For Ogie, every song is a love song

Ogie Alcasid heartily agrees with the belief of fellow songwriters Rey Valera and Louie Ocampo that the best driving power for composing songs is love. “Lagi namang love,” he says. “It is the strongest emotion. As far as I can remember, sa bawat kanta ko ay in love ako. Well, there are times when I have to do commissioned works already with a plot but even then, my personal feelings, most often love, also enter the picture.”

Thrown together for the concert Kanta Ko, Panahon N’yo which will be held at the Kia Theatre in Araneta Center on Dec. 2, Ogie is happy to be able to work closely with his idols. “Rey Valera was one of my inspirations when I was starting out,” recalls Ogie. “I think it is the same with most other new songwriters. There is something so easy about his songs, which I tried to emulate noon. Very simple but very powerful. I idolized Rey so much that when they asked me for anything I wanted for my first concert, I would ask for Rey. He was my guest at the Folk Arts Theater.”

Ogie’s first encounter with Ocampo was more emotional. “I was still in high school then and I had just broken up with my girlfriend. One afternoon, I was grocery shopping at the South Supermarket when I heard this song. ‘Sa bawat pag-ikot ng ating buhay, alam ko kailangan na maghiwalay….’” It was Joey Albert singing Louie’s song Ikaw Lang Ang Mamahalin and every note was hitting him in the gut. “I was going ouch! while pushing the grocery cart across the aisles. But I liked the song so much that I went and bought the 45 RPM record.”

Ogie was a teenager in college at La Salle when he got into singing with the Kundirana group. This was followed by writing songs. Soon armed with his first composition, Peks Man, he went into recording. The song was very well-received and despite the availability of stable options awaiting him in the family business after graduation, Ogie went full-time into singing and writing songs. 

Some 30 years later, he is still at it and very successful, not only as a singer and composer but also as a comedian in the movies and television. Ogie laments the fact that a lot of people, even those close to him like his children, see him more as a comedian than a singer and songwriter. “It must be because of television. I do not really mind. I enjoy doing both and I am very grateful for the success.” But while he gives equal dedication to everything he does, the one that Ogie gets most personally involved with is the music. 

He remembers that time when he composed Pangarap Ko Ang Ibigin Ka for fellow singer Regine Velasquez. “Reg had a movie coming up and I was asked to write the theme song. Viva had no title yet for the movie so I titled the song Pangarap Ko Ang Ibigin Ka, because that was how I felt about Regine although I couldn’t tell her. Pangarap ko talagang ibigin siya.” Ogie then was still married to Australian beauty queen Michelle van Eimeren and therefore had to keep his feelings for Regine secret.

The incident makes one wonder. Was Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw also about his hidden feelings for Regine? What about Hanggang Ngayon? Then the songs Magpakailanman, Ikaw Ang Aking Pangarap and Kailangan Kita were probably the joyous results of that time when Ogie’s painful love triangle was sorted out and he and Regine were able to get married. 

This does not mean though that because he has settled down he has also stopped relying on love for his songwriting subject. “Tahimik na ang buhay but the love is always there although I have noticed that I have become more spiritual lately. I sing and I listen to a lot of praise songs these days. Ang gaganda ng mga kanta.” 

His latest release, Ikaw Ang Buhay Ko, combines his love for God and for Regine. Dedicated to his wife on their fifth anniversary, the album “celebrates the joys and the challenges of marriage with a human being who is kind, giving, funny and most of all, God-fearing. It is indeed a blessing to be married to someone who loves the Lord as much as I do as He has prepared us for the hills and valleys of our married life.” 

To put these sentiments in songs, Ogie has chosen 10 compositions, some of them his own and the rest by other songwriters. Ikaw Ang Buhay Ko, Habang Buhay (Saranghaeyo), I Love You and The Lord Is Our Savior are the new works by Ogie. Ikaw Ang Aking Pangarap is his version of a song he wrote for Martin Nievera to sing as a teleserye theme. The other cuts are covers of popular tunes. Tanging Yaman by Manoling Francisco; Hawak Kamay by Yeng Constantino; Hanggang by Ronnie Cordero and Gigie Cordero; Iingatan Ka by Marizen Yaneza; and Pag-ibig by Danny Javier, all of them expressions of love, holy, enduring and true.