Why Celeste agreed to take the stage anew after 30 years

Celeste Legaspi holds concert at Solaire.

Life has been great outside show biz for Celeste Legaspi.

Her husband, songwriter Nonoy Gallardo, who wrote some of her iconic hits, had retired as an ad man, she related, so they now have the luxury of waking up late. Then, they have brunch, which she herself prepares—“I love cooking for him.”

She maintains a small terrace full of plants at home, where the air is usually filled with classical music.

Recently, she held off going to her press con for as long as she could, because she wanted to see off her only grandchild at the bus stop. “My apo is Grade 1 this year. It was his first day, and I didn’t want to miss him board the school bus,” she said. (She hopes to have a granddaughter who looks just like her, with eyes as big as hers.)

The singer-actress is in social media, too, but not as active as she used to be. “I have toned myself down a little. Because at times, you wake up in the morning to find out na ang dami mo na palang kaaway!” she quipped, laughing. “But life is nice… there’s no stress.”

Does she miss singing onstage, at all? “I do once in a while,” Celeste said. “And then your asthma strikes, and you forget about it!”

It was one of the things that made Celeste apprehensive when asked by Solaire’s entertainment director, Audie Gemora, to headline a concert at The Theatre.

Plus—while she sings a tune or two in sundry events—she has never done a proper solo show in almost 30 years. Her last one, she recounted, took place before “Katy! The Musical” debuted in 1988.

“I’m a bit nervous. It’s the stamina required of me to stand there and hold a show together that’s kind of scaring me at the moment,” she told reporters in a recent interview for her long-overdue concert, simply titled “Celeste,” on Aug. 5 (call 891-9999 or 888-8888). “But I can manage. I’m just praying for good health.”

What made her say “yes” to the offer, Celeste said, was the possibility of using the concert to pay tribute to her father, the late National Artist for Visual Arts Cesar Legaspi, who marked his centennial birth anniversary last April 2.

“This is the reason I agreed to do the show. I thought it would be great if I could commemorate him in a unique way. I figured it would be worth the gamble,” she said of her painter father to whom she owes her taste in music—and art, in general. “The studio where he painted always had beautiful classical music. He influenced my music in a sense that I learned how to discern what was excellent.”

The show will have the seasoned music artist revisiting her signature songs, such as “Mamang Sorbetero,” “Saranggola ni Pepe” and “Tuliro,” as well as pieces she recorded, but were never published. “There’s ‘La Vie en Rose,’ which I sing in French, English and Filipino. The late National Artist [for Theater and Literature] Rolando Tinio translated it,” she related.

Another song close to Celeste’s heart is “Kung Marinig Mo Lang”—Tinio’s Filipino translation of “Loving Arms” by Olivia Newton-John. “The song never fails to touch me. Tinio had a knack for elevating trite pop tunes into something beautiful with his Filipino lyrics,” she said. “Para akong maiiyak kapag kinakanta ko.”

Although she doesn’t see herself learning contemporary songs for her repertoire, Celeste still hopes that younger viewers will have something to connect to and appreciate in the concert.

“There’s this designer I know whose child is a millennial, but knows and likes my songs!” she said. “I was like, ‘How did that happen?’ But it’s amusing. Perhaps it’s God gift, to be given songs that could still speak to young people.”