Icons at the Mall of Asia Arena: Masters of OPM

At a time when foreign acts have been dominating the local concert scene in recent years, Filipino music (OPM) and artists got a much needed boost during the concert Icons at the Mall of Asia Arena: Masters of OPM. This event, formally opening the Mall of Asia Arena at the SM Mall of Asia, boasted an all star lineup featuring the local music industry’s finest recording artists and more. Music icons Pops Fernandez and Jim Paredes hosted this one of a kind concert while Johnny Manahan handled the stage direction.

The concert started with an overture of Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika with the concert’s music director, Ryan Cayabyab conducting the newly formed ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra in their public debut performance. The orchestra’s principal conductor/music director, Gerard Salonga was among the thousands at the audience who filled up the Mall of Asia Arena that night.

Medleys dominated the whole evening as the acts were either paired or belonged to a group of three or four singing the works of a particular composer(s). The opening group featured The CompanY, Christian Bautista and Jose Mari Chan featuring the compositions of Mr. Chan. This was followed by the divas Rachel Alejandro, Dulce and Vernie Varga who belted out tunes by Louie Ocampo. Zsa Zsa Padilla was originally part of this lineup but Rachel stepped in when Zsa Zsa had to cancel her appearance to attend to her longtime partner Dolphy who was hospitalized days prior to the event.

A change of pace followed as Freddie Aguilar took to the stage and performed his signature hit Anak. Thank goodness that he sang alone since having three medleys in a row this early in the concert would’ve been too much for me already.

After this number, medleys once again ruled as Richard Poon, Jed Madela, Juris and Piolo Pascual paid tribute to Ogie Alcasid’s songs that were used as the themes of various television series. Right after this number, Ogie himself along with his wife Regine Velasquez-Alcasid performed a medley of duets. The songs the two sang, like Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw and Hanggang Ngayon were probably compositions that Ogie wrote for his wife.

Again, after two long medleys, there was again a breather and this time around, it was through a comedy routine of Wally Bayola, Jose Manalo and Pokwang. The trio did their usual antics complete with celebrity impressions of Mike Enriquez, Gary Valenciano and even Mommy Dionisia that sent the whole Arena rumbling in laughter. But since this is a concert celebrating OPM, the three also got the chance to sing and they did so with Ngumiti Tumawa Magsaya Kumanta.

The concert had been an almost strictly ballad affair so far so that the number that had G-Force dancing to a snippet of Hallelujah gave the night a much needed tempo boost. And the younger demographic was also served in this concert by the inclusion of Bamboo as dished out one of his biggest hits Noypi, still backed up by G-Force. This rocking number also gave the orchestra the chance to shine especially aided by the superb arrangement of the song by Ryan Cayabyab.

After this, it was back to medleys consisting of ballads once again as Arnel Pineda and Lea Salonga, two Filipino singers who’ve had international success, paid tribute to the compositions by Odette Quesada and Gerry Paraiso. Arnel had a rough start with his song and this was made more obvious since Lea was her usual self, always bordering on perfection. The last medley focused on the male balladeers namely Erik Santos, Martin Nievera and Basil Valdez performing the classics by George Canseco, Willy Cruz and Ryan Cayabyab. Erik was very vocal about his admiration for both Martin and Basil so it must have been such a thrill for him to be singing with them in the same number.

Gary Valencinao was announced as one of the performing artists but he only appeared through a music video of a new song that was composed by Ryan Cayabyab to be debuted at this event as a tribute to Henry Sy, the man behind the SM Empire. Another tribute to Mr. Sy capped the show as most of the performers, including the hosts, sang The Impossible Dream which was the only non-OPM song performed that night (if one doesn’t count the snippet of And I am Telling You sang by Pokwang as she impersonated Jessica Sanchez during the comedy bit).

ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra's Gerard Salonga and RAd

The whole concert was a nice celebration of OPM throughout the years. But for me, it was too much of a retrospective and didn’t highlight much of the current OPM scene considering that included in the concert were artists who’ve had albums with new material released within the year. In fact, there were only a few who sang songs that they’ve actually recorded and I did wish that everyone else were given the chance to sing their own songs. The number of medleys in this concert also weighed me down. I’ve been vocal before that I’m not a fan of too many medleys in a show. But I do understand that Ryan Cayabyab had to resort to them since there were just too many singers and songs that he had to present the numbers efficiently without stretching the concert for too long. But I do believe that this was just the start in revitalizing OPM in the concert scene. Also, a lot of the artists involved in the concert had already expressed their desire for more shows like this. I just hope that in the future, current and original songs by artists who are still actively making records will be given the chance to be heard on the concert stage. It’s through this that local music will be fully revitalized.