KZ Tandingan Filipino Singer Born 1992 in Digos

Early life

Kristine Zhenie Lobrigas Tandingan, known as KZ Tandingan (and sometimes credited as Tandingan-Monterde), is a Filipino singer and rapper. She was born on 11 March in Digos and began singing as a child. She later studied at the University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. Before entering a national competition she sang in a local acoustic band.

Career

Tandingan came to wide attention in 2012 on the first season of The X Factor Philippines. Her audition, in which she gave a jazz version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and was asked to perform a second song, "Ready or Not" by the Fugees, showed her rapping as well as singing and was shared widely online. At the Bootcamp stage she sang "Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba" and secured a place among the final twenty. She landed in the bottom two for the first time in week nine but stayed in the contest, and she was named the winner at the grand final on 7 October 2012. She had been mentored by Charice, whose last remaining act she was.

In January 2013 she entered the Himig Handog songwriting contest with "Scared to Death", written by Domingo Rosco Jr. The song placed fourth in the final on 24 February 2013 and was third runner-up for Best P-pop Love Song. Her self-titled debut album, produced by Jonathan Manalo and made up mainly of original songs with a few covers, was released on 2 May 2013 and launched in Makati City in June. A North American tour as a supporting act for the band Side A had begun in April of that year. In January 2014 she won one million pesos on the game show The Singing Bee. In 2015 she was one of eight contestants in the second season of Your Face Sounds Familiar and finished as third runner-up. The following year she mentored a team on We Love OPM and became part of the ASAP Soul Sessions, a vocal group that performed on the variety show ASAP with Jason Dy, Daryl Ong, Jay R and Kyla from May 2016 until late 2017.

In 2018 Tandingan took part in the Chinese singing contest Singer 2018 as a challenger. She finished first in her debut round with her version of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep", and in a later week sang a combined arrangement of three Mandopop songs and ranked third among the top four. She was eliminated in the ninth week after the lowest overall vote count, which drew criticism from viewers, and her name became one of the most discussed topics on Weibo. In the breakout episode in April 2018 she sang a Tagalog and Mandarin version of "Anak" and placed seventh, which did not take her to the final. She still appeared as a guest in the finale, performing with a former winner, Coco Lee.

Her first major solo concert, Supreme: KZ Tandingan, took place at the Mall of Asia Arena on 22 June 2018, with guests including Kyla, Jason Dy, Daryl Ong, Gloc-9, Moira Dela Torre, Inigo Pascual and Shanti Dope, and was followed by her first world tour. In 2019 she released the single "Raise Your Flag", and in the same year she was reported to be the first Filipino artist to stage a sold-out solo concert at the Dubai World Trade Centre Arena. In 2021 she recorded "Gabay", the Filipino version of a song for the Disney film Raya and the Last Dragon. In 2023 she was a coach on the fifth season of The Voice Kids and returned for the third season of The Voice Teens.

She is also part of DIVAS, a group formed with Yeng Constantino, Kyla and Angeline Quinto, whose first concert, DIVAS Live in Manila, was held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on 11 November 2016. The group returned to the same venue on 15 December 2018 for a show with Boyz II Men. In July and August 2023 Kyla, Yeng Constantino and Tandingan toured the United States and Canada under the title Vocal Champs, with Jason Dy as a guest.

Recognition

Media outlets have called her "Asia's Soul Supreme". Her accolades include seven Awit Awards, three Wish 107.5 Music Awards and two Myx Music Awards. Her second album, Soul Supremacy, reached platinum status, and by 2022 her catalogue had passed 278 million streams on Spotify. She has also been among the artists on Billboard's Philippine Top 20 chart.

Personal life

Tandingan is married to the singer and songwriter TJ Monterde.