Music that fills the …concert venues

Movie and TV idols and personalities may be the mainstay media fodder of Pinoy showbiz, but the ones who have been grossing the highest in the box office nowadays are the music-makers: the singers and the bands and their concert producers. Our movie houses rarely fill up these days and their box office intakes are infrequently remarkable for years now since a significant chunk of film viewers has been watching through the streaming platforms. 

Some of the solo singers and bands that draw in the crowds to the coliseums and arenas are rarely seen on television (and hardly in the movies even as cameo guestings, which may be expensive for film producers). It’s hard to recall the last time that TJ Monterde sang in a TV show, but the amiable singer-songwriter from Mindanao is now on record as the first-ever solo vocalist to hold three sold-out nights in a row at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. 

The typically un-flashy Monterde did it on 1 to 3 February at the Big Dome, which is variously reported to seat 15,000 to 16,000 for concerts. If he filled it up for three successive nights, his audiences on those nights sum up some thousands away from Philippine Arena’s reported seating capacity of 55,000, supposedly the biggest indoor venue in the world. But only foreign acts, such as Coldplay, are reported to have sold out the seats there (and the British band did it for two consecutive nights). New Frontier Theater seats only a few thousand, but Monterde filled it up for two nights last year. 

But, oh, yes, there’s finally a Pinoy band that has practically sold out tickets for the Philippine Arena: the opening salvo of “BINIverse World Tour 2025” on Saturday, 15 February. 

The Nation’s Girl Group is known to be the first Pinoy pop band to hold a three-night concert at the Big Dome in November last year. It was originally planned to be just a two-night event, but demand from BINI fans merited a third night. 

On 8 to 9 February, it was Cup of Joe’s turn to fill up the Big Dome with their “Silakbo” concert. The event was initially announced to be just for one night. 

The concert will also be held in Baguio City, where the boys began as two separate senior high school bands that got together to join a contest at St. Louis University around 2017. Only one band member is actually from Baguio; the others are from nearby provinces, including Abra at the foot of the Cordillera. The band is set to do the same well-conceptualized and well-produced concert in March in the cities of Baguio, Cebu and Davao. Paolo Valenciano directs the meaningful “Silakbo.” 

The band has been living in Metro Manila, most likely to make it easy for them to gigs and concerts booked for them by Viva Communications Inc., which signed them up in 2019. Dilaw, the other well-received band from Baguio City, should decide to move to Metro Manila so they can accept bookings for huge venues. 

Other solo performers, such as Maki, have also been doing well at the concert circuit. The guy, managed by ABS-CBN, turned up as a wildly received guest in Silakbo at the Big Dome. 

Another popular huge concert venue that gets sold out is the Mall of Asia Arena, where Gary Valenciano had very successful two-night concerts last year. JK Labajo also had a well-attended concert there last year.

There are also open-air grounds that have been serving as huge venues for concerts attended by the youth who can stand up for hours or sit on the ground to relish watching their musical and sometimes raunchy idols.

Meanwhile, Cup of Joe announced on its second night at the Big Dome that it will do a world tour this year, like BINI band. 

Pinoy movie idols have to do a lot of catching up with the music-makers.

For love of our hearts

Since 2022, the country has been holding Heart Failure Awareness Week from 9 to 15 February. Its observation is pioneered by the Philippine Heart Association (PHA), which is composed mainly of cardiologists. 

The doctors launched the PHA National Heart Failure Network on 9 February and had actress Angel Aquino as one of its guest speakers along with cardiologist Dr. David Sim of the National Heart Centre of Singapore. 

The launch was held at the Quezon Hall of Seda Vertis hotel in QC on a fine morning. Intimately (but lengthily) revealed Aquino why she was there:

“Well, I have a 73-year-old mother, who looks really healthy right now. But then... with all the food that’s available to all of us now... she loves patis, and, you know, all those bad things we can’t [resist], I can’t be too sure about her health, right? Heart failure can just happen — that scares me. 

“I also have a batchmate in college [in UP Baguio], same age as me [53], but is now confined because of heart problems. He was in another hospital for three months, but the doctors there gave up on him and sent him home. But, you know, he can still feel the symptoms. He still felt sick, so he had to check himself in another hospital. And so now he’s he doesn’t have a choice but to seek help from friends to pay his medical bills. 

“I also know somebody, a hopeful, lovestruck fiance suddenly drops despite a healthy lifestyle because he did not know that he already had a heart condition. So instead of wedding bells, a funeral Mass was held...” 

She added another reason she joined the event: “I want to listen to stories and be ready to grasp deeper and battle ignorance and lack of awareness. I do know already that heart failure is one of the most common chronic diseases, yet many Filipinos do not even know that they have it. It is a complex condition and the sad reality is it is often taken for granted.”

She ended her talk by declaring: “Lack of awareness is even more dangerous than the disease itself. That is why the Philippine Heart Association, led by Dr. Erlyn Demerre, my friend, is launching a noble initiative, the National Heart Failure Network.”

Dr. Demerre is the network’s director, with Dr. Orlando Bugarin as co-director.

The network’s core group is the PHA Council and the PHA chapters and training institutions that will connect communities, spread awareness and encourage a prevention-seeking mindset — because the truth is everyone can be a heart failure (HF) patient, even the youth. 

That morning, it was revealed to us that HF  is a complex condition that can be caused by a number of health problems like coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, heart attack, cardiomyopathy, arythmias, heart valve problems and congenital heart disease.

Heart failure is one of the most pressing yet underrecognized health crises worldwide, affecting over 60 million people — more than five times the global number of cancer patients. It is a condition with devastating outcomes, as nearly 50 percent of patients die within five years of diagnosis.

Aquino’s advice at the end of her sharing: “Huwag nating hayaang magpalya ang ating mga puso (Let’s not allow our hearts to fail)!”

Another speaker in the event was the PR maven Sunny Ku who survived a literal enlargement of the heart, though he once had to be confined in a hospital for 80 days.