Well-curated online concert shows Sharon in a flattering light

Sharon Cuneta’s first online concert

There was something intimate and reassuring about watching Megastar Sharon Cuneta prepare and perform live and “unplugged” in the very first online concert of her career, “Love and Music: A Mother’s Day Special”—the two-hour musical fundraiser for ABS-CBN’s “Pantawid ng Pag-ibig” on Sunday night.

While I adore the other movie queens who have come before her, like Superstar Nora Aunor and Star for All Seasons Vilma Santos (whose effusive emoji-filled messages I’ve been missing), it was really Sharon’s songs and movies that had the biggest impact on me as a grade school and high school student growing up in far-off Davao del Sur.

So, Sharon’s all-hit 14-song repertoire last weekend was potent enough to open the floodgates of nostalgia that had me singing along to songs I grew up listening to in the ’80s. Yes, I knew every lyric and melody by heart.

In fact, when I interviewed the Megastar a couple of years ago, I asked her to revive “Hanggang Kailan,” a duet she recorded with Gabby Concepcion released as a B-side track for one of her signature singles. The gorgeous love song was never included in her albums.

So, to remind her how it sounded, I had to sing it to her during our chat! She asked me to record it on my phone and send her a copy, but I never got around to doing it. But we’re pretty sure the guys from Viva, Vicor and Blackgold can easily dig this up.

The Sunday concert, which generated P1.2 million worth of donations after only three songs (and more than P2 million overall), benefited from a “blockbuster,” jukebox-heavy lineup that sent viewers on a trip down memory lane—a throwback to a more easygoing and positive period in time devoid of pandemics, lockdowns and brain-dead trolls.

In previous performances I’ve seen Sharon in, her singing would occasionally be compromised by too much talking and crying—which she all did in her preshow videos. But thankfully, when it was time to sit down and actually sing, the Megastar did away with all those distractions and just sang her heart out, with all the power and earnestness of, say, Dorina Pineda just before she bade superstardom goodbye.

And despite some missed cues, false starts and technical glitches, it was a well-curated concert that showed the Megastar in a flattering light. The shifts from chest to head tone and back again were almost seamless—and even her falsetto was in tip-top shape.

In fact, I’ve never heard Sharon sound so good, even in melodically tricky songs we doubted she could pull off without a hitch—from Barbra Streisand’s “Places That Belong to You (from “The Prince of Tides”) to “Sana’y Maghintay ang Walang Hanggan” (a Zsa Zsa Padilla original that became the love theme of her megastar-birthing vehicle, “Bituing Walang Ningning”).

Sharon (left) and Louie Ocampo teamed up for the two-hour fundraiser for ABS-CBN’S “Pantawid ng Pag-ibig” on Mother’s Day.

Thanks to Louie Ocampo’s sublime arrangements, the OPM classics Sharon sang brimmed and smoldered with a feel-good contemporary vibe that millennials wouldn’t find dated. Sharon and Louie’s team-up turned “Mr. DJ” and “Kahit Maputi Na Ang Buhok Ko” into vibrant nostalgia pieces guaranteed to put a smile on music lovers’ faces—something we’re all in dire need of these days.

Sharon sounded well-rested, in control and all-warmed-up, especially when she sang the covers of songs she eventually turned into her own, for her starrers with action luminaries Fernando Poe Jr. (“Kahit Konting Pagtingin”), Robin Padilla (“Maging Sino Ka Man”) and Bong Revilla Jr. (“Pangako sa ’Yo”).

All those songs worked their magic on moviegoers because their built-in schmaltz and intensity were snug fit for Sharon’s soulful, effusive renditions—an innate gift that other, more technically proficient singers can only dream about.

While some of the other numbers have their “off” moments, they still managed to sweep listeners off their feet not only due to instant recall, but also because the 54-year-old Megastar has, through the years, learned styles, tricks and skills that work well for her evolving vocal instrument.

Every song was hand-picked for their popularity, relatability and thematic pertinence: “May Bukas Pa,” “Langis at Tubig,” ‘Ngayon at Kailanman,” “Kung Kailangan Mo Ako” and “The Prayer,” refreshingly delivered sans bluster and bravado. What’s not to like?

Beautifully capping “Love and Music” off was a throwback track that seemed to reflect the country’s current mood, “Hagkan.”

Given how messed up our country and the world have become since the start of 2020, the number took on an entirely different meaning as Sharon breathed new life into its hopeful lyrics: “Ako ay magbabalik rin/ Sa umaga, sa ’yong paggising/ Huwag nang lumuha pa/ ’Di na iiwan pa … ” Sounds like a plea and a prayer, right?

Sharon didn’t have either backup singers or special guest stars to use as her performing crutch, so the whole solo experience required all the focus and discipline she could muster, as Louie astutely “suggested” before the show.

Besides, none of them could have shared as much alluring history and trivia about her classics as the Megastar herself, like the revelation from Viva that “Maging Sino Ka Man,” Sharon’s starrer with Robin Padilla, would have exceeded the P1-billion box-office take if computed in the prohibitive and skyrocketing admission prices movie audiences are being charged these days.

Every song comes with a rich backstory or relevance. She also revealed why “Langis at Tubig,” both the theme song and the 1980 film starring Vilma Santos and Dindo Fernando, was special to her.

At age 14, the tune “about adultery” was her attempt to transition into a more adult singer, tackling bolder themes with a bigger sound. “I wanted to impress (composer) George Canseco, so he would write more songs for me,” she recalled.

The song took her to a film festival in Cebu, where Sharon was mobbed by eager fans after she subbed for Vilma Santos, who was then pregnant with Lucky. That incident emboldened director Danny Zialcita to seek Mommy Elaine’s blessings for the popular teenybopper to act in her first film, Sining Silangan’s 1981 teenage romance “Dear Heart”—and the rest is movie history.

Sharon also used her platform to make an appeal to politicians for mass testing, noting how South Korea and even countries like Cambodia and Vietnam have been successful in “flattening the curve” or beating the disease despite limited means.

She also called on Congress to reverse the shutdown of ABS-CBN operations because “walang nilabag na batas ang aming network.”

The singer-actress then recalled how she began her relationship with the beleaguered company when it reopened in 1986, after it was closed down by the Marcos regime in the years following the declaration of martial law.

“I joined the company in March of 1988,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave IBC-13 back then (where ‘The Sharon Cuneta Show’ was being aired). But thank you, Boss Vic (del Rosario, Viva’s head honcho), for moving me to ABS.”

It was also wonderful to witness how members of Sharon’s close-knit family came together to make something as big as a million-peso-generating concert like “Love and Music” as effectively as it did. You could see the missteps and gaffes happening right before your very eyes, but you’d also see how troubles are sorted out by way of genuine love and teamwork.

And since our fondness for the outspoken and irrepressible Kakie Pangilinan has grown in the past year or so, because of the person she has become and the singer who has come into her own, it was wonderful to see this megadaughter “run the show” like clockwork, even when there were hitches and glitches that needed some tweaking, fixing and troubleshooting. This show made Sharon’s thoughts and recollections as real and as raw as her mega-accomplishments.

It’s this ability to look back and get insights from one’s experiences that makes Sharon’s songs and performances more than merely lines and lyrics from well-organized spiels from a script. With Sharon delivering them, they sound like hard-earned and sincerely shared lessons culled from her deep pool of sensational experiences.

They may not have always been pleasant ones, but they’re nonetheless part of what makes Sharon Cuneta the iconic Megastar she has become.