Singer-songwriter Nica del Rosario celebrates her twelfth year in the music industry with an intimate concert, "Balang Araw" (Someday), on 3 December at Power Mac Center Spotlight, Ayala Malls Circuit in Makati City. Her wife, singer Justine Peña whom she wed in August in Australia, will be one of her many guest performers.
The concert title is named after her most recent single, which is about marriage equality and the struggle of LGBTQ+ Filipinos to attain it. Del Rosario related her story in her 18 November post on Facebook. Before the flight back to Manila, after their wedding, she filled a One Health Pass and "I had to begrudgingly mark myself as 'single.'"
"It was a small, simple action, but it crushed my heart like a stone. It represented the reality that was waiting for us back in Manila: That the vows we exchanged in Sydney will not be honored in the place we call home. The joy of getting to legally commit ourselves to spending the rest of our lives together is mixed with the bitterness that according to the laws where we reside, that doesn't mean anything," she wrote.
"But to us, it means everything. Remembering that moment in our hotel room, filling out that form, spurred me to write this song. Because despite that small yet sad moment, there's comfort in the fact that we're married in Australia, in the US, in Canada, and several other countries. There's comfort in the fact that we share a love that some people spend lifetimes trying to look for. There's comfort in the life and the family that we built together," she continued.
She further said, "I don't know when our laws here will change; maybe we'll be like those old lady couples in the US rushing to the courthouses on the day that same sex marriage was legalized in all 50 states. Maybe it will come in 10 years. Maybe we won't live to see it. But we have today, and our love and our family. And for now, that is enough."
Del Rosario dedicates "Balang Araw" to "every person in our community who continue to hope and fight for what we stand for: To be treated as human beings, to be given the same rights as everyone else."
"Makukuha rin natin ang ating 'balang araw,' pero sa ngayon, mahalin muna natin ang isa't isa," she ended her post.
The concert will feature Ogie Alcasid, Johnoy Danao, Penelope, Mike Shimamoto, Matthew Chang and Mat Olavides, among others, as guests. Proceeds of the show will be donated to Angat Buhay, the non-governmental organization set up by former Vice President Leni Robredo.
Del Rosario is known as the composer of the hit "Tala" as well as one of the volunteer artists who penned the popular "Rosas" and "Kay Leni Tayo," with Pena and Jeli Mateo, for the presidential bid of Robredo.
Roel Hoang Manipon