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Billy hits the big time

AFTER THE success of his recent major concert, It’s Time, at the Araneta Coliseum, international pop star Billy Crawford says that he’s considering settling in the Philippines for good, or at least for now, while there are projects and opportunities being offered to him.

“I might,” says Billy, whose last assignment was as host of the dance reality show Move on GMA-7. The winners of the show were among the featured guests at his concert.

However, before he makes the decision to settle in the Philippines, Billy will be returning to Europe to honour some commitments there. On the agenda also is a trip to the United States, where he will meet with L.A. Reid of La Face Records. Billy shares that he is also set to work on some songs for an upcoming album with Red Zone, an Atlanta-based songwriting collective that crafted songs for Britney Spears’ fourth studio album In the Zone. Among the songs the group wrote for Britney are Early Mornin’, The Hookup and that album’s lead single, Me Against the Music.

Speaking of Britney, Billy — who, like Spears, started out in the business at a young age — said he regrets what happened to the embattled pop star who has suffered a lot of personal and professional setbacks this year. “It’s too bad, because she has a lot of potential.” The album that Billy will be working on will be released in the Philippines before it is released in other parts of the world. He thinks it’s only right “because after all, I’m Filipino.”

This pride in his Filipino heritage is what sets Billy apart from other Pinoy performers who’ve all but forgotten their roots. Billy, after becoming a big success in Europe, and after doing the same in Hollywood when he was offered a role in the prequel to the horror film The Exorcist, has never turned his back on the Philippines.

He even left a mark in the country—literally—when he had his hand and foot prints taken for inclusion in the Walk of Fame in Eastwood City, the Philippines’ version of the famous Hollywood tourist attraction.