Why Claire is a Crying Lady

At the rate Claire dela Fuente is shedding tears, I’m afraid she might suffer from a bad case of dehydration.

You see, she can’t talk about Richard Carpenter — whom she calls “an icon” and, according to her, “who is looked up to as a king by Filipino fans” — without crying.

When Claire broke the news to Funfare late last year that she was recording Something In Your Eyes, the song Richard composed for his dead sister Karen (who never got to recording it, but Dusty Springfield did), she cried. When she and company — US record producer Christian de Walden and Pamela Philips Oland, the Carpenters’ lyricist — paid Richard a visit at his family home in California, also late last year, she phoned Funfare and she cried. When Claire announced that Richard was coming for the launch of her album (released by Viva Records), with Something In Your Eyes as carrier single, she cried. When Richard arrived last Thursday, Claire met him at the airport and she cried. When Claire sang the Carpenter song I Have You (with Richard on the piano) with Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during a courtesy call in Malacañang the other day, she cried.

And yesterday at the album launch at the Crowne Plaza/Holiday Inn Hotel, Claire again cried.

You can’t fault Claire, hailed as The Karen Carpenter of the Philippines, for turning into a Crying Lady. (Shall we now call her “The Emotional Diva”?)

“I still can’t believe that I am sitting here beside ‘an icon,’ my idol, and that I have recorded a song he has composed,” said Claire during the open forum, kicked off by Claire with three songs from the album, one of them Something In Your Eyes, while Richard, seated on a sofa facing the rostrum, listened in rapt attention, humming along with a sad/happy smile. “Last Feb. 5 was the 25th death anniversary of Karen,” he would later reveal. “I can understand why Claire is so emotional. I understand how she feels.”

As Funfare reported in that “scoop” late last year, it was Viva boss Vic del Rosario Jr. who introduced Claire to de Walden who, after hearing Claire sing, in turn introduced her to Oland who, also after hearing Claire sing, was so impressed that she paved the way for Claire to meet Richard and let him listen to Claire’s demo tape. (Oland and de Walden, together with Richard’s wife Mary, were at the album launch.) The rest is, well, you know.

Richard confirmed what Funfare reported months ago — “That Richard loves alto women... that after Dusty Springfield, a few other alto women tried to sing Something In Your Eyes pero walang nagustuhan si Richard.”

After Something In Your Eyes, will Richard let Claire do a remake of another Carpenter song?

“We’ll see,” said Richard. “Something might come up.”

But Richard doused any hope of him making a comeback as a singer.

“People know me as one half of a duo,” he said. “I can’t be a solo singer.”

While here, Richard will appear as guest tomorrow on the ABS-CBN Sunday show ASAP 08 which is giving him a tribute. Later the same day, he will accompany Claire on her first Something In Your Eyes mall show at the SM Mall of Asia. And then, weather permitting, he plans to take a quick trip to Boracay and come back to Manila for some sight-seeing.

Connie: The show must go on

I came home a bit disappointed from Connie Francis’ Valentine concert Thursday night at the Araneta Coliseum, only because she didn’t sing Mama (“My favorite among my songs,” Connie told The STAR during an exclusive phone interview three weeks before the concert) and Aldila (theme song of the movie Lovers Must Learn, originally titled Rome Adventure, starring the late Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette who died recently).

It turned out that Connie was suffering from a bum stomach (did she really eat bagoong earlier that day?) but ever the trooper, she went on with the concert. Yes, the show must go on!

“She really wanted to sing the two songs as encores,” Danee Samonte (a.k.a. Steve O’Neal), producer of the show, told Funfare. “But toward the end of the concert, she started feeling sick again. Yesterday, she cancelled all activities because she began throwing up again.”

No wonder Connie wasn’t in her element throughout the concert, twice ordering the orchestra to stop because she forgot the lyrics of her own songs (My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own and...was it Second Hand Love?). Now, 69, the one-time America’s Singing Sweetheart didn’t only forget lyrics, she also seemed to catch for breath while singing, unlike the “old Connie Francis” who sang like a nightingale.

At the Big Dome Thursday night, Connie wasn’t herself; not that the almost full-house audience expected her to be. She was only “half of her old self.” Good enough. Blame it on her bum stomach.

Just the same, I guess the audience (composed mostly of senior citizens) must be thankful to Connie for bringing back beautiful memories with her hit songs like Where The Boys Are, Stupid Cupid, Never On Sunday, High Noon, Among My Souvenirs and a few others.

But a Connie Francis concert is never complete without Mama and Aldila, is it?

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