A SMILE IN YOUR HEART

It is easy to put up a show with singers, but much harder to find world class performers who can hold an audience mesmerized minute by minute.

Yes, at the event, A Smile in Your Heart last Monday, the 17th of Feb, four singers exercised their vocal muscles so brilliantly, led by Jam Morales and Jonathan Badon.

Their presence was much needed to boost the help for the Taal Volcano Eruption victims in the province of  Batangas. Many affluent batch classmates of Jam from an exclusive girls' school came to see her again as she is now based in the United States.

What strikes me about the show is the showmanship of the singers. Showmanship is honed by many years of performances and the way Jam and Jonathan carried the audience, asking them to participate and the launching into high notes really were so mind boggling. Jonathan opened his slot with the song, Granada and we could sense why the audience in Spain and the other parts of the globe had invited him again and again as they had loved his performances. He could give an introduction that makes the audience comfortable with him and then later carry the tune fast as its beat is.

Jam Morales meanwhile is not a coy singer. She herself raised the level of interest of the audience by singing songs that brought about nostalgia like Ikaw, a song with la yrics of I Love You in different languages, and another tune that made them dance away. Although her voice is low, she was able to reach high notes especially when she sang with all the singers, The Prayer.

We could see that Jam is so at home onstage. No moment was spent on trivialities. her singing just went on and on in both Pilipino and English. Yes that was a nice repertoire conceived - having Pilipino also, not only English songs.

I think we should make our  native-born performers come back at least once a. year to make us connect with them and find out their tips for being able to crash into the international scene so easily. As we all know that it could be quite intimidating and frightening being subjected to highly stringent standards when judges face applying performers from other countries. especially those coming from the so-called third world countries like ours.

Going back to showmanship, I think this should make us require that among our local performers especially on TV. Showmanship is being able to carry the audience's attention without using vulgar language or sick and toilet jokes. No, I did not hear any of that except when one of the "singit" performers mentioned a past incident which made Jonathan claim before the audience that he was still a tot in that event and so nowhere could he have acted in the manner mentioned.

But one thing I missed was the recount of how the international audiences had accepted them and what they had to go through in order to reach such heights. I think this is most important for the audience to realize that singers have to undergo trials and travails in shaping their careers.

On Youtube, we always see famous singers being interviewed and they readily mention how they had started in the music industry. But that is Youtube. We should have counterparts of that in our country. My seatmate in the event has a blog online in which he said he would upload the video shots he had taken of Jam. That is good.

But more than that, I wish that the singers themselves could have dropped some lines that would make us see them as human and not just stage icons.

Actually it must take guts to reveal one's experiences in front of the audience. But a popular singer here will always be loved by the audience no matter what had happened to her or him. We always look at the positive side of things.

Come to think of it, in Dionne Warwick's performance at a concert, she also talked about herself which I think is why she has become popular until now. Yes, being able to hold the interest of the audience is not problematic if the performers would treat them as her long time friends through thick and thin. Showmanship uses that element of intimacy with the audience in order to stick to their minds.

Another element that is important in showmanship I think is timing. Evidently Jam and Jonathan have that sense of the need to not have any gap between songs. They could dish out spiels and then segue to their songs so easily, without any pause; hence the crowd cried More! More!

Yes let us have more of these high class concerts in our midst.Thank you Ms. Joy Rago and your company for giving us the evening.

By the way I donated a set of my writings -- romantic stories of liberated women and the Feminismo Primer. I hope that the victims would find them invigorating and helpful in strengthening their resolve to overcome their sufferings.