Charice releases 'Before It Explodes,' more songs Tuesday

By JULIEN MERCED C. MATABUENA

April 19, 2011, 6:20pm

Charice released not just one song Tuesday as originally expected, but four. She is also set to release another solo single in May.

MANILA, Philippines – International singing sensation Charice invades iTunes with several new solo singles. Indeed, apart from “Before It Explodes,” two other singles are released on the site Tuesday: "One Day" and a cover of "All By Myself."

Charice promoted “One Day” on Tuesday around noon through her Twitter account, “Another new song!! Produced and written by @NickJonas” followed by the download link to iTunes. Nick Jonas is part of the pop trio, the Jonas Brothers. Prior to this post, no report about “One Day” surfaced locally.

“One Day” is the song used in US contact lens brand Acuvue’s latest TV commercial that also features Charice. In the video, posted on Acuvue’s YouTube account on April 13, the singer encourages viewers to join  the "ACUVUE 1-DAY Contest with Charice," whose main prize is an opportunity to co-star with her in the forthcoming music video for the same song. The contest, which has kicked off on April 18 (US time), will end on May 23.

On the other hand, “Before It Explodes” already gained much popularity locally about a week before its release when it was promoted via Amazon.com and reported by ABS-CBN News. The song was written by Ari Levine and Fil-Am Grammy-winner Bruno Mars, and produced by the Smeezingtons.

As of this writing, both “Before It Explodes” and “One Day” have already garnered positive reviews, with an average rating of five stars each on US iTunes.

Charice's third solo song to be released today is her rendition of Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" from the hit TV series, "Glee." It was reported earlier that Charice's character, Sunshine Corazon, will be making her comeback on Wednesday's (local time) "A Night of Neglect" episode, where she would be seen belting out the song.

Also today, the 13-year-old American and Charice's fellow Youtube sensation, Greyson Chance, released his four-track EP, “Waiting Outside the Lines” via iTunes.  The song, which had been a hit for Chance in 2010, features Charice in the EP's remix version.

Meanwhile, Charice’s official website mentioned the release of another new single reportedly in May. ” Entitled “Louder,” the Dreamlab-produced song was written by Daniel James, Leah Haywood and Shelly Peiken.

More, fansite charicemania.com quoted a report by Japanese music website barks.jp on March 31 that “Louder” is being used exclusively as theme for Fuji Television Network’s morning show “Mezamashi TV.” It turned out Charice was commissioned to do a song for “Mezamashi TV” after her impressive performance on the show last Christmas.

Said report from Charice’s official website also hinted that “Before It Explodes,” “Louder,” and “Waiting Outside the Lines [Remix]” may be included in her upcoming second international album by Reprise Records. However, its release date remains unknown as of this writing.

Charice released her eponymous first international album in March last year and debuted at no. 8 on the Billboard 200 Chart with 43,000 copies sold in the US alone. No exact figures as to how many copies were sold worldwide, but last year "Charice" has reached gold status in Thailand and Japan, and peaked at no. 6 in Japan’s Oricon chart, no. 4 in the Canadian album charts and no. 3 in South Korea’s Gaon Chart, among others.

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Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on April 11, 2011.