The country’s longest-running singing competition “Tawag ng Tanghalan” launched its seventh year today with contestants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao and a new judge joining the star-studded line-up of hurados.

Making the singing competition more prestigious this year is the entry of another OPM legend, Nonoy Zuniga, as the newest hurado of “TNT.” He sang one of his greatest hits, Kamusta Ka, on his first day as the hurado of “TNT.”

According to the Philippines’ King of Ballads, he is excited to be with his fellow hurados. He also stated that he would be strict in judging the contestants.

“Very excited and happy to be here.Pipiliin natin yung talagang magagaling na mang-aawit dito. Strikto akong (coach). Dapat 99.9%,” he said.

For the seventh season, three contestants from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao will battle it out and perform their chosen song to impress the hurados. The winner will proceed to the “Face Off,” wherein they will try to clinch the “Golden Mikropono” from the defending champion.

Aside from the new hurado, the popular noontime show introduced changes to the contest. From three hurados, there will be five hurados who will judge the hopefuls each day.

In the first episode, the golden voice of Yen Victoria of Bulacan was announced as the daily winner after she received a total combined score of 92%.

Meanwhile, the hashtag of the show #GoForShowtime landed on the No. 1 spot on the Twitter trend list. Viewers can expect more surprises in the coming days.

Don’t miss the excitement and fun on “It’s Showtime,” 12 NN on GTV, A2Z, Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, ABS-CBN Entertainment’s YouTube channel, and Facebook page, iWantTFC, and TFC IPTV. Catch its online show, “ShowtimeOnline U,” 11:45 AM on Kapamilya Online Live.