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Concert review: Joey Albert is not done yet as she marks 40 years in showbiz

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Leah C. Salterio

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/entertainment/07/13/20210713-joey-albert.jpg"/><figcaption>Joey Albert in &#x27;Life Begins @ 40&#x27;</figcaption></figure></div>“I’m not done yet!”Singer Joey Albert made that declaration at her recent virtual concert “Life Begins @ 40” to celebrate her 40 years of performing.There were no elegant gowns or colorful outfit changes, no high-tech props to dazzle the audience, no grand stage to mount.In jeans, white shirt and black, light jacket, Albert simply made use of a recording studio in Vancouver, Canada, where she has been based with her family for the past 26 years now.“This is amazing,” Albert said the minute she walked into the recording studio. “I love doing live concerts onstage, but there’s something about the recording studio. This is magic. I love magical come to life. This is perfect.”She opened the concert instantly with a familiar hit, “Million Miles Away,” a song Robert More wrote back when he was still in college for his girlfriend then and now his wife of 34 years. That song was entered into a contest, but unfortunately, didn’t make it.However, Albert apparently turned that song into a classic OPM song and More cannot be thankful enough for her. “&#x27;Million Miles Away’ is my one of my very personal, if not my personal favorite,” she declared.Greeting her virtual audience, she said: “I know it’s evening where you are, but where I am, my day is just beginning. Just like life after 40 years. Forty years in the music industry, that is. What more reason is there to celebrate 40 years of original Pilipino music?”She admitted a lot has changed in the last four decades. She had seen black and white picture tube TV change to colored LED screens. She’d seen rotary phones, “may party line pa noon,” change to cellphones. She had seen typewriters change to laptops.She had seen vinyls, even 45s change to cassette tapes then change to CDs. She was the first local artist to record on CDs. “Ang galing ko, ‘di ba?,” Albert smilingly bragged. “Just so many changes.”Looking back, Albert never imagined seeing all her successful achievements. “It just seemed there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” she said. “I never imagined all these at the end of my rainbow.”It all started with one audition song that she rendered, Patti Austin’s “What’s at the End of a Rainbow,” that got Albert her first break with the New Minstrels.Jose Mari Chan wrote a song looking for a singer. “Like magic, Joey Albert was there,” he recalled on video. He gave the song to Louie Ocampo and had it arranged with the instruction to change the title from “I Remember the Girl” to “I Remember the Boy,” and subsequently gave it to Albert.“That’s the story about how the song ended on the lap and the vocal cords of Joey Albert,” Chan shared. “I look forward eagerly to watching you sing again. I’m sure, the brilliance is still there. The honesty is still there. The feelings are still there.”Albert remembered the boys she sang with, from Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano to Randy Santiago, Raymond Lauchengco, Keno, and Gino Padilla.Of course, she didn’t forget the girls. There were Pops Fernandez, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Sharon Cuneta, Regine Velasquez and Agot Isidro. “I wonder where they are now?,” Joey said.The artists talked fondly of her. Valenciano remarked, “Joey was beautiful. She is one person who didn’t allow the difficulties or the losses in life affect her in a negative way. It didn’t make her bitter. It made her better.”Nievera, meanwhile, said this about Albert: “I’m always reminded about Joey Albert because Joey and I were both struggling and trying to find our niche in the industry. We couldn’t find it, but somehow, we always found each other and we would chat about it.“Our frustrations, our dreams. Even to this day, she has not changed. Success has never changed Joey Albert. That’s one thing I always love about her… Joey Albert is always a true friend.”Pops Fernandez: “I remember Joey Albert, kapag may show ‘yan, isa ako sa mga guests, siya mismo ang nagpupukpok ng pako sa stage. I was thinking then, ‘Dapat ba gawin ‘yun?’“She was so hands-on and so excited about the show. Pati mga props she took care of that. I admire her for the passion in her work. I think that was why we became friends.”Janice de Belen: “Si Joey lang ang naniniwala na kaya kong kumanta, kaya she guested me in her show sa Zigzag Disco, where I sang solo.”Albert and De Belen became real friends through the years. They shared a lot of secrets together. Albert said De Belen wrote a lot of poems, one of which she gave to Louie Ocampo. That gave rise to “It’s Over Now,” one of Albert’s hits that she rendered in the concert.