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Kristine Zhenie Lobrigas Tandingan (born March 11, 1992 in Digos, Davao del Sur, Philippines), more popularly known and simply by the mononym KZ, is a Filipino singer who rose to fame after winning the first season of The X Factor Philippines in 2012.
KZ Tandingan started singing as a child but had to stop when she was in her junior year in high school after suffering from a throat problem. Tandingan is an alumna of University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City and had graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Biology.
Before she joined The X Factor Philippines, Tandingan was part of a local acoustic band.
The X Factor Philippines
Tandingan was considered as an early favorite after she performed a jazzy version of “Over the Rainbow” in the fourth week of the Judges’ auditions. After receiving a standing ovation from all the judges’, she was requested to sing again. She obliged and sang “Ready or Not” by the American rapper, Lauryn Hill. With her second song, she also showed her rapping skills. Tandingan was greatly praised by all of the judges. Nievera even shouted that, “A star is born in Digos!”. The video of her audition went viral online after it was uploaded in YouTube. The video reached nearly 1 million views before it was removed due to copyright issues. During the Bootcamp stage, she sang “Mahirap Magmahal ng Syota ng Iba” by the APO Hiking Society and cried after she made the cut for the Top 20. She sang “Killing Me Softly with His Song” by Roberta Flack during the Judges’ home visit. On week 9, she landed on the bottom 2 for the first time with teammate Allen Sta. Maria, but she survived elimination. She was Charice’s last remaining act after Allen Sta. Maria was eliminated on week 9. She reached the grand finals on October 7, 2012 and was proclaimed the winner of The X Factor Philippines.
Post-Factor
On January 7, 2013, Tandingan entered the Himig Handog P-Pop Love Songs contest with the song entry called “Scared To Death”, written by Domingo Rosco Jr. The song was accompanied with a music video that was assigned as a project to be directed by University of Santo Tomas and premiered on the 2nd of February in Myx Philippines. She performed the song in the grand finals on February 24, 2013 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. Overall, the song finished in 4th place and was the third runner-up for Best P-pop Love Song thus rewarding the writer of Tandingan’s song one hundred thousand pesos in cash. On April 21, 2013, Tandingan toured across North America as a supporting act for pop band Side A.
On May 2, 2013, Tandingan released her self-titled debut album. The album was produced by Jonathan Manalo and consists of mainly original songs with some covers. On June 27, 2013, Tandingan officially launched the album on Makati City.
On January 11, 2014, Tandingan won P1,000,000 in The Singing Bee where she accumulated 4 straight songs correctly. In the show, she did not make a single error in the first 2 rounds and eventually won a tie-breaker against co-contestants Frenchie Dy and Sitti, who also did not commit any errors throughout the game.
On 2015, she was announced as one of the eight contestants for the second season of Your Face Sounds Familiar (Philippines season 2) along with Myrtle Sarrosa, Sam Concepcion, Cacai Bautista, Kean Cipriano, Denise Laurel, Michael Pangilinan and Eric Nicolas. The show ran from September 12, 2015 to December 13, 2015. and she was the 3rd runner-up.
On 2016, she was announced as one of the celebrity mentors in We Love OPM, being the mentor of Team O Diva. The show ran from May 14, 2016 to July 17, 2016.
KZ is currently seen in ASAP, as one of the ASAP Soul Sessions with Jason Dy, Daryl Ong, Jay R and Kyla,
