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In last year's Star for a Night finals, one contestant almost won
the million-peso prize that finally went to Sarah Geronimo. He was
the only contestant that Sarah thought could beat her.

Mark Bautista didn't think that way, though. When he heard Sarah
belt out the first notes of her song onstage, he already knew she'd
be the "Star" for that night. Yet, the young singer from Cagayan de
Oro City who hitched a ride on a cargo boat to Manila to get into
the second audition phase of the singing contest didn't lose hope.
He prayed hard for a miracle to happen to him that night, because he
didn't want to go home empty handed. It would break his mother's
heart, after begging the captain of a cargo ship en route to Manila
to allow her son to travel with him.

That miracle didn't happen. Mark didn't win the contest. Yet, he
didn't shed a tear for his misfortune. He didn't even feel bad at
all that he didn't win. All he had in mind was to get back on the
road, go back to Cagayan de Oro, and rejoin a band that was bound
for Japan for a six-month stint.

While Mark was all set to board a ship back home, he got a call from
Viva Entertainment, the company behind Star for a Night. It was the
miracle Mark prayed for.

Although he didn't win the finals, Mark's performance impressed
Veronique del Rosario, daughter of Viva's big boss Vic del Rosario
Jr., who, after consultations with her dad and brother Vincent,
decided to sign Mark for a recording deal.

"I was all set to go home," Mark recalls. "I was thinking nothing
was going to happen to me here because I didn't know anyone in the
business. I was hoping I could rejoin the boyband I left back in
Cebu and travel with them to Japan so I could earn a living."

God really works in mysterious ways. Mark took a bus to Cubao from
Parañaque where he resides temporarily with some relatives and then
on to Viva's offices on E. Rodriguez Ave.

Thus began a new chapter in Mark Bautista's life. If an enterprising
filmmaker would make a movie out of his life, he has a dramatic
opening scene…Mark in cargo ship from from Cagayan de Oro to Manila
sleeping amid the cackles of hens, grunts of pigs, and bellows of
carabaos that were the main passengers of the sea vessel.

Overjoyed, Mark made a call to his mother in Cagayan who, for
several seconds, was speechless, incredulous over the good fortune
that has befallen her favorite son. He also talked to his father, a
former seaman who has become decommissioned after he fell ill, to
tell him about the recording deal. His father, according to Mark,
spoke only a few words, but he could feel he was happy for him.

Mark smiles as he looks at his likeness on the cover of the CD. "I
still can't believe it," he murmurs with a slight Visayan
affectation in his Tagalog. "To tell you the truth, I have mixed
emotions —excited and nervous. You are familiar with that feeling, I
guess. And it's true I suppose with every newcomer in the business."

The album, launched recently, at the Hard Rock Café has 12 songs,
including his own version of "Ngayon at Kailanman," the song that
cemented Basil Valdez' stature as a premier singer. This is the same
song that Mark sang during the finals for Star for a Night.

"I really never thought that I'd reach this far," he tells a motley
group of writers who looked like they have been enchanted by this
southern boy. "At the beginning, I was only wishing I could be one
of the contestants of Star for a Night."

A friend in Cagayan de Oro told Mark about the search and that there
was going to be an audition in Cebu. At the time, he was a vocalist
in a local boyband. The idea of joining a search intrigued him, so
he took a boat from Cagayan to Cebu. "Fortunately, I passed the
audition. I got a call later that I needed to go to Manila for the
second phase of the audition. That's when I started having problems.
You see, my family is so poor we couldn't afford a plane ticket."
They couldn't afford a steerage passage either.

It seems that Lady Luck was on Mark's side. His mother who is
into "chandling" (or supplying boats with provisions) talked to
one "capitan" and begged him to allow Mark to take the trip to
Manila so he could make it to the second phase of the audition. Like
a scene in a telenovela, Mark boarded the ship and was at sea for
close to three days with animal cargo.

The day after he arrived and accompanied by a cousin, Mark joined a
throng of star wannabes at the Viva office where the auditions were
being conducted.

"I almost gave up after going through the auditions because all I
heard from the people there was `thank you.' My cousin and I were
already in a bus on our way home when my cellphone rang and someone
from Viva started telling me that I had to go back to the office
tomorrow because I was being considered for a new boyband Viva was
going to form."

That call almost broke Mark's heart, because he didn't come to
Manila to be a member of a boyband. He had his eyes set on the P1
million cash prize in Star for a Night. "Then again, I told myself,
maybe that could be a start of something. At least, I'm going to be
able to work in Manila."

What Mark didn't know was he was being set up by Viva. The guys
behind the search didn't want to tell him right away that he made
it. They wanted to capture on camera his reaction when he'd learn
that he had made it to the search.

"I was really clueless when I went back to the office," Mark
recalls. "I didn't want to tell my mama and papa that I didn't make
it, so I just went back to see what Viva was up to. Then when I was
there and ready to take anything that I felt could help me get by in
Manila for a while, they (Star for a Night staff members) told me I
made it as a Star for a Night contestant."

"You can't image how I felt. I was very, very happy, but I was too
embarrassed to show it. I was only able to utter two words…thank
you," he said.

The first time he sang, he won the weekly contest that earned him to
be in the monthly finals, which he also won. "All in all, I already
earned P50,000. I sent some money to my mother and the rest I kept
as my allowance while waiting for the finals," he says.

Mark may not have won the grand prize, but he won the admiration of
a lot of people, including the media that started giving him
attention. This early, he is already being dubbed as the new Prince
of Pop. In fact, his gigs at SM Bicutan last Jan. 18 and at SM Sucat
last Jan. 24 and yesterday at the SM Southmall were such big hits
Viva has scheduled three more promotional gigs —SM Bacoor tomorrow,
SM North Edsa on Feb. 6, and SM Manila on Feb. 7.

"I really made sure I came out with an album that I can be proud
of, " Mark says. "I did nothing in the past months but work on this
album."

At this point, Mark is as busy as he has never imagined. Now, he can
afford to pay for his trip back home, which he will do as soon as he
is done with all the promo for the album and other commitments. He's
not going to be in a ship with animal cargo. He'll be on a jet plane
fit for a prince.

(source: Manila Standard)

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