinas Got Talent”, Marcelito Pomoy made good use of his monetary prize. In 2012 he finally opened his business Pomoy’s Commercial, a hardware shop located in Quezon.
Nowadays the business is still active and is managed by his wife Joan while he travels overseas. The income from both his musical career and his business have been greatly positive for Marcelito, who often makes important donations and charity work in his community, by appearing in fundraising events such as the “Lazada Live Concert” in 2020. Also that year, he gifted a new home to an elderly woman in his community who had previously lived in a precarious situation for over 10 years.
Considering Marcelito’s early life situation, there’s no question as to why his will to help people in need is so strong. That being said, Marcelito’s unbelievable talent is a big reason to remember him, but his humble demeanour and down to earth personality is what’s really captured the hearts of his fans.
