Charice Pempengco, Former ‘Glee’ Star, Changes Name To Jake Zyrus

Filipino singer and former Glee star Charice Pempengco now goes by the name Jake Zyrus.

The 25-year-old singer revealed the name change on social media over the weekend. Zyrus made new accounts on both Instagram and Twitter, each one updated with the new name. All previous posts from the Pempengco account have been deleted.

“From the bottom of my heart, thank you for the love and respect, Zyrus wrote on Instagram as a caption to a photo of the words ‘thank you.’ “I love you back and I’ sending peace to everyone.”

Zyrus also celebrated the event on Twitter, saying, “My first tweet as Jake. Overwhelmed. Saw all your love comments and I’m so happy. Finally. I love you, everyone and see you soon.”

Zyrus, 25, rose to fame in the late 2000s primarily through YouTube. After being called “the most talented girl in the world,” by Oprah Winfrey in 2010, Zyrus’ first album, Charice, was released and debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200 chart. Zyrus played Sunshine Corazon, a foreign exchange student with a towering voice, on the TV show Glee for several episodes between 2010 and 2011.

Zyrus first came out as lesbian back in 2013. A year later, the singer was interviewed by Winfrey and said, “My soul is male.”

During the interview, when Winfrey asked if Zyrus would transition, the singer said, “I’m not going to go through that stage where I change, you know, everything … not change my body. I would change this look, like, cut my hair and wear boy clothes and everything, but that’s all.”

The Philippines, where Zyrus is originally from, does not have a strong record of supporting LGTB rights. Gay marriage is illegal and transgender people are not protected by the law, according to the Human Rights Watch. Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, recently said of celebrating transgender people, “That can’t apply to us, because we are Catholics.”