“The music of the &#x27;80s was so beautiful,” she recalled in the concert. “The &#x27;80s was such a different time. For me, that was the golden age of Pilipino music. The music was different. Everything was different.“The times were different and kinder. The industry was kinder. Singers were friends. Managers were friends. Even TV stations were friends. Although careers faded, true friendships, they stayed.”The next song belonged to Moy Ortiz, Albert’s “true friend, mentor, director and songwriter” who joined her that night in a song he wrote with Ocampo.The Company – Ortiz, Annie Quintos, Sweet Plantado and OJ Mariano – also sang “Points of View” with Albert.“Honestly, I was initially hesitant to do this concert, but it was Moy Ortiz of The Company who encouraged me and reminded me there was so much to be thankful for, the 40 years,” Albert disclosed.She missed her band days with New Minstrels, so she relived the time by singing “I Will Survive” with three guest singers.Albert later rendered an acoustic version of her hit, “Without You,” that was used in the film, “One More Try” (2012) and recorded anew by Angeline Quinto. That song was later followed by the other movie themes Albert recorded.Albert left Manila in 1995 to become a full-time mom. “I have to say it was one of the difficult decisions I have ever made in my entire life,” she admitted. “But it was very well worth it. If I had to do it again, I would.”Yet, Albert didn’t lie. She also disclosed that turning her back on singing was painful. “I cried for the next three years of my life here [in Vancouver],” she said. “It just felt like somebody turned the lights off. It was dark and scary. It was a very uncertain time in my life.”When she received a message through fax that Richard Gomez had turned the last song she recorded into a film festival winner, Albert realized it was not over yet for her.“That became my anchor for the next chapter in my life,” Albert maintained as she crooned “Sa ‘Yo Lamang” (1995), the Manoling Francisco-penned theme of the film of the same title.Albert and Ocampo wrote the hauntingly sentimental “Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin” after she lost her father and her sister to cancer. “This song is for people who have lost their loved ones,” Albert said. “Somehow, this piece found its way into everybody’s heart.” Then came the strains of her hit ballad, “Iisa Pa Lamang,” that also became the theme of the box-office hit starring Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta (1991), with Carlitos Siguion-Reyna at the helm.“Every time I sing this song, the first few notes pa lang, everybody would shout. Akala mo agad, Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta entered the room,” Albert happily shared.Expectedly, “Tell Me” the Ocampo and Alan Ayque’s composition, with George Ontal on the keyboards, will never be out of the repertoire. It was the hit ballad that started everything big for Albert.“Forty years is a long time for anyone to get to,” said Albert. “But so many people along the way have helped me to get to where I am today. So many people I need to be thankful for and thankful to.”Albert particularly referred to her sister, Marissa Albert, her erstwhile manager who was largely the reason she got to reach greater heights.“Forty years, a milestone like this doesn’t happen unless it is ordained by God,” Albert said. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I never planned this. I never even dreamed of this. And many times, I think I never really deserved all these.“But every step of the way, I saw God’s hand. And all I did was take it. So, here I am. And here I’ll stay. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not done yet.” That night, Albert unveiled a new song, “Sisikat Rin Ako,” her first collaboration with Jim Paredes. “Just sing it, like Joey Albert sings it,” Paredes advised. “That shouldn’t be so difficult. I’m looking forward to it. Your audience is looking forward to it. So good luck. Break a leg.” That “Sisikat Rin Ako” was evidently the start of something big for Albert and her next 40 years as she closed the concert with fond “Memories.”Streamed on KTX.ph, “Life Begins @ 40” the digital concert had Paolo Valenciano and Albert’s daughter, Trixie Albert Pacis, sharing directorial credits, with Archie Castillo as musical director.

“I’m not done yet!” Singer Joey Albert made that declaration at her recent virtual concert “Life Begins @ 40” to celebrate her 40 years of performing.

“I’m not done yet!” Singer Joey Albert made that declaration at her recent virtual concert “Life Begins @ 40” to celebrate her 40 years of performing.