For more than two decades, the songbird chirps her melodies from a coop at the corner of Edsa and Timog avenues. She has made that coop her home and nothing could impel her to take flight and find another coop, or even fly back to her original coop.
But, last week, Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez, after landing on a bigger coop that sits on a lot along Sgt. Esguerra, Mother Ignacia and Eugenio Lopez Drive, announced that she has returned to her original home and is now a certified Kapamilya.
To many Kapamilya fans and officers that have been anticipating the day she would decide to fly home, this was a thrilling event, and to many of Regine’s fans that are also Kapamilya followers, they thought her decision was long overdue.
Yet, for Regine, coming back to ABS-CBN where she practically started after she won the talent search Ang Bagon Kampeon is indeed a milestone because she never thought the Kapamilya network was still willing to take her after many years of intercession from the network that never materialized.
Teary eyed Regine said that her decision to come home was both difficult and uncertain, but thanks to her husband Ogie Alcasid, who had returned to the Kapamilya lot after leaving Kapuso and later Kapatid networks, he paved the way for her and the ABS-CBN management to talk.
Regine signed a two-year contract with the network on Oct.17 making her a certified Kapamilya.
She revealed her first major projects include a singing competition and a musical sitcom. She will also be seen every Sunday onASAP.
Regine is a singer and whether she has become successful in other fields in show business like hosting and acting she continues to crave for a platform on which she can be what she is. And that was what the other networks couldn’t promise her. It took her almost a year to not to renew her contract with her former network while weighing the options to move and find out if the Kapamilya network was willing to take her in and if there was still a space for her.
And, surprisingly, all those questions in her mind and the uncertainties she had were erased totally when she got the yes from the network.
“Kinakabahan ako,” she admitted, “Hindi ko talaga alam kung ano ang magiging resulta ng pag-uusap namin. But when I got a call from ma’am Cory (Vidanes) I was literally speechless.”
The OPM icon, host, and actress revealed in her first press conference as a Kapamilya that she would judge a singing competition for the first time in the upcoming show Idol Philippines.
“It’s my first time to judge a singing contest, so it’s another first for me,” she said.
Also for the first time in her career, she will star in a yet-to-be-named musical sitcom with her husband Ogie Alcasid and actorIan Veneracion. She joined ASAP in Sidney as a run-up to her being a mainstay of the Sunday noontime variety show.
With excitement, the Songbird announced that she would perform the theme song — written by Ogie — of the upcomingteleserye The General’s Daughter.
“The reason why I’m here is because I don’t know how much longer I will be able to sing. And I want to work with very talented singers, that’s it — that before I end my career I can say that I worked with the number one station,” she said.
“I realized that I still have something to give. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I returned,” she added, and said that “now is the perfect time” for her ABS-CBN homecoming.
The press conference was held after ABS-CBN executives and employees gave her a grand red carpet welcome that left her in tears, and a contract signing that was attended by ABS-CBN chairman Mark Lopez, president and CEO Carlo Katigbak, COO for broadcast Cory Vidanes, TV production head Laurenti Dyogi, Dreamscape Entertainment head Deo Endrinal, head of finance for broadcast and news and current affairs Cat Lopez, and Regine’s sister and manager Cacai Velasquez-Mitra.
Regine started her television career in the ‘80s on ABS-CBN musical shows Teen Pan Alley and Triple Treat, and starred in an MMK episode in 2002, for which she won the Best Actress trophy at the PMPC Star Awards for TV.
In 2002, she headlined One Night with Regine at the National Museum, which she identified as one of her most memorable concerts, that raised funds for ABS-CBN’s Bantay Bata 163. At the ABS-CBN Ball 2018, she announced her plan to stage another benefit concert for the reopening of Bantay Bata’s Children’s Village.
Welcome home, Kapamilya Regine Velasquez Alcasid!
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Benefit Duo Piano Concerto for Museo Pambata
The Miravite Consulting Group presents Duo Piano Concerto, a piano concert to support the Museo Pambata Foundation Inc. It will be held on 7 p.m. tonight at the Maybank Performing Arts Theater, Bonifacio Global City.
The concert features Raul M. Sunico and Natascha Majek in a rare duo piano concerto.
Raul M. Sunico achieved worldwide recognition when he performed four piano concertos of Sergei Rachmaninoff in one evening. He has performed in solo recitals as well as with the best orchestras throughout Europe, North America, Australia, Middle East, and Asia.
Natascha Majek collaborates as a pianist with various orchestras, including the Symphonie Orchester Basel, and has been the soloist in other orchestras. She has since been performing in numerous recitals in Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, with a repertoire that extends from Bach to early 20th century music.
The Miravite Consulting Group is presenting this concert to raise funds for Museo Pambata Foundation Inc., the organization that runs the country’s first children’s museum. To be able to maintain a quality educational experience for all children, Museo Pambata receives donations from generous individuals, corporations, and foundations who are also committed to providing alternative learning venues for children.
This event is sponsored by Tillie Pelagallo, Mega Subic Terminal Services, Inc., WS Family Foundation, Inc., BPI, Club Tropicana, and Lyric Piano.
Ticket prices are P3000 / P2000 / P800 and are available in all Ticketworld branches.
For more information about the event, please call 0906-4157819 or email [email protected]..
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