By Ed Rame
Angeline Quinto
It was a lazy rainy day and it was Sunday. You would think that one would rather stay home and stay warm. It was the other way around during Miss Angeline Quinto’s first solo concert at the Alex Theater in Glendale. People came in droves and had a very good crowd. Surprisingly, it was not from her age group that came to watch but the middle aged crowd who holds the proverbial purse. The kind of crowd that will buy her CD for souvenir and would love to have a picture with her which she happily obliged much to the joy of the long line of admirers who waited after the concert.
The Queen of Teleserye Theme Songs opened up with Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey, a power song yet she looked very relaxed belting it out. She has then set the tone of her concert. I expected a diva-ish performance knowing a little bit of her vocal stories. The teleserye theme songs is outstanding. Basil Valdez would be proud of her own version of his award winning song Ngayon . She sang it with finesse, clarity, perfect pitch, power and passion.
Then she continued with Kunin mo na Lahat sa Akin which she playfully ad libbed. She came up with some jokes to probably make herself more comfortable or probably test the waters of the audience’s sentiments about. her. She can be humorous but sometimes they were too long and has the tendency to be dragging. each song is a revelation of her own person. The Angeline like you and me.
She may need some adjustments to make and that is understandable since it was her first time to take the center stage solo here at least in Los Angeles. That is just a minor flaw though and all she has to do is take hold of her queenship on the stage and be more confident because she really has the pipes to impress. One pleasant surprise was when she called some male audience to come up to the stage and sing Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang with her. All three male can really sing and sang with gusto. Yeah, a microphone has great friends among the very musical Pinoys.
Tuloy Ang Pangarap was quite a poignant song especially for her. It is a beautiful song but it’s memory was unforgettable. Angeline broke to tears as she bared her soul to the crowd that as she was singing this song during the Grand Finals, her mom was rushed in the hospital fighting for her life. As challenged as her life is, she won the competition hands down. This indeed signaled the new beginning for her and her family, the road to success to fame and fortune has finally opened. Their lives have changed totally. Learning from her experience, she emphatically made her life a testimony on keeping the faith and on believing in dreams. Indeed, it was a powerful song coming from an empowered singer with a so powerful voice. Her voice really is soothing yet her high notes are in no way annoying as she retains its richness and sweetness in all of the highs and lows of it.
Angeline is very good in the sense that she knows her craft, aware of her skills that when she sing a song she is in her zone. She is so pleasant to listen to and that makes her very endearing to her audience. She obliged with an encore number. She belted the immortal I Can Go The Distance the Theme from Hercules, a Michael Bolton song. She displayed so much personal style and class that has the audience blown away. While singing she is different. She is bold, daring, full of passion and very confident. She is filled with energy and is actually contagious. She can actually bring you to her zone. She can literally give you gooses with her incredible voice and skill in killing her songs. But after each number, she is different. She needs to retain her classy style in singing to her ad libs. In the end she was rewarded with a rousing applause and a well deserved standing ovation. No one can deny a great talent that kind of appreciation especially from somehow a jaded crowd like the Fil-Am Angelenos.