Songfest delivers homogeneous mix of winsome love tunes

SEGUERRA. There’s more to singing than vocal bombast.

The entries to the P-Pop 2013 songfest aren’t really the “cutting-edge” tunes they’re hyped up to be—that would be overreaching. But, the lineup of “Himig Handog P-Pop Love Songs” compilation album comprises a homogeneous mix of romantic humdingers.

The Himig Handog songwriting tilt was a festival of winners and worthy equals, with entries interpreted by popular singer-actors (Daniel Padilla, Toni Gonzaga) and talent-search winners, like Angeline Quinto (Agatha Morallos’ “One Day”), KZ Tandingan (Domingo Rosco Jr.’s “Scared to Death”), Erik Santos (Jude Gitamondoc’s “This Song’s For You”), Jovit Baldovino (Arman Alferez’s “Sana’y Magbalik”), Bugoy Drilon (Jeffrey Cifra’s “Pwede Bang Ako Na Lang Ulit?”) and Yeng Constantino (Ma. Fe Tianga, Melvin Muervana and Joel Jabat Jr.’s “Alaala”).

12 finalists

While P-Pop isn’t a singing tilt, you can’t discount interpretation as a crucial condiment in music-making—an element in the competition that became instructive during the live performance of the 12 finalists last Feb. 24, where good songs were compromised by mediocre singing.

Take Marion Aunor, who had a hard time hitting the notes of her otherwise uniquely idiosyncratic composition, “If You Ever Change Your Mind.” In the hit-bound “Tamang Panahon,” composer-interpreter Wynn Andrada was also occasionally hobbled by pipes that weren’t as sturdy as the other interpreters’, but his appealing ballad and boy-next-door presence saw him through.

Padilla and Gonzaga weren’t note-perfect either, but they more than made up for their vocal limitations with spirited interpretations that were hard to dismiss. In Jungee Marcelo’s delightful “Nasa Iyo Na Ang Lahat” (which won most of the special prizes), the popular teen star sold the sizzle and the steak!

For her part, Gonzaga gamely hammed it up, as she delivered a winkingly irreverent rendition of Julius James de Belen’s hilarious dance ditty, “Kahit Na,” about an unattractive paramour: “Pero kahit na pangit ka, bakit ba?/ Gustong-gusto ko pa rin na mapasa’kin ka/ Kahit mukha kang galit, sa akin happy ka/ Kahit parang ‘di ka tinatablan ng mahika.”

Himig Handog deserves a pat on the back for setting a new (and hopefully sustainable) standard in singing and songwriting contests—that a song doesn’t have to be created, arranged and sung birit-style to win awards.

You only need to listen to Aiza Seguerra’s achingly gorgeous rendition of Joven Tan’s grand prize-winning ballad, “Ano’ng Nangyari Sa Ating Dalawa?,” and Juris Fernandez’s stirring interpretation of Soc Villanueva’s second placer, “Hanggang Wakas,” to realize that there’s more to singing than vocal bombast!