Jan Nieto

Jan Kurt Anthony Pasion Nieto (born June 13, 1981) is a Filipino male singer who rose to prominence as one of the runners-up of Philippine Idol in 2006. With the height of and weighing , he was dubbed as the "Hunky Idol" during the competition. His mother is also an undersecretary of the Department of Health. -Long Queue of People), a composition of Idol judge Ryan Cayabyab. His audition was not shown until the show's tenth week, which featured special segments about the Final 3.

Several people who knew Nieto were surprised that he tried out for Idol, including actor Alfred Vargas, who was once his classmate.

He landed on the Top 4 during the Men's Semi-Final Round and became one of the 12 Finalists.

During the competition, he offered fellow finalist Ken Dingle—who at the time was based in Baguio—a place to stay at his house. Dingle, who taught Nieto how to sing in R&B style, resided in the Nieto household even after his elimination. He also volunteered, with the help of his mother, in helping fellow finalist Pow Chavez recover from her asthma during the Women's Semi-Finals. Entertainment writers even predicted that Nieto and Magdangal would vie for the title.

One of his performance highlights was his rendition of Nievera's "You Are My Song" during the Final 6 Round wherein the songs were chosen by another finalist. In Nieto's case, it was Magdangal who picked the song. Nieto admitted that it was a difficult song because of its wide range and some of its high notes were beyond his normal range. Eventually, he was surprised with the judges' positive reactions.

Nieto landed at the Bottom 3 twice and on the Hot Spot once, when there was no official Bottom 3 or 2 announced. This happened for three consecutive weeks before the Finale.

He was often criticized during the competition that his performances were stiff, inorganic, or not note-perfect. However, the judges noted that he showed improvement as weeks passed, with Cayabyab calling it "from 0 to 100". This decision worried some of the people close to him because a career in music is uncertain unlike his stint in the corporate world.

Nieto and fellow Idol finalist Miguel Mendoza has also appeared on the ABS-CBN show ASAP '07 alongside Piolo Pascual, Sam Milby, Jay-R Siaboc, and Ronnie Liang. Moreover, Nieto was also interviewed in TV Patrol World about his appearance on ASAP '07. Along with Idol finalist Jelli Mateo, Nieto also sang a food condiment jingle that was rearranged by Cayabyab.

He also appeared in various mall shows and corporate events.

It took nine and a half months after the competition before Nieto got his major break when he signed for GMA Network as part of its musical variety show SOP Rules.

Recordings His first recorded single is "Tuwing Umuulan At Kapiling Ka", which was originally sung by Basil Valdez and Eraserheads. It is part of Philippine Idol: The Final 12 CD, a compilation of songs performed by Philippine Idol finalists during the OPM Week.

After months of preparations and recordings, his self-titled debut album was released March 2009 under IndiMusic (label owned by, among others, Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez). Ogie serves as the album Producer, which includes two of his compositions entitled "Sa Puso Ko" and the album's carrier, "Bakit Kailangan Pang Lumayo". Initially thought of as a CD lite (contains 6 songs), Ogie suggested to make it a full album of 10 cuts. Jan co-wrote (with his manager) the lyrics of one of the songs, "Together", which co-Philippine Idol finalist Miguel Mendoza doing the music.

Jan sang theme songs of two GMA 7 evening soaps - Kamandag and Ang Babaeng Hinugot Sa Aking Tadyang. He also performed theme songs of two Independent films - Sangandaan from the movie Paupahan and Bakit Kailangan Pang Lumayo from the soon to be released film Marino.

Singles Ikaw ang Pag-Ibig (Ang Babaeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang Theme Song) Ngayon at Kailanman (Originally performed by Basil Valdez) Bakit Kailangan Pang Lumayo (first Carrier Single of his Debut Album)