- Album list
- Singer Intro
Regina Encarnacion Ansong Velasquez (born 22 April 1970) is a Filipino singer, actress, television presenter and record producer. Popular for her wide vocal range, she is widely known as 'Asia's Songbird'. Velasquez has been hailed by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) as the Philippines' Best-Selling Artist of All Time, with more than 7 million units sold in the Philippines and another 2 million units sold across Asia.
Velasquez won the Grand Prize at the 1989 Asia Pacific Singing Contest in Hong Kong. In 1994, Polygram Records produced her first Asia wide-released album, Listen Without Prejudice. It is considered as Velasquez' most successful album to date, selling more than 700,000 copies in Asia. The album has sold over 100,000 units in the Philippines, 300,000 units in China and 20,000 in Thailand.
In 2000, Velasquez's music video 'In Love With You', a duet with Jacky Cheung, landed at the #1 spot on MTV Asia's Top 20 Asian Videos. On the eve of the new millennium, as part of BBC's Millennium Special 2000 Today, Velasquez, together with some 2,000 Filipino youth, sang the Philippine millennium theme, 'Written in the Sand'. This was broadcast by BBC to 67 countries reaching almost a billion viewers.
At age 21, Velasquez was the first Asian solo performing artist to stage a solo concert at the Carnegie Hall in New York, as part of Carnegie Hall's centennial-year concert series. In 2002, she was the first Filipino to win at the MTV Asia Awards held in Singapore as Favorite Artist Philippines. The following year, she won the same award at the 2003 MTV Asia Awards. In 2003, she became the first Filipino artist to have a CNN Talk Asia special interview with Lorraine Hahn. In 2012, Velasquez had the honor of being the first Filipino artist to stage a solo concert at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Philippines.
Velasquez has performed and collaborated with several international artists such as Paul Anka, David Hasselhoff, 98 Degrees, Alicia Keys, Brian McKnight, Mandy Moore, Ronan Keating, Stephen Bishop, Jim Brickman, Peabo Bryson, Jeffrey Osborne, Dave Koz, Jacky Cheung, Grasshopper, Coco Lee, Michel Legrand, David Pomeranz, Eduardo Capetillo, Fernando Carrillo, David Archuleta, Russell Watson and Singaporean vocal band Skritch.
Her career has crossed over to television and film, earning her Best Actress awards for her portrayal of a mentally challenged woman in a Maalaala Mo Kaya episode entitled 'Lobo', and for her performance in the movie Of All the Things. Her movie Pangako, Ikaw Lang (I Promise, It's Only You) earned her Box-Office Queen title.
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