Sarah Geronimo in US tour: Simply beyond her wildest imagination

Is it wrong for a writer to heap superlatives after superlatives on a performer who in four short years since her discovery in 2003 has grown into a dazzling and poised performer on stage?

If so, could this writer be forgiven if his story comes off as an over-enthusiastic piece for the artist being called the Pop Princess of the Philippines?

Sarah Geronimo is a phenomenon. Her expeditious rise to superstardom is the kind of success most singers dream about but only few ever achieve.

"I did not imagine that this would happen to me," Sarah tells this writer over dinner two Thursdays ago. "Whenever I would join singing contests, it was like a case of winning or losing and or getting the grand prize. But with Star for a Night, I was given the break to appear on TV and eventually the movies. I did not think people would even recognize me."

The unassuming Sarah, along with Jimmy Marquez, Kris Lawrence and Mark Bautista are in town for a show at the 1,300-seater William Cook Auditorium in Anaheim, California. Produced by Alfonso Chu or Tito Al as he is fondly called, the show entitled The Other Side of Sarah is patterned after Sarah’s hit major concert at the Araneta Coliseum earlier this year.

The Other Side of Sarah, as conceptualized by Viva Entertainment, aims to showcase a new Sarah: distinct, versatile, seasoned.

At 18, Sarah is a full-grown woman and a better and more relaxed performer on stage. She attributes her impressive growth to "constant practice and prayers." She also counts the support of her parents, who accompany her to her every show, as one of her vital inspirations.

For this American tour, she is set to do stops in Washington D.C., Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

The evening of Nov. 8 saw more than a thousand people crowding the normally staid downtown of Old Anaheim as they quietly filled every seat in the auditorium to catch Sarah belt her trademark songs in person again. Tito Al, who was ever bubbly, gleefully informed this writer that two days after the first promo plug appeared on TFC cable, requests for tickets nearly quadrupled and all tickets were sold out a week before the concert. "The TFC promo spot is really effective," Tito Al gushed over the phone.

It’s been nearly three years since Sarah first performed in the US. Her first was in early 2004 with the season 1 finalists of the hit ABS-CBN talent search Star in a Million. She has since returned and performed numerous times hence and has garnered a solid following which shows up wherever she performs.

"People don’t shell out a hundred bucks if they don’t really like the star," says one patron in attendance that night. Tickets were priced as much as $108 each and all seats were practically sold out days before the concert date.

Inside the auditorium, the atmosphere was a mixture of excitement and animated chatter as people awaited for the curtains to go up and the hall lights to dim. At 8 p.m., the lights did dim and the curtains went up. But Sarah would not show up yet. Three local talents opened the show and sang one song each before the stage was finally prepped up for the main performers of the night.

Mark, Jimmy and Kris opened the main show with the crowd-pleasing Pinoy Ako medley before Sarah eventually joined them for the ubiquitous rendition of the Pinoy Big Brother theme.

"We prepared a slightly different repertoire from what we did in Araneta. There will be more OPM songs because we understand that is what our kababayan want to listen to," Sarah informed this writer at the same dinner the night before.

After the opening medley, Sarah took the spotlight alone and sang her early hits Sa Iyo and Lumingon Ka Lang to the delight of her die-hard fans.

She followed this up with the fabulous I Wanna Know What Love Is and she brought the house down. It was not unusual to see those who were seated in front of the stage to just stare in quiet amazement as Sarah belted effortlessly those stratospheric high notes. I was!

To showcase Sarah’s growing versatility, she performed two novelty sets: The Pilita Corrales/Sylvia La Torre tribute and the Michael Jackson medley.

For the first set, she performed several classic OPM hits of the two legends such as A Million Thanks To You, Waray-Waray, Penoy Balut, etc. to the arrangement of modern hip-hop songs as popularized by the likes of Beyoncé Knowles and Shakira. This inspired fusion of the two popular genres – albeit two generations apart, was the night’s most applauded as it appealed to both the teenagers and those of advanced age in the crowd.

And when she did Michael Jackson, boy, she could do a mean Moonwalk! Sarah is an avowed Michael Jackson fan and she would make her idol proud at how she was able to channel the erstwhile King of Pop into her act, which was perhaps the most technical and physically-grueling number of the night.

In between Sarah’s sets, her three guests performed their respective hits with Jimmy singing a most heartfelt rendition of Gulong Ng Palad and Kris his first hit Kung Malaya Lang Ako while he showered the audience with a handful of "I love KL" shirts.

Mark, who like Sarah, also showed his other side, his sexier side, that is, when he changed his image this year to capitalize on his maturing body, sang several of his hits while engaging the female crowd into a crescendo of endless shrieks and "I love you, Mark" chants.

When Sarah took the center stage for the last time, she impressed the audience once more with her perfect rendition of Light of a Million, after which she immediately expressed her gratitude to the Lord.

She sang her signature and contest-winning piece To Love You More for her encore but her emotional and wonderful rendition of Sharon Cuneta’s signature hit Bituing Walang Ningning probably left the most lasting impression on the audience that night. When people started comparing her to the Megastar, one can only help but be amazed at how Sarah could very well be the next Sharon Cuneta!

Before Sarah wraps her tour with a stop in New Jersey, she will sing the national anthem at the Pacquiao-Morales rematch on Nov. 18 (today Manila time).