Pop Culture Icons of the Philippines

    1.     Leah Salonga
Filipina singer and actress. She is best known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway. She also provided the singing voice of two Disney "princesses":  Jasmine in Aladdin (1992), and Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998) and Mulan II (2004)

     

2.     Levi Celerio is a Filipino composer and lyricist. He was a creative songwriter, with more than 4,000 songs to his acclaim including Filipino folk, Christmas, and love songs that are popular pieces, which many consider to be immortal.

   3.   Raymundo Cipriano Pujante Cayabyab is well known in the music industry. His works range from commissioned full-length ballets, theater musicals, choral pieces, a Mass set to unaccompanied chorus, and orchestral pieces, to commercial recordings of popular music, film scores and television specials.

4.     Freddie Aguilar is best known for his rendition of "Bayan Ko", which became the anthem for the opposition to the Marcos regime during the 1986 People Power Revolution, and for his song "Anak", the best-selling Philippine music record of all time. He is heavily associated with Pinoy rock.  He is well known internationally, and within the Philippines and Asia-Pacific region, claiming fame as one of the best musician-songwriters of the Philippines. 

      5. Gloria Diaz won the Miss Universe title for the Philippines in 1969 and Miss Margarita Moran did in again in 1973. The Miss International crown was worn by Gemma Cruz in 1964, by Aurora Pijuan in 1970 and by Melanie Marquez in 1979. Filipino women have also won the Miss Asia Pacific award four times since 1965. They are Ines Zaragoza who brought home the crown in 1982; Gloria Dimayacyac, 1983; Lorna Legaspi, 1989; and Michelle Aldana, 1993

6.     Jose Garcia Villa (Doveglion) was one of the world's finest contemporary poets. Villa, who spent most of his life in a New York apartment, was praised by critics for his beautiful poetry. American poet, e.e. cummings even wrote a poem, Doveglion, Adventures in Value, for Villa

    7.  Fernando Poe Jr. is the “King of Action Movies". For more than four decades now, he has ruled the local big screen, even putting in the sideline another actor and friend who became more successful in politics.

8.     Rodolfo “Dolphy” Quizon is the king of comedy. He shared many moments of great laughs with the Filipino audience. As an actor and prime comedian, Dolphy entertained the nation with his physical humor and classic jokes. 

  

9.     Manny Pacquiao - Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao -  is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is an eight-division world champion, the first boxer in history to win ten world titles, the first to win in eight weight divisions,and the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000's by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA)