Levy M. shares his Regine concert experience on Faudible:
I really can’t remember when I started liking Regine
Velasquez.
Hmm, perhaps it was when she had her 2-night sold out R2K
concert way back April of 2000, held at the Araneta Coliseum. She sang "On The
Wings of Love" and "Butterfly" while being suspended in mid air as if telling
everyone “Fuck you all, I can belt those high notes while wearing this harness for 2 consecutive nights!” *joke*
Or probably I also got to like her because I am a music lover and I love to sing as well.
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| grabbed photo online |
Or probably I also got to like her because I am a music lover and I love to sing as well.
I find it hard to explain how much I adore and how I like
her a lot. She inspires me in everything that I do, she motivates me in a
positive way, and she exudes this DIVA-ness shit that I really can’t deal or
handle, chos.
When I was younger, I only get to watch her through Youtube,
replays of her concerts on cable TV, mall tours, on her weekly Sunday stint on
the now defunct musical variety show SOP, or TV Specials featuring her, all
these just to witness her awesomeness!
The very first Regine concert I was able to watch LIVE was
her 20th Anniversary Concert entitled “TWENTY”, I was just a
Freshman college student then and I have to save my 2 months allowance to afford
the upper box A ticket. Not to mention, I even watched the concert alone! How
pathetic could I get, watching a concert alone, lol. All for the LOVE of Regine :D
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| My very first photo with Regine last year! |
From then on, I promised myself that as soon as I can afford good seats to watch her concerts live, I will never ever miss any of those momentous events in her career.
And yeah, that wish did really happen!
These to name a few:
-Mr. and Mrs. A Concert –a Valentine Concert with Ogie
Alcasid (her concert after giving birth held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum)
-Silver and Silver Repeat Concert (Held at the MOA Arena)
-Ang Ating Musika (Held at the Aliw Theatre)
The most recent is the 2014 Valentine Reunion Concert
entitled “Voices of Love” joined by the Concert King himself, Sir Martin
Nievera.
The last time they staged a collab concert was
in 2003 held at the Big Dome entitled “Martin Regine World Tour Concert”
January 2014, I have been hearing rumors that Regine and
Martin will have a Valentine concert this year, few days after hearing that,
voila! Cacai Mitra, Regine Velasquez’ sister and manager announced that Regine-Martin
Concert is really happening on the 14th of February!
I immediately booked tickets for the said event. Lol!
Prior to the concert event, Regine’s Dad, Mang Gerry
Velasquez died due to cardiac arrest at the age of 76. Mang Gerry was Regine’s
vocal coach, number one supporter / fan, and ultimate inspiration.
Mang Gerry has been a normal fixture in Regine Velasquez’s
singing career since day 1. He never left Regine and never missed any
concerts / events that Regine did in her career.
I know it will be hard for Regine to perform on her concert
without her Dad around. As a true-blue Reginian, I was really affected and
saddened by the news.
Fast forward to the concert day, it was like TRAFFIC-GEDDON
in the FLESH. There were no CABS at all.
It was VALENTINE’S NIGHT, FRIDAY, AND PAY DAY!! I came all
the way from Ortigas so just imagine how tragic it was for me at that time. I
then took the MRT, get off at Taft Station, rode a jeep going to Mall of Asia
Arena.
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| My OOTD for Regine's concert |
The event started at roughly 9:00PM-ish (as expected).
Regine Velasquez and Martin Nievera sang an up beat
arrangement of “You Are My Song” which both of them has a version.
One of the highlights of the night was when Regine sang
“You” by the Carpenter’s and “Leader of the Band” by Dan Fogelberg, which was
her Dad’s favorite song.
She was very emotional that time that she was not able to
sing the few lines of the song, and the people inside the arena were also enthused
by Regine’s performance.
In one of her recent interviews she expressed that ‘She will
not be singing or rendering a performance bout her Dad coz she knew that she
will just cry and maybe ruin the entire concert”
Another highlight was her solo spot where she sang “Love
Story, Where do I Begin?” where the Asia’s Songbird received a standing ovation from the
crowd for the performance.
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| Grabbed photo online |
Few tears fell when she was performing that song, maybe she
was thinking about her Dad that time, the crowd was also moved and cried with
her in that performance.
Another one was when she did her own rendition of "Let It Go", OST of the excessively popular Disney flick “Frozen”.
She did a mash-up of Demi Lovato and Idina Menzel’s version, the song really fits her voice. I loved it when at the first chorus up to the last part of the song, glitters were pouring on the entire stage, and it’s as if the Snow Queen exploded or something, it was really magical and breath-taking :)
They never ended the concert without their signature piece “Forever”, which they sang as their encore performance.
Regine cracked a joke that moment about her outfits, she said: “Walang ka budget budget tong concert na to, naka 7 outfit changes lang naman ako tonight", then laughed afterwards.
Yeah, she was dressed by our country’s top designers Cary Santiago, Martin Bautista and Cocoy Lizaso to name a few.
The concert lasted for a little more than 2 hours.
I also remembered posting a panoramic shot of the entire arena (very first photo above) on Instagram just before the show started, which I also tagged Sir Martin and Miss Regine. After the concert, Sir Martin tweeted me and said “Nice Shot” then he thanked me for watching their concert, etc.
It was really unexpected; we had a small talk on twitter. That really made my night!
Even if I was just with my friend that Valentine’s day, it
really doesn’t matter, all I know is that I am happy to be able to watch her
again perform live and witness her greatness unfold!
It was really a time well spent with my idol and my co
reginian friend, night of great music, celebration of love and Pinoy Talent.
Till the next Regine Concert! :)
- Levy Manlapaz
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Nice one Levy.
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