Friday, December 24, 2010

“Lea Salonga dreams of doing a duet with Barbra Streisand”

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“Lea Salonga dreams of doing a duet with Barbra Streisand”


Lea Salonga dreams of doing a duet with Barbra Streisand

Posted: 23 Dec 2010 03:17 PM PST

<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"></span></strong>Lea Salonga dreams of doing a duet with Barbra Streisand


 
Lea Salonga says that if she ever does a duet with Barbra Streisand, she can say, "I can die right now... and if I even just shook her hand or smelled her hair I would be happy..."
 

Lea Salonga dreams of doing a duet with Barbra Streisand

Kaye Estoista-Koo

During a recent media launch, Lea Salonga had fun reminiscing about her December 2009 concert Your Songs.

 

A year after staging this concert, Lea is back on the recording scene through Your Songs on CD with bonus DVD. The album contains the songs performed by Lea at the 2009 concert.

 

The 2009 concert was unique. Fans worldwide were given the chance to choose songs from among her three-decade musical history and from her award-winning theater performances.

 

So many song requests came in that even during the actual concert's dress rehearsal, Lea recalls, "Another 45 minutes of songs were cut because we only had three hours. So we were cutting out from medleys, and cutting a medley is hard work because every key change is already there...It was heartbreaking, we even had to cut out full songs."

 

During the media launch of Your Songs on CD with bonus DVD last December 20, held at the Salon de Ning of the Manila Peninsula, Lea sang "Your Song" and "Thank You for the Music," both taken from her latest album.

 

Lea says that it wasn't originally the intent of the album to be launched a year after the concert, but as she explains, "It kinda worked out. It has coincided with the holiday season and it came out just in time as a great Christmas present for people."

 

Asked how she felt while watching and listening to Your Songs a year later, "Oh my God, my memories are so vivid and it was just so much fun and I got to work with some incredible people..."

 

She adds, "Working with Richard Poon for the first time was amazing."

 

The international singer laughed as she recalled her working experience with Ai-Ai de las Alas, one of her guests in Your Songs. "I got to repeat the experience working with her in her concert, and she was incredibly professional."

 

Ai-Ai surprised Lea.

 

Lea says, "The one thing I did not expect was how closely she would stick to a script, and even though we're given prompters and such, she's extremely professional. She will adlib but definitely use the script as a launching pad, but not in a way that would disrupt the flow of the show.

 

"I really, really respected her for what she brought to that segment of the show, and her being true, on the ball, with everything. I admire and really enjoyed the experience of working with her, she's amazing. She's incredibly funny with or without a script. She's fantastic."

 

Asked if she has any personal favorites from the Your Songs album now that she's gotten the chance to hear the songs again, Lea enthuses: "I love the Aegis medley, the power bands medley, the Pinoy Rock Medley.

 

"I enjoyed of course the Musical Theater Medley where I finally got to sing 'Defying Gravity.'

 

"I enjoyed, I think, the entire show. I don't think there was any one part or song that I could dismiss."

 

Fans will enjoy her spunk and renditions of "Pokerface," "Rehab," and "Halo," all of which she says she also enjoyed doing.

 

Lea thinks it's great when she's able to say that, because "That sort of fun does not happen that often to anybody and I appreciate it when it happens for me."

 

The Aegis song requests initially surprised Lea, but when she listened to them again, she ended up saying, "This is right, this is absolutely right."

 

Fans have to be given credit for choosing two love songs from the Aegis. Lea says everyone can relate to these songs in one way or another: "Everyone has had some devastating romantic situation that would fit those songs, and because I've had my share of devastating heartbreak, singing those songs felt kinda cathartic, and to be able to take it with the intensity and at the top of my lungs was fantastic."

 

DREAM PROJECTS. Lea dreams of someday being able to collaborate and record songs with both Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano. "We still have to get that going because we've all been working in this industry for so long," she says.

 



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