Despite the heavy rains, Hallohallo Entertainment’s (HHE) first Registration & Audition Tour of MNL48 was an overall success last weekend. MNL48 is the Philippine adaptation and the newest sister group of the popular all-female idol group of Japan, AKB48.
The two-day event was held at Sta Lucia East Grand Mall and nearby IL Centro Activity Area in Cainta, Rizal last October 14 and 15.
Several female, ages 15-20 years old, lined up to register and audition in hopes to become one of the members of AKB48’s newest sister group outside of Japan.
Applicants who have not yet registered were assisted by the staff in filling up the in-app registration form. Those who have completed the requirements selected their respective audition piece from a list of popular hit songs by Star Music and AKB48 before moving to the Audition stage.
MLN48 will be choosing forty-eight girls to become a member of the idol group. It will be done through public voting via the MNL48 app.
The members are split into 3 teams: M, N and L, each consisting of 16 members. Aside from the team member selection, the lucky aspirant will be given one of the following ranks: Center Girl, Super 7, Selections (all-stars), Under Girls, Next Girls, Future Girls and Kenkyusei (trainees). This ranking system follows the same criteria for ranking used by their sister group in Japan.
On the same day, a special program was also held at the stage area for the members of the press, MNL48 participants and idol fans.
The program opened with medley of AKB48’s popular song performed by HHE’s 48G dancers. Hosting the show were two Kapamilya artists Mark Neumann and Helga Krapf.
After some AKB48 trivia games, with the help of 48G dancers, HHE unveiled the MNL48 Audition truck, a customized truck consist of two cubicles with a built-in video and sound recorder to capture the performance of each aspiring idol members.
The audition videos taken during the tour will be uploaded to the MNL48 app. Some of the audition videos will be aired in a television show produced by HHE and ABS-CBN. It is scheduled to air during the 1st quarter of 2018, still subject to change.
More upcoming audition tours were scheduled to reach out to more aspirants nationwide. Some of the locations currently included in the tour are Manila, Alabang, Pampanga, Iloilo and Cebu. More venues (including the Mindanao area) will be announced later on.
For more details, check out the official website www.mnl48.ph and Facebook page www.facebook.com/mnl48official.
