29/05/2025
CELEBRITY IN THE LENS - Featuring one of the most popular and iconic Filipina Singer who is famously known for her powerful high notes and crystal clear and incredibly remarkable deep and low register vocals.
Maria Teresa Magdalena Abellare Llamedo-Cruzata (born July 22, 1961), professionally known as Dulce (Tagalog pronunciation: [ˈdʊlsɛ]), is a Filipino singer and actress. She is popularly referred to as "Asia's Timeless Diva".
MILESTONES / AWARDS :
1. Grand Prize Winner - 4th Asian Singing Competition Hongkong (1979) Song Entry "Ako Ang Nagwagi, Ako ang Nasawi"
2. Grand Prize Winner - Asia-Pacific Singing Contest Hongkong (1988) Song Entry "Memory" - with Co-Winner Ivy Violan (Team Manila Philippines)
3. First Runner-Up 3rd ABU Popular Song Festival in Malaysia 2002 Song Entry "Langit - Kung Kaya Ko Kaya Mo Rin"
4. First runner-up at the Australia Open Entertainment Competition in 2002.
5. Recorded 30 Albums (including 12 solo albums) throughout her career and has sung in over thirty movie theme songs, thus earning her the moniker "Movie Theme Song Queen".
6. Dulce auditioned for the role of Gigi in Miss Saigon when the producers first came to Manila. She was, however, unable to proceed with the audition due to acute pharyngitis.
7. When the [Miss Saigon] production team came back in 1990, she auditioned again and was instructed to fly to New York City. In New York, Cameron MacKintosh reportedly told her that she was "over-qualified" for the small role that was open and that it would be a waste of talent. Claude-Michel Schönberg is said to have commented that her voice "is like a Boeing 747 taking off".
8. From 1991 to 2004, Dulce's rendition of Constancio de Guzman’s "Maalaala Mo Kaya" served as the theme song of the television drama anthology of the same name.
9. In 2003, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Aliw Awards. That same year, she played Aling Saling in the first run of the musical "Himala" at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
10. She returned to the musical theater stage in 2008 where she played Motormouth Maybelle in a local production of Hairspray also at the CCP.
--Celebrity Bio / Information - All credits to Wikipedia.--
P.S. - It was an honor to have an opportunity to witness, hear her voice in person and shoot DULCE in one of her events, hence this humble tribute.