A rainy night with the Prince of Pop

“It’s raining in Manila, ‘di ka ba na-late sa concert ni Dingdong sa Solaire?”

That’s a pick-up from Lola Amour’s still very popular song applicable to those who almost filled up The Theater at Solaire on Friday night (19 July) for Dingdong Avanzado: The Original Prince of Pop.

Us, we were not late. We took a practically abusive P200 cab fare from somewhere around the Mall of Asia quoted to us by the driver before we could board the cab. It was raining and our umbrella was just the folding kind not enough to keep us completely dry as we stood on the curb. We didn’t bargain. We just blurted “Ok. Sige lang!”

We got to the theater 10 minutes before the ticket time of 8 p.m. The concert began at about 8:30 p.m. There were less than a hundred people in the orchestra when the concert began.

About an hour later, the orchestra was almost full. Avanzado’s energy level was much higher than when he opened the concert with Bon Jovi’s 2009, “You Give Love a Bad Name.” Avanzado’s energy began high even when he surely could see there was only a sprinkling of viewers in the orchestra. 

Later though, he intoned: “Ang dami n’yo pala na na-late dahil sa malakas na ulan (There are many of you who were late.It is raining hard). That’s okay. I’ll make sure you enjoy the rest of the show. I can see that many of us here belong to my generation.” This was at way past 9 p.m.  

The audience actually included Ted and Grace, the parents of SB19 leader Pablo who was among Avanzado’s guest performers. The camera flashed on the video screen the couple sitting together in the front row. This happened while Avanzado was conversing with Pablo after an extended duet with the SB19 leader the group’s “Mapa,” which is about missing one’s parents. 

The SB19 leader burst on to the stage to perform his solo single “Edsa” released only in May this year. One of the dancers rode a motorcycle at one point while Pablo was vibrantly performing on the platform. 

The SB19 pinuno (head) was introduced by no less than Avanzado and his daughter Jayda who was also among the guests in the show. It was through Jayda that Avanzado first became well aware of SB19. ABS-CBN Star Music got SB19 to collab with Jayda in 2019 for a remix of “No Stopping You” in 2021. 

Then in January this year, Avanzado, as a guest in Wish (radio) Music Awards 2024 was accorded the honor of presenting to SB19 one of their trophies, (which included Group of the Year). Avanzado eventually learned that Pablo is SB19’s leader and main composer of their songs. 

Avanzado himself was the one who suggested to his concert producer to have Pablo as one of his guests. Avanzado even offered to the producer that he (Avanzado) can make the initial call to Pablo.

The producer agreed to Avanzado’s proposals. Pablo agreed to perform with Avanzado in The Original Prince of Pop. When the producer talked to Pablo about guesting in Avanzado’s concert, he (producer) found out that Avanzado was his parents’ favorite singer even up to the time of his (Pablo’s) childhood. They would play the songs on CD (compact disc) and they would sing along with Avanzado. That means Pablo, now 29 years old, knew many of Avanzado’s songs, including his parents’ theme song “Basta’t Kasama Kita.” The SB19 pinuno later sang it with Avanzado--and with Pablo’s parents on their front seats.

Jayda belted out her latest single “Right Lover, Wrong Time” earlier and sang with her youthful dad a mash-up of “Wish/Could.”

Jayda’s mom, Jessa Zaragoza, was in the concert, too. Avanzado introduced her after he did solo numbers following his extended duet with Pablo. The gorgeous wife in black cleavage-exposing gown sang on her own first and did duets with the hubby who surprisingly belted out remarkably even her hit sexy songs “Bakit Ba?”, “Paano Kaya” and “Di Ba’t Ikaw.” 

Avanzado also sang soaring OPM numbers much earlier with the duo of JM de la Cerna and Marielle Montellano who are both very impressive singers and the champion in an ABS-CBN singing contest for duets. 

With Khimo and LA Santos, Avanzado did new pop hits and a suite of Michael Jackson’s hits, including Thriller. 

Ogie Alcasid is not in the publicized guest list but he gamely turned up with Randy Santiago as the finale guests. Alcasid was not listed only because his managers said he was booked for another commitment that night. 

But Avanzado and Alcasid were batchmates at Kundirana singing troupe in De La Salle Greenhills. The singer-host of ABS-CBN’s It’s Showtime didn’t want to miss Avanzado’s first-ever concert at Solaire, which transpires about two weeks after his 56th birthday on 7 July. 

Alcasid even managed to rehearse with Avanzado and Santiago (also a Kundirana member but a much earlier batch as Santiago is in his 60s now) the medley of his (Alcasid’s) “Dito sa Puso Ko” with Santiago’s “Babaero,” Lola Amour’s “It’s Raining in Manila” and Gary Valenciano’s “Di Bale Na Lang.” The trio made it almost a rowdy (randy?) production number with  “kaldag” movements at certain points. A “kaldag” is a an exaggerated forward thrust of the hips in quick successions. 

To close the concert, a hyped up Avanzado played the electronic piano to accompany his singing of Barry Manilow’s “Song For You,” stood up to do his “Maghihintay Sa Iyo,” and then revved up the audience to stand up and sing/dance with him the finale, a mash-up of “Awitin Mo, Isasayaw Ko” with “Go Up.”

It was almost 11 p.m. when we got out of Solaire. Happily, happily, the original prince of pop unwittingly stopped the rain. It wasn’t raining anymore in Manila when we left Solaire hotel/casino.