Obsession: The Moment I Saw You Cry

Let's go back to year 2002. I was in my first year in high school at the time, and 'A Walk to Remember' just hit the local cinemas at the time. The movie's theme song 'Cry' became so popular that it was sitting in the hit charts of different radio stations and even MTV and MYX for several weeks. And Mandy Moore became the fashion and beauty inspiration of most teenage girls, myself included.

Perfection! Photo credit here

She was my style peg for the most part of my high school, college and even my early working years; simply because hers was #goals for someone who wants to look flawless and nice without having to put too much effort.

#goals indeed! Photo credit here

I mean, look at that!

So what about the throwback from 2002? Click 'Read More' to find out.

Fast forward to 2015. My third to the last semester in law school. The local version of Your Face Sounds Familiar is now on its second season. For its ninth week, one of its performers Sam Concepcion is assigned to impersonate Mandy Moore.

The catch: Sam is a guy. #genderbenderalert

Is this even possible? Photo credit here

I'm looking forward for this impersonation, as in the case of most opposite-gender impersonations both the past and the present season. Because how do you get a man look and sound like a woman and vice-versa, right?

For this impersonation, Sam will be singing 'Cry', and he will be sporting Mandy's look from the music video. You know, the one with lasers and stars, where she was wearing that black cut-out dress with long train...

Yeah, basically her look on the first photo.

Outfit wise, it was this. Photo credit here

I think the best part of the show is the uncertainty of how the performer will look and sound like the icon assigned to him or her. And maybe I could add the uncertainty on the part of the performer on how he or she will pull this off, especially when the icon is of the opposite gender or is of the genre that is far from what he or she is used to.

Sam admits in an exclusive video that he does not know how he will pull this whole Mandy Moore thing off. He briefly compares it with his previous female impersonation (Janet Jackson), and mentions that he does not have the voice to actually sound like Mandy and the face to carry her signature look which, for him, was the 'lips (talaga) na may lipgloss na makintab.'

I disagree -- for me it would be her flawless skin. Not to mention that her highlights are #onfleek.

Watch the video here. Sam talks about preparing for Mandy starting at 2:39.

And then this happened come performance day.


Can we talk about Sam's gorgeousness in this performance for a moment? I mean look at that! He's so, so, so pretty! Na-achieve ang kagandahan ni Mandy Moore!

*sigh* And this is my favorite shot by the way. Screenshot taken by moi

This is why Jed Madela said "Ang ganda mo!" Screenshot taken by moi

That SMILE!!!!

You may argue that it's just Sam who turned into a girl, but I agreed with Jed Madela when he said that a little more on the eyes and he'll look like Mandy. Voice wise, well it's kinda hard for any man to sound like a woman unless you had a high-pitched voice to begin with.

Props to Sam for making this work, with a (pretty) smile to boot.

This performance had me hooked on the song 'Cry' once again, reminding me the reason why I loved it the first time I heard it. And it had me searching over YouTube for a makeup tutorial inspired by Mandy's look in the video (I found one but methinks it wasn't half decent as I want it to be) and murdering the play button over the original music video and the replay of his performance.

Whew, so there. I've exhausted a lengthy blog post about my current obsession just so I could get over this, I hope, before the next performance weekend is up tonight so bear with me on this. I know you did, considering that you got to this part already.

And finally, I'll take this opportunity to apologize for not updating the blog for so long. My last post was way back in July and it's already November, so... there. So many things have happened both with my professional and personal life between those months, thus the reason for no-updates. Again, I'll try to post whenever I could and try to recover the writing skill that I think I lost (oh, the drama!) for the posts to come.

Seeyah guys!