Ogie pulls off ‘age-defying’ numbers

From left: Lara Maigue, Davey Langit, Ogie Alcasid, Basti Artadi

In the recent repeat of his “Ayokong Tumanda” concert, Ogie Alcasid reminisced about the good old days of eating as much food as he pleased, without piling on the pounds; about lacking sleep but still having the will and energy to party at night. He poked fun at the errant white hair in his nostrils; at his need to increase the font size of his phone.

He didn’t want to continue growing old, Ogie belted out, drawing a chorus of chuckles from the audience at Music Museum. Well, at least not too fast, he added—and not to the point where he’ll start forgetting the names of his friends.

At 49, Ogie is still young, all right. In one of his earlier numbers, as if showing that he’s still very much in touch with today’s pop music, he mashed up “Dito sa Puso Ko” with Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.” The arrangement was fun and lively. Behind him, the all-male dance group The Manoeuvres pulled off their slick moves like it was the 1990s.

“Ako’y Iyong Iyo” segued to “Can’t Stop the Feeling” by another Justin, this time, Timberlake. And before long, he was dancing cheekily. “But I won’t show you that I’m tired, or that my knees are shaking; or that I’m catching my breath,” quipped the singer, who also performed “Sa Kanya” and “Ikaw ang Buhay Ko.”

Lara Maigue

Special guests

While Ogie is trying to stay young, two of his special guests—Francis Aglabtin and Benedict Aboyme—are kids trying to be old.

The young singers, who are products of the “Eat Bulaga!” singing competition, “Lola’s Playlist,” had come to the stage, mercifully not to sing the catchy “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen” song, Ogie said, but a slew of classics.

Their young voices soared in their medley of Rico J. Puno hits. Then, pulling out all the stops, Benedict and Francis threatened to steal the show as they sang “Portrait of My Love” and “If I Never Sing Another Song,” respectively.

Between performing some of his well-loved compositions, Ogie introduced three of the music artists he’s managing: Lara Maigue gave the crowd a taste of classical music, with snippets of “Der Hölle Rache” (from “The Magic Flute”) and “Sa Kabukiran”; Davey Langit crooned to “Dalawang Letra,” and Basti Artadi powered through “Anino.”

Benedict Aboyme, Ogie Alcasid and Francis Aglabtin —Photos by Alexis Corpuz

With Ogie, they did a string of anthemic pop-rock hits like “Ligaya,” “Awit ng Kabataan” and “Hallelujah.” They also performed, for the first time in public, the “My Inquirer” campaign theme, which was composed by Davey.

More than a local music icon, Ogie, of course, is also a comedian. And that side of him he showed, together with his wife, Regine Velasquez-Alcasid, in a little schtick: The songbird performed “Monday,” one line at a time, with Ogie doing silly translations of each one in a Batangueño accent. Riotous laughter ensued.

There were a lot of enjoyable performances that night, but none more rousing than the show biz couple’s powerful and haunting rendition of “Huwag Ka Lang Mawawala.”

In the end, Ogie didn’t really do anything his fans haven’t seen before, but once again reinforced the fact that although artists do get old, great music doesn’t.

Basti Artadi