Chin-Chin’s Uyayi on French radio

The enchanting, melodic strains of Philippine lullabies will fill the French airwaves this month as Chin-Chin Gutierrez takes center stage over Radio France’s acclaimed world music program, Equinoxes, on June 28.

In a taped-as-live interview and performance of selected tracks from her self-produced debut album, Uyayi: A Collection of Philippine Lullabies, Chin-Chin brings to fore the soothing beauty of our indigenous cradle songs in their original ethnic languages like Teduray, Tausug, Ifugao, Mangyan, Ilocano, Waray and Tagalog, among others, especially arranged for contemporary ears. She is joined by Joey Ayala and Bo Razon ( also featured artists and arrangers in the album), as well as Paris-based musicians Joon Claudio and Boris Lelong.

Hosted by veteran broadcaster Caroline Bourgine, Equinoxes is a one-hour program over the France Culture frequency and is known to be the "melting pot" of world music over French national radio. Also transmitted internationally via webcast, its featured artists have been esteemed musicians and groups from all over the globe, representing the distinct sounds of Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Orient. In her introduction, Caroline marveled at the eclectic mix of instruments played in the studio (including the kubing, kudyapi, gangsa, berimbau, caxixi, sarunay) and hastened to add how pleased she was to have the Uyayi group as her first-ever Filipino guests in over 10 years of running the program.

Aside from her debut on French radio, Chin-Chin was also invited to grace the TV talk show Paroles du Monde (Words of the World) in a special feature that aired last month over the Paris-based Public Senat channel. Host Dominique Malige described Chin-Chin as a "committed artist and environmentalist" whose presence was "such a welcome change" from the usual roster of politicians and civic leaders who regularly take the hot seat on the program. Again, Chin-Chin was the first Filipino to guest on the show and was even treated to a surprise "music video" the production staff created based on her Uyayi album, which served to open the show.

Only four months after its local release, Uyayi made its Paris debut via a concert last April 27 at the Alliance Francaise’s Theater of the World, to open the month-long Filipino arts festival, Alliances in Resonance, organized by the Alliance Francaise de Manille and Axantis Productions. The audience in this invitational event included representatives of the diplomatic corps (including Philippine Ambassador Hector Villaroel), Paris-based artists and musicians, members of the Filipino community, as well as celebrities like popular French actor-director Bernard Girardeau and Chilean world music giant Osvaldo Torres Veliz, who even met with Chin-Chin the following morning to personally convey their congratulations and to encourage her to bring Uyayi to the other cultural capitals of Europe.

"This is the face of the Philippines we have been longing to see," Osvaldo remarked, "and it’s time to show it to the world."