SAN FRANCISCO – Filipino-Americans are focusing their energies on helping American Idol contestant Jessica Sanchez reach her star in Hollywood.
Community leaders have been actively organizing to campaign and vote to make sure Sanchez becomes the first Asian and the first Filipina to win America’s most popular talent show.
Fans have used social media such as Facebook to generate votes for Sanchez, creating a page called ‘Save the Best, Save our Own, Save Jessica Sanchez.’
Leaders of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations have sent out e-mails and Facebook links encouraging every Filipino in the United States to vote for the young singer.
Even former San Francisco Consul General Rowena Sanchez is calling on her countrymen to vote for her.
Balitang America’s top Filipino Champion for 2011 Nimfa Gamez joined the Save Jessica campaign by texting all her friends to vote for Sanchez for as many as 50 times in the two hour voting window.
“Jessica symbolizes our country. We are a small country, but we are bursting with talent. We just need to find our way, work our way harder to be known, to be famous," Gamez said.
If Sanchez wins the contest, it will also show that the Filipino community can unite for a great cause.
“It will only prove one thing: that we really can unite as a people. That, if there's a great cause like Jessica's cause, we can unite and bond together and fight for something to represent us as a people,” she said.
Top 6
The young singer victoriously entered American Idol's Top 6 after many Filipino-Americans campaigned and voted multiple times for her.
A season-high 53 million votes came in for the Top 7 contestants, acknowledged by Idol experts as one of the most talented group of finalists the show has ever had.
Meanwhile, after Sanchez’ near-elimination last week, American Idol results delivered another shocker this week: Colton Dixon, who many thought was a contender for the finale, was eliminated for getting the lowest number of votes following a rare off night on stage.
Contestants say choosing the best song that would appeal to the audience and the judges is not easy. They are usually judged on the strength on their last performance so each one can raise their chances of winning.
“Performing in front of millions of people each week is crazy," Sanchez quipped.
Her fans said they won't let last week's debacle happen again, as they plan to hold weekly viewing and voting events.
The six remaining contestants will return to the stage next week for another shot to prove that they deserve to be Season 11's American Idol champion. With Yong Chavez, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau
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