Heading home

NEW YORK—My time abroad is almost at an end. By the time this article comes out, my family and I will be finishing up with packing our stuff and getting ready to go home. It’s definitely been a lot of fun, but all good things must come to an end.

We have been able to accomplish a lot while here. On the professional front, there have been concerts of all kinds in different parts of the country, plus one stop in Canada.

We’ve had two Feinstein’s cabaret runs, one in San Francisco and a longer run in New York. My newest album, “Blurred Lines,” also dropped on May 5.

On the personal front, I’ve been able to spend a substantial amount of time with my family. My daughter Nicole got to hang out with her Auntie LuAnne here in the city, met her 20-something-year-old nephews Wil and Rian in LA, stayed at her Tita Bedang’s house, and got to meet uncle Alan and his fiancée Shannon, grandaunt Rose and cousins Cameryn and Damon in Winnipeg. We’ve also gotten to hang out with our many friends in the city.

My apartment now looks like a tornado blew through it, what with laundry that needs to be done, shopping that hasn’t yet been put away, and a few things whose fates we need to decide. I’ve also significantly added to my growing sneaker collection.

On breaking a record

Yeah, we broke a record!

The previous record for the most consecutive performances by an artist in a single Feinstein’s/54 Below engagement was set by Tony winner Patti LuPone (“Evita,” “Gypsy”) with 14 performances.

Well, that record has now been broken, and a new one set at 15 performances! To commemorate the occasion, the good folks at Feinstein’s/54 Below gave me a jersey with “Salonga 15” written on the back.
It was also made even more special because my husband Rob, Nicole, and one of my best friends, Town and Country editor in chief Yvette Fernandez, were there.

To the audiences who came in full force to this year’s encore engagement, thank you for coming! To everyone at Feinstein’s/54 Below, thank you for your incredible hospitality. To my musical director/pianist Jeff Harris and guitarist Jack Cavari, thank you for being fun to play with every night.

A fun tweet exchange

Twitter exchange between Lin-Manuel Miranda and the author

Not so long ago, a tweet exchange ensued between Lin-Manuel Miranda (the driving creative force behind “In the Heights” and “Hamilton”) and myself. One of his tweets from three years ago showed up on my Twitter feed, and I replied in similar “dude, pare” fashion.
The back-and-forth that followed turned out to be a hilarious and affectionate one, with Lin using far more Filipino words than anyone had probably ever seen him employ, and as a result, Twitter sort of exploded. In a good way!

Dude, pare, you sure know how to make the Twitterverse vibrate! You’ve made this “mamshie” very happy! Love you, bes!

Lin-Manuel Miranda

More teens have joined us

Thank you again, The Voice Teens fans, for continuing to join us!

A brief update on who has joined us: Tanya Dawood, Erika Tenorio, Johann Sebastian and Genesis Espera (Team Sarah), Angelo Go and Reign Ng (Team Bamboo), Julian Juangco and Chan Millanes (Team Lea) and Arixsandra Libantino and Alessandra Galvez (Team Sharon).