Nostalgia-based live shows are big tickets nowadays as my generation is slowly ageing and pining for our lost youth. Frankly, I really don't mind spending money on artists who shaped my generation's music because they give back a positive vibe and a lot of wonderful memories of our past.
Enter Odette Quesada, whose two-day show here in Manila was sold out. I bet if she did a third day, that would be sold out too! She is a revered figure of our youth because of the immense popularity of the songs that she wrote and sang. She further cemented her achievements when she married another prolific songwriter, Bodjie Layug - and their life together formed one of the threads of stories in her heartfelt concert.
Just as Odette described it, the show was like you were singing for your tito or tita in your own living room - the vibe was relaxed, the setting was cozy and intimate, and everybody was ready to sing along.
I did not sing along though, not because I did not want to, or because I did not know the lyrics, I just did not want my poor seatmates to hear a frog croaking - and destroy the whole show for them! As in intimate concerts like this, one should leave the singing to the professionals LOL
It was a beautiful show and I learned of the magnitude of Odette and her husband's contribution to OPM. They were practically Mr. and Mrs. OPM in the 80s and 90s. Singing their song was like a badge of honor, a tatak that you have arrived, or that you were a singer of a certain caliber, that you deserve to sing their songs.
Guests Fe de los Reyes, Kuh Ledesma, Martin Nievera, Arman Ferrer (this boy sounds very promising!) and our National Artist Maestro Ryan, brought their own stories to the show, showing facets of the songwriter, Odette, that only her peers could have known.
Surprisingly, Odette's songs are particularly simple, there are no high-falutin words in it, no high birit notes that would tax one's lung power in order to to sing them - and I guess those are the reasons why her songs have endeared themselves to millions of young people of my generation.
Her song "Farewell" alone has become the graduation anthem of many generations of high school graduating classes. It is in the heartfelt lyrics and the simplicity of the arrangement that allows anyone, not only the ones with Regine V.'s range, to sing them - and sing them with feelings.
I sing "Friend of Mine" every time I am in a karaoke, and if that song is there. It always brings tears in my eyes although I have to choke to hide it. She sang it towards the end of her show and I was trying my best not to sing along with her. I did not want my frog-sounding voice to interfere with the beautiful video I was taking of her rendition, where she played it on the piano.
That part alone was worth the ticket price already. It's a moment I will treasure in my computer's memory till the day I die. Charot!
I do hope she mounts another series of shows. All my friends who saw my social media posts were aghast because they did not know she was having a show, kasi nga because of the hectic Christmas season.
I reassured them, with the sold out shows, I am sure she and her producers and director, Rowell Santiago, are already planning to do another series of shows. Frankly, I wouldn't mind watching it again! And, a show in Cebu or Davao, I'm sure, would do very well, too!
