Little-known anecdotes from the Superstar’s soul sister

Nora Aunor

Since it’s one day after Nora Aunor’s birthday, allow me to share with you some Ate Guy stories that my late mom (Inday Badiday) had told me. They rose to fame together and were soul sisters. Ma took many of La Aunor’s secrets to her grave:

While shooting “Blue Hawaii” in Waikiki, Ate Guy and Ma “escaped” from the movie set during break time to watch the filming of “Hawaii Five-O.” When shooting was about to resume, the director went ballistic when he couldn’t immediately find them.

When Ate Guy was being interviewed by colegialas, she pretended she had lost her voice and motioned to Ma to answer their questions for her.

The Superstar pulled a prank on Mommy during our family trip to the United States. When Ma called her up to reprimand her, La Aunor just laughed it off.

Jed reunites with ex-bandmates

Long before Jed Madela became famous, I watched him perform weekly with his former band, Prime Council (PC) at Aruba. Back then, he was already quite a belter.

After 15 years, Jed and his former bandmates, including Gail Blanco and Aliya Parcs, had a jam-packed reunion show at Aruba. Jed is already way up there in the music scene now, but he has not lost sight of his roots. “I miss my days with the band—when everything was fun and less complicated,” sighed Jed.

Gail expressed the same sentiments: “I miss learning new songs every week,” Gail quipped. “I also miss the crowd. Nothing beats the feeling of being applauded from the moment you sing the first lines of a song.”

What an epic throwback night it was as the band performed the “most requested songs” in the ’90s, the era when the group had regular gigs.

Jed Madela

I was touched when Jed dedicated Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” to me since he knew I was an MJ fanatic.
Bravo, Prime Council! You may no longer be together, but your music reverberates in the hearts of bar habitués.

Our Q&A with Jed:

How did your stint with PC help your career? When I started, I was the most timid person you could imagine. PC was my training ground, and performing every night made me come out of my shell and gain confidence.
Not only did I learn how to talk to the audience, my stint with the band helped strengthen my voice.

What’s your advice to bands that are just starting out? Keep doing what they’re doing and never give up. Everything is simply a matter of mind-set. Yes, the money isn’t that big, but the learning experience is what you’re after.

What do you miss about your days with the band? I miss being onstage and performing for different audiences every night. You never know what kind of people you’ll get to meet.

What struggles did you and the band go through and deal with? Aside from the financial aspect, it was more of how we were “perceived” as a group. We were labeled “just the band” and, sometimes, we were treated as “background” at events.
But, somehow, we managed to make people stop and listen to us and our music.