A small-town girl at heart

If there is one Filipino artist who is up to task of mounting one whole concert as a tribute to the timeless diva Barbra Streisand, it is Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez.

At this stage in her almost two-decade career, Regine is more than ripe to tackle all those "challenging" Streisand classics – both vocally, emotionally and intellectually.

Technically, she has mastered the fine art of "belting" – scaling harrowing heights and plumbing just as daunting depths, with effortless élan. To watch her perform is to see an artist in full bloom – one who is in full control of her vocal instrument. Emotionally, she has also grown to become a more seasoned chanteuse. To hear her sing is to listen to an entertainer who has weathered the storms of life with grit and grace.

Regine first mounted a Streisand tribute concert sometime in the mid-’90s at the Captain’s Bar of the Mandarin Oriental. Despite the post five-star environs, it was still a more modest affair compared to this year’s edition.

The first show ran for only four nights while the repeat is having 12 shows which runs until December.

Also, not only was the venue smaller in the original show, she was only accompanied by a lone pianist. Of course, the fact that it was maestro Ryan Cayabyab behind the grand piano somehow made the whole proceeding grander than usual.

So when Regine thought of re-staging Songbird Sings Streisand, she not only chose a bigger venue (the 1,000-strong Onstage in Greenbelt 1 Makati), she also signed up one whole band of session musicians to back her up, led by musical director Raul Mitra.

Needless to say, La Barbra is one of Regine’s all-time musical idols. "I’ve been singing her songs since I was 12 years old," she quips. "She’s got very beautiful songs, but they are not easy to sing. They’re very difficult. The melodies are very complicated."

That is precisely one thing she admires about Ms. Streisand. "She really knows how to choose beautiful songs."

And these "beautiful songs" were showcased to perfection by Regine in Songbird Sings Streisand.

It was a pleasant surprise that Regine not only chose the popular (and expected) signature hits like Somewhere and The Way We Were, but she also included the more obscure selections (that are still just as familiar to true-blue Barbra fans like me) such as Kiss Me In The Rain, My Heart Belongs To Me, Places That Belong To You and Lost Inside of You.

Making the show seamless was the fact that Regine divided the songs/medleys into the more significant highlights of La Barbra’s career: the Bee Gees/disco era (Guilty/Woman In Love), The Broadway Album/Back to Broadway medley, the A Star Is Born soundtrack, among others.

The last medley included the immortal With One More Look At You. The last time Regine sang this song at the Mandarin, she had just emerged from a major heartbreak. As such, her interpretation then was full of angst and drama. This time around, however, she sang the song with emotion tempered with maturity and wisdom.

That is one trait of La Barbra’s she tries to emulate, Regine admits. "She is a very intelligent singer," Regine professes. "She doesn’t just sing a song; she tells a story. She’s a storyteller. As a singer, I try to do that, too."

Indeed, Regine and her producers in Maxi-Media International pulled out all the stops for the new Streisand show. Frequent collaborator Rajo Laurel was also tapped to design two gorgeous gowns that, in Regine’s own words, were "very Regine": a body-hugging black bustier with a long train and a see-through beaded white gown with a long train.

She played the role of torch song diva to the max. As usual, this concert is not just a musical extravaganza; it’s also an audio-visual feast. A celebration, in more ways than one. Case in point: The lighting in the opening number (As If We Never Said Goodbye) was truly cinematic. It was as if Regine just stepped out of the big silver screen, like the Norma Desmond character in Sunset Boulevard – glamorized and glittery.

Make no mistake about it, however. She may be dolled up and dressed to the nines, but she is still the same small-town Chona at heart. She cracks jokes with the audience, makes fun of the "willful" ("May sariling utak") train of her gown and personally greets a wheelchair-bound grandmother in the audience. In spite of the formal gowns, Regine manages to relax things a bit and have fun with the crowd, which is no mean feat, considering just how difficult Streisand’s repertoire is.

The amazing thing is, Regine doesn’t try to imitate La Barbra. She remains true to these classics but somehow sings them in her own trademark Songbird style. "We retained some of the original arrangements," Regine explains. "But we also came up with new arrangements for other songs like Enough is Enough (No More Tears), which we turned into a Latin number."

Particularly heartfelt was her rendition of Songbird, her favorite Streisand song of all time – for "obvious reasons." "For a while, it sounded like the story of my life," she affirms. "Like what the lyrics say, ‘With every song I sing, I touch you. I make you stronger. But you don’t really know the real me.’ I can really relate to that song."

True to form, the piece de resistance was Piece of Sky, which according to Regine herself is the hardest Streisand song she has ever attempted to sing. "It’s as if Barbra didn’t want others to sing that song," Regine gasps, half-jesting, half-earnest.

She capped the evening with two encore numbers: People and On A Clear Day.

Those two songs couldn’t be more appropriate. By the end of the night, after the last note had been belted out, after the last bow had been made in the theater, it was crystal clear to all people at Onstage… That the Songbird was born to sing Streisand.

Songbird Sings Streisand continues in Onstage Greenbelt on Dec. 12, 13, 19 and 20.