Formerly Known as Charice, Singer Announces His New Name Jake Zyrus

06/21/2017 mj santilli News 4

The Filipino singer and Glee actor formerly known as Charice Pempengco announced this week that his new name is Jake Zyrus.

Zyrus originally found fame as a teenager with covers of classic pop hits like Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” and Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” online. The singer became known to a wider audience with a guest starring appearance on the FOX musical drama Glee as Sunshine Corazon, Rachel Berry’s (Lea Michele) arch nemesis.

GLEE: Charice guest-stars as exchange student Sunshine Corazon in "Audition," the season premiere episode of GLEE airing Tuesday, Sept. 21 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2010 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Adam Rose/FOX

Zyrus also became the first Asian solo singer to land a top 10 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 2010’s Charice.

Three years ago, Zyrus appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s Where are they Now and and sharing that “my soul is male.” Zyrus wasn’t ready to transition at that point, but was clear about identifying as masculine. 

 

Zyrus announced his transition on twitter, thanking fans for their loving responses.

The middle tweet where Zyrus hints about naysayers may have to do, at least partially, with an Esquire PH piece that made fun of his name (Click for a cached copy.  The attempt at humor is not only offensive, but pretty lame.). The publication later apologized, which Zyrus acknowledged:

via Billboard

About mj santilli 34835 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!
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