Pempengco was born in Laguna, Philippines.After barely escaping her violent father, Charice was raised by her single mother, Raquel. To help support her family she began to enter singing contests at age seven, from town fiestas in various provinces to singing competitions on TV.She is said to have competed in almost a hundred such contests.

with David Archuleta

She was then invited to the South Korean talent show Star King on its October 13, 2007 edition, she sang "And I Am Telling You" and a duet of "A Whole New World" with Kyuhyun, from Super Junior .She instantly became an authentic internet sensation attracting the attention of American TV shows after a web-savvy fan  posted a series of Charice's performances on YouTube

After watching her Star King performance on YouTube, Ellen DeGeneres extended an on-air invitation to Pempengco to guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She flew to the United States for the first time and performed two songs on the December 19, 2007


Pempengco appeared on the May 12 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode entitled the "World's Smartest Kids", where she performed Whitney Houston's I Have Nothing.
She was dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as the Most Talented Girl in the World..
After the show, Oprah Winfrey contacted David Foster to see what the legendary music producer could do for Pempengco.


with Taylor Swift

Enter 15-time Grammy winning producer David Foster who invited Charice to perform on his David Foster and Friends PBS Show in Las Vegas alongside such star studded Foster produced talents as Michael Bublé, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, and Josh Groban. When the "David Foster and Friends" show returned to the Mandalay Bay the following year, Charice received no less than six standing ovations. In between the two Vegas appearances, Charice went on to perform with Andrea Bocelli ("The Prayer") in Tuscany and Celine Dion at her Madison Square Garden show in New York City


[ with paris Hilton]
 Then, She performed  duet with Celine Dion on September 15. They sang "Because You Loved Me," dedicated to Pempengco's mother. 


On June 22, Pempengco herself confirmed that she will join the cast of the hit US television series Glee on its second season.Her character is a foreign exchange student from the Philippines and rival to Rachel Berry (Lea Michele). Charice really relates to her Filipino character. It’s almost like playing herself. She shares about her first day walking onto the GLEE set. It’s a dream come true for her.