Keeping ’em hooked on the Sexbomb Girls

She saw herself in them when she was just starting. But she never thought they would be the hits they are now.

Joy Cancio, founder-mother hen of the Sexbomb Girls, used to be a dancer herself.

So she knows a good dancer when she sees one. When she formed the Sexbomb Girls five years ago, Joy knew they had the curves, the youthful verve and discipline the job demanded. But she never thought the Sexbomb Girls will become the big names that they are now.

Success was not handed down on a silver platter, coming as it did after two long, struggling years.

Through it all, Joy’s maternal instincts proved stronger than any other kind of downer. She refused to give up on her girls, as she continued to teach them how to move and gyrate to the beat of the music the way she did during her heyday.

Joy also doubled as the group’s resident mother confessor, advising them about their personal lives.

"I’m a mother in real life. I’ve been there, done that. And this I tell the girls," Joy relates.

To a worried dancer, fretting over whether she’ll stick to her boyfriend against her mother’s wishes, Joy has a ready piece of advice: obey your mom. The guy can wait if he really loves you.

To another dancer poised to elope with her boyfriend but who wisely sought her advice first, Joy gives a shocker: "Not too fast. Do you want to depend on the man for the rest of your life? Why not save first, so you’ll have something to fall back on when the day comes?"

The Sexbomb girl listened to Joy. Today, she (the Sexbomb girl) and the guy have broken up after she found out that he has another woman.

The family atmosphere extends to the girls themselves, who are so busy these days sleep has become a luxury. Rochelle Pangilinan, who at 24, is the oldest and most senior of them calms down the newer ones whenever they have a bad case of stage fright. She also tells her fellow Sexbomb Girls to toe the line whenever Joy is disciplining them since this is the only way they can move ahead with the group.

Rochelle must know whereof she speaks. The movies and TV (Bertud ng Putik and Da Boy en Da Girl) have beckoned. Now, talks have it that the bubbly Sex Bomb pioneer is leaving the group and going solo.

"That’s not true," Rochelle proclaims. "I’m happy with the group. Besides, if I can enjoy staying with the group and still appear on TV and the movies, why not? I can even have the best of both worlds."

Rochelle and her fellow Sexbomb Girls have no reason to bid the group goodbye. After making the country dance to the Spageti Song (Spageting Pababa, Spageting Pataas, what else?), they have no reason to. The girls recently mounted a rousing production number at the AFP Theater, where the Urian Awards was held.

BMG Records is banking on their popularity again by releasing the girls’ third album, Bomb Thr3at, and doing it with fanfare, at that.

An album launch in a Quezon City bar saw the girls in production numbers and a music video to promote the album, which carries a superhero theme (the girls are in body-hugging costumes).

"Unlike their first two albums (Unang Putok and Round 2), this one carries touches of novelty along with fast songs," Joy says with pride.

And, as a sign that the group has indeed "arrived," Lito Camo, composer of Spageti Song and Otso Otso, himself composed 11 original tracks for the girls.

Halayang Ube, the carrier single, sees the girls in a duet with Joey de Leon or "Tiyo Pot" again.

On TV, the girls appear on Eat Bulaga, and are mainstays of Daisy Siete, an afternoon show on GMA. In-between, they hold shows nationwide week after week.

"It’s tough," admits Joy. "One day, they are in Bataan. Then they have to rush to Manila for Eat Bulaga at noon. The next day, they have to fly to Cebu."

But it’s a job they wouldn’t exchange for anything else in the world. After conquering the sophomore jinx, spreading the Spageti craze and this time, issuing their own version of a Bomb Thr3at, the Sexbomb Girls are proving they are no mere flashes-in-the-pan.

And it doesn’t matter if they have to sacrifice their personal – okay, lovelives in the process. Fame is there for the taking, and they’re savoring every single minute of it.