How Nonoy keeps the music playing

Situations – especially the worst of them – have a way of working in Nonoy Zuñiga’s favor. After a bombing incident in a five-star hotel in 1979 (yes, Martial Law time) cost him a leg, Nonoy sang Ako ay Ikaw Rin, theme for the Year of the Disabled in 1980.

Call it a strange twist of fate, a lucky streak. Nonoy’s mellow baritone captured the hearts of those who cared to listen to his plaintive song about feeling another’s pain, and things were never the same again. Producers sat up and noticed and wasted no time offering him solo albums. Nonoy had no choice. He bade his days with the Family Control Band goodbye and started his career as solo performer.

The balladeer behind the hits Kumusta Ka (remember FPJ’s song to Sharon Cuneta in Kahit Konting Pagtingin), Doon Lang, Never Ever Say Goodbye and others has since moved on. Nonoy has been around long enough to witness the rise and fall of singers and declare Christian Bautista and Nyoy Volante two of the most promising of the lot. Sheryn Regis, Sarah Geronimo and Rachelle Ann Go, on the other hand, are his female counterparts, observes Nonoy.

He shakes his head at seeing some aspiring singers trying to sound R&B, with tone inflections to match, and failing miserably.

"If you’re not up to it, don’t," he advises.

Then, he gets a sense of deja vu every time he watches those dozen-and-one singing contests on TV. Nonoy is not ashamed to admit he didn’t win a single singing contest he joined in Calbayog, Samar, where his family stayed for two years.

Egged on to say who among the singing contest winners back then made it big the way he did, Nonoy clams up. No way will he brag about his albums, awards, local and foreign concerts, etc.

All he can say is yes, he just released his 12th CD, The Love Album for Viva Records. And yes, he feels so strongly about this album of romantic ballads he is directing and topbilling a concert to help promote it.

The show, called – what else – The Love Concert at Music Museum tonight, will show not just Nonoy Zuñiga the seasoned singer, but Nonoy Zuñiga the director.

Too long has he resorted to directing and even writing the scripts to his concerts abroad, Nonoy can actually run the show, single-handedly. Look Ma, less headaches, less overhead expenses, less clashing egos on stage!

"It’s a lot easier because I know myself more than anybody else," Nonoy says of the work involved.

Knowing himself is not even half the battle, though. Self-discipline is. And Nonoy knows that more than anybody else does. So he makes it a point to sing regularly, show or no show. What’s important is, like a warrior always ready for battle, Nonoy makes sure his number one weapon – his voice, is in tiptop shape.

He also shuns smoking and drinking hard liquor, vices which will wreak havoc on his voice. But red wine, he adds, is just fine, thank you.

The discipline is paying off in staying power – that precious commodity threatened with extinction in this age of talent searches and instant stardom. Unlike many of today’s singers, Nonoy paid his dues with a band for years. He studied Medicine in UST while playing with the band every single night.

"That’s why I was always asleep during my first classes in school," he recalls, laughing.

Sadly, such painstaking training no longer exists. Many young singers, given stardom on a silver platter, may just find themselves holding an empty bag someday. Easy come, easy go.

As Nonoy says, "The problem (with today’s singers) is staying power."

After more than three decades in the music scene, Nonoy Zuñiga has every right to say these words.