Irish Fullerton is a singer and actress, she is a scholar of Pinoy Dream Academy
Fatima Irish Fullerton was born on July 26, 1983, she's a nursing student from Tracy, California, United States by an American father and a Filipina mother. But she was raised by her mom and her American stepfather. She never met his biological father and not even interested to meet him.
She did a cameo before in an episode of Maalala Mo Kaya shot in the US starring Heart Evangelista and Geoff Eigenmann. Had it been Irish was already popular before, it could not be described as a cameo since she appeared there on two scenes, with matching significant dialogues.
She's a working student. She works part-time as a waitress while studying Nursing.
On the first 6 Gala Nights, she was not nominated for six straight weeks but during the last six gala nights, she was nominated four times (7th, 9th, 10th & 12th Gala Nights). She was never a Star Scholar but usually stayed on the Top 3 spots (Top 3 during the 2nd Gala, Top 2 - 3rd Gala, Top 2 - 5th Gala, Top 3 - 6th Gala, Top 2 - 8th Gala).
On her first nomination, she was saved by the texters beating Yvan, Iya and Michelle. On the second, Michelle saved her when Michelle was automatically expelled. For her third probation, Jay-R has beaten her in the texters game but was eventually saved by the teachers beating Joan and Davey. Irish was saved by the viewers again along with Ronnie and Panky on her last nomination.
The highest score she received was 9.30 (5th Gala Night) when she had a duet with Chad Peralta for the song I FINALLY FOUND SOMEONE and her lowest was 6.13 (10th Gala Night). Irish's average score for the 12 Gala Nights is 8.07, considerably high, 4th highest among the remaining scholars after Yvan, Panky and Yeng.
Among the songs she sang in the Academy, which gave her a good standing are SOMEWHERE, KAILAN KAYA, ISANG LINGGONG PAG-IBIG, MAGDALENA, LARGER THAN LIFE, OH HOLY NIGHT and HIRAM.
Before she enterred the academy, she was romantically linked to Gene Jay Rufino, an NCR dreamer who didn't make to Top 20. While inside the academy, Irish was romantically paired to Geoff Taylor, but she confessed that Geoff's just a brother to him.
Irish was able to make bond with Michelle and Joan inside the academy. Eman, Chad and Kristoff are also Irish's friends.
In an interview made by the Philippine Daily Inquirer last November 09, Teacher Moy Ortiz named Irish as one of his three front-runners. The others are Yeng and Yvan. Ortiz described Irish as "driven and talented." He even advised Irish to dedicate her songs to the audience and try to reach out to them.
Performance Teacher Jose Javier Reyes was also interviewed and Irish appeared on his top 3 (again). Reyes named Irish, Yeng and Ronnie as the frontrunners while he mentioned Jay-R and Chad as wildcards.
Musical influences are Megastar Sharon Cuneta, Barbra Streisand and Mariah Carey.
Irish faves Rhythn 'N Blues, Ballad and Pop songs.
She can play the piano and the guitar.
"I gave-up nursing because it’s my dream to be a singer and this is a once in a lifetime chance!"
This is most important reason why she took a hiatus from her academic life. For years she and her mother have been planning to come to Manila not just for vacation but for her to try her luck in show business. It never pushed through before because her mother got sick. Being the only daughter, she didn’t want to leave her mother alone in the States.
"My mom, my parents are my world. I don’t want to come here by myself not knowing what’s it like here. A lot of people told me to be careful when I come here by myself. So I was a little skeptical to come here so I waited for my mom to get well. But then I decided I was coming here anyway. My parents ended up staying in the US. I told my mom it was okay since I was with ABS-CBN and they’ll take care of me. So now I’m more comfortable," she explained.
Back home, Irish stayed with a roommate. She would study in the morning and work at night. She would regularly get invited to sing in State and Country Fairs. Though her mom has been trying to convince her to move back in for her to save money, she’d rather have limited resources because that would motivate her more to work hard and finish school.
She started loving singing when she was in fourth grade. And she has made a mark in various talent contests of her schools. She also auditioned for "American Idol 3," the season where Fantasia Barino won.
"My dream is to perform on stage. I love singing and being on stage. And all my problems, well, everyone has problems, I just feel like that I could just walk away from all of them. It is just an amazing feeling being on stage, seeing people appreciate my God given talent," she expressed.
Looking back, she sang a couple of lines from "Stand By Your Man" when she was stopped by the auditioner and one of the persons behind "Pinoy Dream Academy" Lauren Dyogi (the other is Linggit Tan). She thought she didn’t make it but was asked to return for another audition. She then sang with a group belting out "Lean On Me." "When we were just 11 people, he ask us to sing whatever songs in his mind. He made me sing ‘Bahay Kubo’ and I was so lucky because that was the only folk song I knew," she said.
It was her rendition of Regine Velasquez’ "Ikaw" that sealed her a spot as one of PDA’s scholars.
So what does she want the contest to do for her?
"There’s always room for improvement. I never had professional vocal singing, professional dance lessons. Just the fact that I can do this, I consider these opportunities to learn new things and use these tools to pursue what I want. Just to be here is an honor. If I don’t win, everything that I’ve learn will be a stepping stone to move forward in my singing career!"
Born July 26, her showbiz crush when she was still a kid was Aga Muhlach.
She is currently rumored boyfriend and singer Jay-R Siaboc.
