Never a Pop Star

When Ms. Salonga changed the lyrics of the song Nothing (from the musical A Chorus Line) into something that would describe her journey into musical theater [The pop scene’s Nothing!; To me, it’s Nothing!], she (sort of) confirmed my long-standing opinion that her luminous place in the music industry was never defined in the pop arena. That’s kind of an obvious statement if we’ll list where all her accomplishments lie. My point is that during her concert, and as always, I am not as impressed when she sings, say Beverly Craven’s Promise Me, as to how I’m blown away by her voice when she starts the first lines of On My Own. That is in no way saying that Lea Salonga’s talent is limited because in her chosen path, she has become a master. You want a pop star? Go to a Regine Velasquez concert. Just humor me and try it once. I may not like who she’s with, how she dresses at times, how she handles herself in public these days, or the way she shouts while singing the high notes, but that is still the most powerful yet the prettiest (for lack of a better term) voice I’ve ever had the privilege to listen to live. I’m not comparing these two ladies; to me, they belong to separate categories. They both feed my inner schizophrenic -  Lea is all class, with crystal clear voice that is pure joy to listen to. She is eloquence personified. Regine is Chona, a hero of the masses, with a clean, booming voice, the soft side of which is a pure joy to listen to. The new breed has nothing on these two.

Before I make an attempt at "pop psychology," let’s go back to the concert that I watched last Friday. Filharmonika provided the accompaniment, led by Gerard Salonga; a few theater actors and directors, including the current first lady of Philippine musical theater, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, had "supporting roles" throughout. Surprise guest Aga Mulach provided comic relief. He was effortlessly funny. The theme was, of course, Lea’s musical career that now spans 30 years. It followed a timeline, starting with Annie and ending with a preview of the upcoming Cinderella; Les Miserables was the encore. As onyxx commented in my previous post, you can expect nothing less than a smashing good show from a performer of this stature. We got exactly that.