Multimedia teen star, Sam Concepcion is the Department of Education's new role model for the youth for keeping himself in school even as he maintains his celebrity status.

Education Secretary Jesli A. Lapus asked Sam to inspire young Filipinos to see how education can improve oneself. "We need somebody like Sam to remind the youth that education can be enjoyable and can bring us close to our dreams," he said.

According to the education chief, Sam was chosen for maintaining a wholesome public image while appreciating the value of education.

As a spokesperson, Sam will spearhead education campaigns and advocate co-curricular concerns through the SAMa SAMa sa Eskwela project and other activities.

"This is a big responsibility but I will do my share and give it my best shot," Sam said who is also the youth spokesperson.

Sam is a multi-talented youth who received critical acclaim for topbilling "High School Musical," and is a part of "Y Speak." He has starred in "Little Big Star" where he was named "Brightest Star." He was also an Aliw Award's nominee for "Best Child Performer," "Best New Male Artist," K-zone Award's nominee for "Best Male Singer of the Year," and Yes Award's nominee for the "Next Male Superstar."

DepEd's previous spokespersons include Rico Yan, Shaira Luna, Onemig Bondoc and Dingdong Dantes.

http://www.deped.gov.ph/updates/updateslinks.asp?id=278

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Awards

• Candy’s No. 11 Regular Cutie for 2005 (September 2005)
• Entertainment Konek’s Male Crush ng Bayan (December 2005)
• Little Big Star’s My Favorite Star (March 11, 2006)
• Little Big Star’s Brightest Star (April 8, 2006)
• Bogen Imaging Film and Video Shorts’s First place for the film “Miko” as Miko at a New York filmfest (June 5, 2006)
• 2006 KOTFA's Best Folk Performance Award at Korea (June 12, 2006)
• Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards “Pinoy Wannabe” award (July 8, 2006)
• Candy’s No. 1 Celeb Cutie for 2006 (September 2006)
• 20th KBP Golden Dove Awards Best Variety Program for “Little Big Star” (2006)
• CREBA’s Filipino World Champion Artist Award (December 14, 2006)
• 2006 K-zone Award’s “Best Male Singer of the Year” (January 2007)
• 2006 CandyRap Award’s “Supreme Teen - Favorite Teen Star” (March 2007)
• 2007 Pinoy Celebopedia’s Top 81 in 100 Most Powerful Local Celebrities (March 2007)
• Vaudeville Award to the HSM Cast from German Moreno (July 2007)
• Candy’s No. 1 Celeb Cutie for 2007 (September 2007)
• 2007 International Emmy Awards Regional Semi-finalist as Best Children and Young People Program for Super Inggo (September 2007)
• 29th Catholic Mass Media Awards Special Citation as Best Drama Series/Program for Super Inggo (October 2007)
• 2007 KBP Awards as Best Public Affairs Program for YSpeak (November 2007)
• 2007 Anak TV Seal Most Liked Programs for YSpeak (December 2007)
• Paja Awards for Favorite Male singer (December 2007)
• 2007 KZone Awards’ “Best Male Singer” 1st Runner-up (January 2008)
• 2007 CandyRap Awards' "Favorite Male Singer" (March 2008)
• 2007 CandyRap Awards' "Hottest Teen Star" 1st Runner-up (March 2008)
• Inside Showbiz Mag's 20 Most Popular Teen Actors in the Philippines (March 2008)
• 3rd MYX Music Awards' "Favorite New Artist" (March 2008)
• 2008 Gawad PASADO's "PinakaPASADOng Kabataan" (April 2008)

Nominations

• 18th Aliw Awards’ nominee for “Best Child Performer” (July 2005)
• 19th Aliw Awards’ nominee for “Best New Male Artist” (August 2006)
• Yes Award’s nominee for “Next Male Superstar” (September 2006)
• Pinoyexchange.com Best of 2006’s nominee for “Fave Male Local Celebrity” (January 2007)
• 21st Star Awards for TV nominee for “Best Public Affairs Program Host” (October 2007)
• 21st Star Awards for TV “Best Public Affairs Program” nominee for YSpeak (October 2007)
• 20th Aliw Awards’ nominee for “Best Stage Actor in a Musical” (November 2007)
• 20th Aliw Awards’ “Best Musical Production” for High School Musical On Stage (November 2007)
• 2007 MMFF Awards’ nominee as “Best Supporting Actor” for Shake, Rattle & Roll 9 (January 2008)

Achievements

• KOTFA 2006 - Headed the Philippine delegates for the Korea World Travel Fair, along with other Trumpets Playshop kids (June 12, 1970)
• APEC Business Advisory Council Gala Opening performer - Sam sang in front of Empoy and top relatives from other countries (August 12, 2006)
• Youth Ambassador for Education and the Arts in the Third District of Manila (Present)
• Department of Education’s Youth Role Model and Spokesperson (September 2007 - Present)
• Guam's KTKB 101.9 FM Station - Sam's hit single, "Even If," was no. 1 for 5 consecutive weeks at their hit charts. (December 2007 - January 2008)
• Business Software Alliance's B4USurf Campaign Official Spokesperson for the Philippines (February 2008 - Present)
• Dreamworks' "Kung Fu Panda" - Sam was chosen by Dreamworks to sing the theme song for Philippine theatrical release in lieu of their worldwide promotion (May 2008)
• His songs are always a hit as evident in various music charts and polls.
• His official website gets an average of a million hits every month, with 8,000 plus members as of this writing

