Lea Salonga on being a TIME100 Impact awardee: ‘It felt really overwhelming, surreal’
Lea Salonga. Image: Instagram/@danny_with_a_camera via @msleasalonga
Lea Salonga expressed gratitude after she received the TIME100 Impact Award, stating that she dedicates it to her fellow entertainers who “shone a constant light” for her during the pandemic.
The actress-singer spoke about this during an exclusive interview with entertainment reporter MJ Felipe for “TV Patrol,” as seen on ABS-CBN’s YouTube channel yesterday, Oct. 3.
“It just felt really overwhelming and surreal to be accepting an award for just doing what it is that I do. Even as a kid, I was enamored with music, being on stage — it was something that I really love,” she said. “All I wanted to do was make people smile and entertain. [During] the COVID-19 pandemic, it was more important to be doing that.”
Salonga then honored her fellow entertainers who continuously share their craft amid the pandemic even “without being asked or being rewarded,” as per her acceptance speech on TIME’s YouTube channel, also yesterday.
“Those were dark times for many of us, myself included, but my talented colleagues and friends shone a constant light for me at the end of a very dark tunnel,” she stated.
“So I want to share this award to my fellow entertainers, all of them from all over the world, who through a time of great uncertainty and darkness continue to do what they were put on this Earth to do,” Salonga added.
The TIME100 Impact Award is given to personalities who have “gone above and beyond” to move their respective industries forward. Aside from Salonga, other personalities who received the award include English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, American rapper Will.i.am, and former director of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Program Gregory L. Robinson. EDV
