pilipinas got talent season 2: who will win tonight?

after last night's performance night, who will be the second grand champion of pilipinas got talent? as we all know, the winner will be decided via votes (text and online) so there will be a lot of factors to be considered in predicting who the winner will be.

first consideration was last night's performance. you need to have a great and entertaining performance last night to get the attention of the voting public. based on my live blog last night, here are my scores for each of the performances in a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the perfect score:

9 - freestylers, marcelito pomoy, nielbeth

8.5 - happy feet, rico the magician, madrigal siblings,

8 - filogram, buildex pagales, angel calalas

7.5 - john michael narag, skeights

7 - b4, jem cubil,

6 - djp trio

the three acts with the 9 really wowed us with a great performance and gave us something out of the box. the freestylers gave us jaw dropping stunts one after another after another. marcelito was simply outstanding with his one man duet and hot a standing ovation not only from the judges but also from the araneta crowd. nielbeth's routine was flawless and was really good. these three has an upperhand in this criteria.

the second criteria is group size. as we know, the filipinos are very fond of voting for their own family members due to our close family ties and friends tends to stick with friends no matter what. the more members you have, the more sure votes you have. so in this case, the largest group is freetylers, followed by skeights, filogram and b4.

the third criteria is the early fan base. if you had a good exposure during the auditions and the semifinals, the better chances you have. this is because you already have a solid fan base. so who benefits from this? marcelito is definitely one. his youtube hits is really way above the others. another is buildex, who has the most number of fan pages in facebook. happy feet also has an advantage in this criteria. another act that can be considered here is angel calalas and b4. their revelations on their affinity to season 1 contenders (angel is the sister of the velasco brothers and b4 has 2 members who performed with baguio metamorphosis in season 1) might get the fans of the season 1 alumni to vote for them.

the fourth criteria is the performer's place of origin. filipinos have a great sense of kababayan and they will vote for someone who comes from or is from a place near his own place. on the disadvantage in this criteria is the 2 acts from baguio (b4 and filogram); 2 acts from negros (djp trio and nielbeth) and the 2 acts from rizal (madrigal siblings and angel calalas). they would split the hometown votes.

the fifth criteria is looks and charm. we all know that filipinos like to see beautiful faces on tv and tend to vote for the ones with the best looks. so who has the charms to win? it would definitely be jem cubil leading among the guys and angel calalas among the female contenders.

the sixth criteria is uniqueness of the act. viewers wants to see something extraordinary, something they do not see often in television and on shows. so who are unique here? happy feet, rico the magician, hoop expert angel and marcelito are unique in their own way. tap dancing is not very popular in the philippines and happy feet gave us a glimpse on how beautiful this dance form is. marcelito is a deviation from the doble kara approach to his act. angel's hoop act is definitely something new and rico is the only magician since the semi-finals.

the last criteria but definitely not the least is the story behind each contestant. being in a reality show, the talent is not the only selling point that you have. you should have a sad story behind your performance. that is why filipinos like telenovelas, because they can easily relate to the problems and hardships of life. this makes you grounded and relateable. happy feet's life struggles and marcelito's search for his family definitely gives them an edge in this criteria. their stories has been highlighted since the auditions and the audience can clearly relate to their stories. the auddience also tends to vote for the person who needs the prize more.

so if you ask me who deserves to win after the performance night last night, i would definitely say it should be a toss up between freestylers, nielbeth and marcelito.

but considering all the criteria above, i think the contest will be between happy feet and marcelito pomoy. my dark horse will be buildex or rico the magician.

my fearless forecast? the winner will be marcelito pomoy.

so make sure that you will vote for your favorites. every vote counts.