MEGASTAR Sharon Cuneta has just wrapped up the third leg of her 2017 US concert tour at the Alex Theater in Glendale, California, and she is more than pleased with the turnout of the crowd that set aside the summer heat to be part of her concert.
Cuneta was in very high spirits as she regaled the mostly Filipino-American communities of the West Coast with her signature classics and her favorite spot numbers.
Before Glendale, the show was a big hit at the beautiful Chumash Hotel and Casino in Santa Ynez, California, and she also did a show at the old Logan High School Gymnasium in San Francisco’s Union City. We reckon that the big star that she is, Cuneta deserved a much better venue than the old gymnasium the San Francisco producers gave her.
She opened the show with the timeless “The Greatest Love of All” and followed it up with the heart-warming ballad “Something New in My Life”.
The choices for her original Pilipino music songs were all very well-received, too. She started with “Maging Sino Ka Man”, the theme from one of her old hit movies, which got sustained applause from the appreciative audience.
She then introduced her charming guest, Antoinette Tismo, the 14-year-old rice-cake vendor she mentored in the Philippine edition of the singing search The Voice Kids. The two performed the song “Batang-Bata Ka Pa”, an original Apo Hiking Society hit, much to the delight of the crowd.
The producers prepared a heart-tugging video of the young singing sensation that moved the audience, before Tismo effortlessly captivated every one in the audience with her take on the songs “Pangako” and “Paano Ba ang Mangarap”. This little girl will surely go a long way if she plays her cards right.
Cuneta came back onstage with “Tayong Dalawa”, and surprised the crowd with a medley of Aegis hit songs. The crowd went wild when Cuneta introduced her special guest performer, Ian Veneracion. The debonair actor, whose on a phenomenal career upswing, sang his version of Michael Buble’s “You Don’t Know Me” and went down to get close to the audience, which sent the ladies and titas of the West Coast into a wild frenzy.
He followed it up with Jose Mari Chan’s “Afraid for Love to Fade”, one of the songs he performed in his ongoing hit TV series, A Love to Last.
Veneracion surprised the audience when he accompanied himself in the guitar with the Ronan Keating hit “This I Promise You”, and the crowd responded in a deafening uproar. Not many know that aside from being an actor, a painter, a pilot and an athlete, Veneracion plays the guitar and the piano. He has also started to compose his own songs.
Before Veneracion’s segment ended, he did a well-applauded duet with Cuneta, by way of the song “Pangako Sa ’Yo”.
Cuneta was in her best element when she sang the Liza Minelli signature “Losing My Mind” and her original song “Ikaw”, before the show peaked with the medley of songs that included “Pangarap na Bituin” and “Bituing Walang Ningning”.
The megastar closed the show with “Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko” and “Sana’y Wala ng Wakas”.
There are scheduled shows in New York and Palm Springs in early July, with Ai-Ai de las Alas as Cuneta’s special guest. Veteran composer and music man Louie Ocampo served as the show’s musical director with US-based Lito Villareal and Petite Albornoz as backup singers.
Cuneta will make the most of her free time in the US traveling and enjoying the sights with her husband Sen. Francis Pangilinan and their three children, Frankie, Miel and Miguel.
The Sharon Cuneta 2017 US concert tour is organized by the trusted and reliable show producer-promoter Nancy Yang’s NY Entourage, the same company that has handled all the Sharon Cuneta concert tours in the past.