“But it’s impossible for me to sing all of them even if I want to,” admitted Lea whose repertoire will consist of, as Funfare earlier mentioned, your and my favorite songs which Lea will very gladly sing for you and for me, for us. Produced by AmbientMedia, the concert will have Bobby Garcia as director and Lea’s brother Gerard as musical director, with Ai-Ai delas Alas, Richard Poon and the dance group Philippine All Stars as co-performers.
They will go by “gut” feel.“We will go over the list which is not complete just yet because more and more suggestions are coming in,” added Lea. “We will probably choose the songs that I don’t usually sing in my concerts or those that are already available on DVD or CD, or those I don’t often sing or I’ve never done before. I suggest that they choose songs out of the box.”
But definitely, Lea will sing Bayan Ko which she sang at the wake of former Pres. Cory Aquino at the Manila Cathedral.
“I tried hard not to cry when I was singing,” recalled Lea. “ I sang it in all sincerity and honesty. I was actually trying to control my emotion.”
Asked what three songs he would like Lea to sing, Gerard named six.
“Either I Give My Life For You or Too Much For One Heart from Miss Saigon. Too Much For One Heart was excluded from the show but Lea sang it in 2002 in her Broadway concert here. Originally it was a solo but it became a duet retitled Please. Either I Dreamed A Dream or On My Own from Les Miz. And either Reflection from Mulan or A Whole New World from Aladdin.”
And what song would she not do?
“My brother and I are fans of Michael Jackson’s but I definitely wouldn’t do Billy Jean because that’s his territory,” said Lea. “That would be humorous on my part if I did it. I also know my limitations, you know. Maybe I would do one of his other songs that is hardly heard.”
A mom now (of three-year-old Nicole, her and husband Robert Chien’s first-born), Lea said that motherhood has somehow influenced the way she sings.
“I was 17 when I first sang I Give My Life For You at the auditions for Miss Saigon. The last time I sang it was during a concert in the US. Now that I am a mom, what goes on in my mind when I sing that song is completely different from what went on in my mind when I was 17,” said Lea who turned 38 last February. “My interpretation of a song may change based on how I’m growing and progressing as a human being.”
Now in nursery school, Nicole this early is showing signs of following in her mom’s footsteps.
“She recognizes my voice,” said Lea. “Late one night, we were watching YouTube; she wanted to watch Mulan. I was singing Reflection and she said, ‘Mommy singing. Mommyyyy!’ I played the same song by someone in Mandarin. She didn’t react, saying, ‘What’s that?’ She can tell if I’m the one singing.”
I guess Lea will have to sing Reflection (as Gerard suggested) in her Your Songs concert and dedicate it to Nicole.
