Darren Espanto is a 22-year-old Filipino singer, songwriter, actor, and television personality. His career began in 2013 when he participated in the popular singing competition The Voice Kids Philippines. He finished as the runner-up on the show, gaining national fame and recognition.
After The Voice Kids Philippines, Darren Espanto signed with Star Magic and released his debut single ""Dying Inside To Hold You"" which became an instant нιт in the Philippines. His first album ""Darren"", which included popular tracks such as ""Love Me Now"" and ""Kaнιт Na"" was certified Platinum within 5 months of its release.
With such a reputation, it is surprising that he recently received a lot of criticism for his cover of j-hope's "Mona Lisa".
Darren performed j-hope’s recently released song alongside artists Kyle Echarri and Iñigo Pascua l on the latest episode of the Philippines’ Variety Show, ASAP Natin To. Most fans both local and international gave Darren and his colleagues a standing ovation, but some did not.
A clip of Darren’s performance was cited by a netizen who criticized his vocals, comparing it to j-hope’s original. Many others then downplayed the singer’s talent and even said that he couldn’t sing.
These comments include: "Dare I say… people who cant sing need to stop covering his songs. Seriously", "u might have a great voice but in that cover you had no stability in singing while dacing. you were out of breath from the start to finish", "a cover you did LMAO boy u so unprofessional "...
In response to some of these negative comments, Darren Espanto responded by sharing links to other performances and added, “Hi, @sieeoun. Please consider watching my other vocal performances cuz one thing I won’t take is someone telling me I “CAN’T SING”. Attached here are a few of ‘em:”.
Netizens were quick to defend the famous singer too, sharing that Darren's voice is amazing, adding clips and context to respond to the criticism. Many even shared that these performances were done without much practice, thus not showing off Darren's full sкιℓℓs.
Comments in support of Darren include:
- what others do not know as well is that asap performances like this are rehearsed for only hours in a day before sunday. its not that serious lol. yung mga idols nyo teenagers pa lang rehearsals at training na ang buhay but for some reason still cant sing for sнιт
- Even though I am a Kpop stan, Filipino singers are someone you cannot doubt about their singing abilities. Kpop and Ppop both have different techniques, but singing wise Ppop singers are POWERHOUSE singers and better than Kpop singers
- darren can outsing your faves btw
- hi darren, just wanted you and everybody know a lot of armys quoted the tweet defending you and the rest of the singers on the video saying that its not bc you can't sing but bc j-hope and bts are used to singing and dancing and have mastered the art of breathing. i dont want armys to be painted as toxic (again) bc first of all we appreciate that you guys covered his song and it was unfortunate that a multi stained that appreciation for the whole fandom. i hope you saw the other big accounts praising you guys for this.
- The viral singer who covered Chandelier in its original key with lots of kulot, sylimarin, and ginko biloba e? Dang! Do not drag The Darren like that!
- Hello, please don't mind their words. This person isn't even a BTS fan, us ARMYs, are very happy with your cover, you seriously did great, and we love people who are supportive of our boys
- Both artists shine in different lanes, and that's what makes music diverse and exciting!!