• The youngest nominee and/or winner for all his listed awards as of date
• ETK Male Crush ng Bayan award came just 2 months after his first exposure on Little Big Star
• Candymag’s Cutie No. 11 in the Regular Cuties list for 2005 prior to officially entering showbizness
• Candymag’s Celeb No. 1 Candy Cutie over a hundred other nominees for 2006 and 2007
• Candy Cutie for the past 3 years and consistenly at number 1 for 2 years already
• 25% of the total votes during LBS Grand Finals
• 40% of all the total votes in the said “Pinoy Wannabe” award
• 36.6% of the total votes for 2006 K-Zone Awards
• 93% of all the votes for the Supreme Teen (Favorite Teen Star) award
• 61% of all the votes for the Favorite New Artist award in MYX

Sam Concepcion (born October 17, 1992) is a young Filipino singer, dancer, actor, host and model. He emerged as "The Brightest Star" for the Big Division in Little Big Star's Season 1. He is now co-managed by STAGES and ABS-CBN's Star Magic.

Samuel Lawrence Lopez Concepcion, more widely known as Sam Concepcion, was born on October 17, 1992. His parents are Raymund Concepcion and Gene Concepcion. Sam also has three siblings - Kuya Red (23), Diko Kevin (22) and as Sangko Sam to their baby sister, Gabby (11). At the age of 2, he was already able to carry a tune and dance to simple songs. By the time he was 5 years old, he was already in theater. Inevitably, Sam pursued singing and dancing.

Rise to Stardom

Sam's major TV exposure came via Little Big Star on ABS-CBN. Sam easily got the attention of the judges and viewers. He was initially dubbed as the Singing Crush ng Bayan and had been constantly a crowd's favorite. In fact, he was voted as "My Favorite Star" for having the most number of text votes, which comprised 52% of all the total votes. During the Grand Finals, Sam sang "I Can't Stand Still" from Footloose, one of the highly successful musicals produced by STAGES. He eventually won the whole competition with the title, "The Brightest Star" for the Big Division over equally talented kids, Gian Barbarona was a second placer while Charice Pempengco was a third placer. Since then, Sam has steadily risen towards stardom.

Sam was just five years old when he first performed in theater through a worship cantata. This soon earned him the role of the young Jose Rizal in a play, "Sino Ka Ba, Jose Rizal." While playing the part of the said character, he was discovered by David Cosico who has become his manager. David encouraged Sam to join Trumpets Playshop, a workshop where he continuously honed his skills in singing, dancing, acting, modeling, and hosting. At the age of nine, Sam was already an accomplished performer and theater actor with various plays under his name. One of which is when he played Edmund in the stage adaptation of "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe." His musical influences include Gary Valenciano, Michael Jackson, Usher, and Christian Bautista.

Before Little Big Star, Sam had already appeared on TV, including his widely known commercial with his real-life dad as the rapping kid in Maggi Sinigang sa Miso. He also appeared in children's shows such as Sineskwela and Hirayamanawari. While making TV appearances, he was still active in theater, performing in productions including Peter Pan and the Time Machine, Ragnarok, and Mr. Noah’s Big Boat. Aside from acting, Sam also had a regular hosting stint in ABC-5’s A.S.T.I.G. (All Set To Imitate God), a show that told stories about God and worship. In addition, Sam guested in Christian Bautista's concerts, namely Heartfelt and Color Everywhere.

Sam Concepcion's biggest break happened when he joined Little Big Star, a singing competition in ABS-CBN, which searched for young talents. He eventually won the search, earning the title as "The Brightest Star." Through this competition, Sam Concepcion's fanbase, collectively called the "Samsters," was formed and has been continuously growing.

But prior to winning Little Big Star, Sam was offered endorsements and projects. He is an endorser of Bench, a famous clothing line in the Philippines. He had also appeared in several magazine covers and features namely K-Zone, Total Girl, YES!, Hi, Inside Showbiz, Star Studio and other leading magazines in the country. In the September 2006 issue of Candy magazine, Sam was announced as Candy Cuties’ Number One Cutie and won the title again the following year.

Since then, Sam has achieved a whole lot more. He dubbed the voice of the main character Koyuki in Beck, an anime musical. He also starred in the ABS-CBN primetime shows, Super Inggo as Boi Bawang, one of the main characters and Walang Kapalit as the young Piolo Pascual.

Sam is still a regular host of YSpeak and a semi-regular on ASAP '08. He is also doing various tours for different purposes. One is an album tour, wherein he goes to different malls to promote his album. The other is a school tour in relation to his appointment by the Philippine's Department of Education as the newest Youth Role Model and Spokesperson. Being such, Sam encourages students across the country to prioritize their education. Sam was also appointed as the official spokesperson for the Philippines in the asian-wide campaign of Business Software Alliance's B4USurf campaign against online piracy and safe internet use. To add to that, Sam is still the Youth Ambassador for Education and the Arts in the 3rd District of Manila. In addition, Sam is now the newest addition to ABS-CBN's Star Magic talents, with a co-management contract with STAGES. He was launched as a Star Magic talent last February 10, 2008 on ASAP '08.

Just recently, Sam was chosen by Dreamworks to sing the theme song entitled, "Kung Fu Fighting," for the animated movie, Kung Fu Panda, for its Philippine run. His version of "Kung Fu Fighting" is included in the Asian soundtrack album, which also includes the cover of Korean superstar, Rain. With this project, Sam is the first Filipino artist to have collaborated with Dreamworks.