Joanna Ampil has new CD

I do not know much about Joanna Ampil. I know she is a good singer and actress. I believed she was all wrong for Maria in the local production of West Side Story. But I saw how her Kim smoldered with passion in Miss Saigon and how divine was her performance as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Joanna played those roles in productions of those musicals in London’s West End. I read that she has also done both Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables, Sheila in Hair, Mimi in Rent and her most recent stint was as Christmas Eve in the hugely appealing Avenue Q. And she reaped great reviews for most of her work.

Judging from this resume you can say that Joanna is no ordinary Pinay who got to play Kim. She has built a whole career in musical theater and will surely be doing more memorable performances in the future. She has also done recordings and her latest is the CD Try Love for the local Sony label.

Try Love is an album of covers. This is something of a disappointment because this artist, after all is the Joanna Ampil and I can just imagine what she could have done with new originals. Her voice is a unique mix of power and sweetness that is irresistible to even the casual listener. Besides as, Dingdong Avanzado’s Maghihintay Sa ‘yo, which by the way, is the only OPM cut in the CD, shows, she has the chops to put so much feeling in a Tagalog song. But then she got stuck with foreign covers.

One cannot really blame Sony. The local music market is at its worst ever and the only way to entice buyers is to serve up something familiar. I was sent some years ago a copy of an album that Joanna did in London. It was made up of songs from various musicals and featured other stage performers. Surely a major production. A friend thought I would like it because she does a version of one of my childhood favorites Neverland from Peter Pan. She did it beautifully. It was a great album but I doubt if it would have sold well here.

So better face reality and here she is with Try Love. Produced by Ferdie Marquez, it is a good effort. Her voice is in top form and the songs were well-chosen. The diverse line-up goes from jazz, Seawind’s Follow That Road to Motown soul, Stevie Wonder’s Lately, to pop, Gloria Estefan’s Words Get In The Way and others.

I like how Joanna puts power into balmy Carpenters love songs like Hurting Each Other and I’m Caught Between Goodbye And I Love You and that female take on the James Ingram standard I Don’t Have The Heart is absolutely brilliant. The other cuts are Healing, If I Believed, I Only Live To Love You, Try Love and a nice duet of the Same Time, Next Year song, The Last Time I Felt Like This with Ariel Rivera.

I want to think of Try Love as just the beginning of Joanna’s exploration with Filipino music. She can do so much more. I also see this album as her introduction to local music lovers. Hopefully, they will want to hear more from her after listening to this CD. Then maybe Sony would be brave enough to take some risks with her materials in the next one and show her off in the manner she deserves.

And now for a look at what tunes are selling locally as per MYX’s tabulation of the Top 20 of the most requested videos of the week.

Please Be Careful With My Heart by Christian Bautista and Sarah Geronimo; I Don’t Want To Fall by Juris Fernandez; Harinawa by Hale; Breathe Again by Chicosci; Kalayaan by Bamboo; A Call To Arms by Urbandub; Not Like The Movies by KC Concepcion; Picture Picture by Tanya Markova; You’re So Hot by XLR8; Beautiful Girl by Christian Bautista.

Missed You by Sam Concepcion; Right Here Waiting by Sarah Geronimo; Makapiling Ka by Sponge Cola; Martilyo by Gloc-9 and Letter Day Story; Parang Si Ely Buendia by Soapdish; Gusto Ko Lang Ng Girlfriend by Eevee; Magbabalik Ka Pa Ba by Nikki Gil; Like Eskimo by Slapshock; Kahit Na by Kiss Jane; and Gupit by Toto Sorioso.