The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Roeder Camanag, the singer who popularized the song “Sana Naman” is in search of a singer who can give justice to interpret the signature songs and delineate the colorful life story of torch singer Didith Reyes onstage.
Hit titles like “Bakit Ako Mahihiya?” “Nananabik,” “Araw-Araw, Gabi-Gabi,” “Hindi Kami Damong Ligaw,” “Aliw,” to name only a few, were Didith’s second skin.
They could as well be worn by anyone who could relive the controversial music artist who have sketched an indelible mark in the movies and the local Tin Pan Alley.
The first step Roeder did was to call this writer because I was very close to Didth months before she died.
In the late 70s, though, I was already running around with her but it was cut short by my busy entertainment journalism beat.
Camanag asked if I could possibly connect him to Didith’s heirs because he wanted to get their permission to transport her life onstage.
Roeder said he had Eula Valdez in mind to play Reyes.
I didn’t hesitate to recommend my talent for more than thirty years, whom I called Amazing Diva Armie Zuniga.
It wasn’t to discredit or to trick Roeder to replace Eula which was so unethical a manner.
I just thought Armie could be an understudy.
In my irrepressibility, I sent Roeder a video material of Zuniga singing “Hiram.”
When I got back to him, he said he had goosebumps. “Tito Boy, kamukha nga siya ni Didith Reyes. Pati cheekbone. At ang boses, grabe (She really resembles her. Even her cheekbone. And her voice, super),” Camanag exclaimed.
According to Roeder, now a director and producer, the show to adapt Didith’s life is like jazz artists Audra McDonald or Akexis J. Rogers singing and acting in monologues, for instance, some highlights in Billie Holiday’s life.
At the moment, a research on Didith’s life and copyright tasks are in order.
Armie, indeed, is honored to be in a short-list for Didith Reyes’ biostage.
It isn’t far-fetched, though, as Zuniga has performed Didith Reyes in her solo concert “Remembering Didith Reyes” in 2014 at the Mowelfund Plaza in Quezon where she was praised by balladeer Anthony Castelo, no less, as the reincarnation of Didith.
While waiting for the Didith Reyes’ stagebio, Armie is busy singing in ballroom dancing and private parties, one of them during the Villasanta Get-Together on December 30, 2023 at the Lopez, Quezon Credit Cooperative (LQCC) Hall at General Vicente Yngente Avenue in Lopez, Quezon.
Meanwhile, a local band in the same town is making waves not only among yuppies but oldies as well.
Hipakyu Band with Armie will entertainment the Villasantas in the reunion of sort.
Will Hipakyu music be the new sound veteran music marketing manager Tato Malay is looking for?
“Naghahanap ako ngayon ng bagong tunog. Pinakikiramdaman ko ngayon ang bagong henerasyon kung ano ang gusto nilang musika. May pagka-techno ba (I am looking for a new sound. I am feeling through the now generation what kind of music they like. Is it some kind of a techno?),” wondered Tato. BOY VILLASANTA