MANILA, Philippines?Charice Pempengco?s first full-length concert, dubbed ?The Journey Begins? at Mall of Asia?s SMX Convention Center on Saturday, was not without flaws even before it started.

Lines had snaked outside the venue early on, yet doors remained shut until past 7 p.m. Once inside, some ushers led people to the wrong seats. Forty minutes past show time, the gig was still in limbo.

Eight costume changes

The show itself was imperfect. For one thing, the main star was subjected to a total of eight costume changes, which resulted in a few moments of dead air and extended ?cover-up? by the band and backup vocalists (one of whom looked bored).

Later, Charice was made to thank a long list of sponsors (the voiceover announcer should have done that). Was it a way to keep her humble, as she was advised onstage (by Kuh Ledesma) or on videotape (David Foster, among others) that night?

Moreover, by cramming over 20 songs into the two-hour show, several numbers were abridged?dished out with some stanzas omitted, jumping straight to the belt-out parts?lending the proceedings an all-peak-no-valley monotony.

That said, Charice herself did not fail, her singing stupendously awesome, scaling stratospheric octaves that wowed some 6,000 people that night.

She has become Manny Pacquiao?s counterpart in the music industry (never mind if the boxer is also sort of a singer). She did not falter either on her signature toss-and-catch mic trick, which she displayed as she kicked things off with the ?Dreamgirls? ballad ?And I Am Telling You I?m Not Going.?

As expected, she sang the ?Titanic? theme, ?My Heart Will Go On?; the other ?Dreamgirls? hit, ?Listen?; and ?The Bodyguard?s? pesticide-strength ?I Will Always Love You? and ?I Have Nothing.? (Interestingly, none of those flicks are her favorite. As the concert souvenir program said, ?Friday the 13th? and ?Autopsy? are her preferred movies, mercifully hinting at a complex personality?or at least youthful audacity?and not entirely saccharine tastes.)

Even the seventh number, a ?You and Me Against the World? duet with mom Raquel, herself a former band vocalist, could have been farcical?given mother and child?s twin yellow gowns that echoed Belle?s of Disney?s ?Beauty and the Beast.? But the number wound up being quite a poignant spectacle.

Surprises

There were two surprises. In a nod to the late Michael Jackson, Charice rendered his ?Billie Jean? (replete with a faux Moonwalk) and ?You Are Not Alone?; what was surprising to the audience was that, she said, they were due to duet two weeks from now (during his scheduled London tour, we presume).

And there were several guest performers, although the main invitee was absent: Regine Velasquez turned out to be sick, her two-day fever averting what would have been an earsplitting ?birit? faceoff.

Filling in Regine?s gown, literally, was the regal Kuh, who joined Charice for a grand take on Freddie Aguilar?s ?Anak??one of the two instances when the show got musically unpredictable, thanks to the brief melodic syncopation halfway through. (The first was the musicale-mimicking overture at the very beginning, before Charice appeared onstage.)

All told, Charice, who is likewise an aspiring songwriter, made us appreciate the beauty in pop music?how it can echo real emotions through song. Now that she has everyone?s attention and can trump her vocal peers at their own game, here?s hoping she will somehow manage to inject more Pinoy-ness into her repertoire.

That way, no matter how her ?journey? proceeds, we would gladly be right behind her.