When Tom and Den sing

2013 will go down in the history of Philippine entertainment as the year when television came out of the closet. It is not that we never had gays before in local TV shows. They have been around for years.

They are now everywhere, most of them very talented and extremely popular. But these performers are mostly drag queens or in the case of the roles depicted in many series, are really just caricatures.

I have not seen that many Filipino soap operas so I do not know if My Husband’s Lover was the first TV series about a love story between two men. But as far as audience impact goes, it was certainly historic. The TV channel GMA 7 took on a dare and won. The smash team-up of Dennis Trillo as Vincent and Tom Rodriguez as Eric was not only controversial and greatly talked about. It also sent the ratings of the melodrama soaring up through the roof. It revived Dennis’ career in a big way and made Tom a big star. It also brought back Kuh Ledesma’s classic song One More Try, the theme of the series, back to the charts.

The popularity of My Husband’s Lover resulted in a concert at the Araneta Coliseum, in packed tours for the cast here and abroad and the release of an album. The CD is titled TomDen after the combined names of the lead actors. Note that the team-up has become as popular as Katdan or Dankat or whatever it is they use to refer to those kids Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla collectively. Who knows TomDen may even one day attain iconic status just like Guy and Pip? So for starters, these two guys sing love songs in the album.

TomDen, the CD, is designed in such a way as to tell the story of Eric and Vincent through songs. Admittedly, this is something, which I never thought would happen overtly in this country. Having an album where two men sing love songs with romantic arrangements together and to each other. But here it is.

Tom and Den are our latest singing loveteam. Of course, given the big role that the song played in the popularity of My Husband’s Lover, they open the set with a sweet duet of One More Try, a composition by Cecile Azarcon that was a big hit for Kuh some 30 years ago. The Cecile-Kuh tandem also made a success out of Till I Met You. Incidentally, Kuh, who acts occasionally, played Eric’s mother in the series.

Now, it was never far-fetched that Tom would one day get into recording. This guy can sing and I hope that he does more of it because there is definitely a dearth of good-looking male singers hereabouts. He played the title role in the Philippine premiere last year of the Disney stage musical, Aladdin remember, and did A Whole New World very well with his real-life girlfriend K-La Rivera as Princess Jasmine. What I didn’t know was that Dennis could sing. He is really no reality-contest material but as a soft crooner, he acquits himself very well in this album.

The rest of the CD includes Ikaw Ang Sagot, a new song by Vehnee Saturno for Tom, plus Nori Villena’s Photograph and Jamie Rivera’s Hey It’s Me. Dennis also got a new Saturno song, Kailan Man, plus Joey Albert’s It’s Over Now and Stay by Ric Segreto. To close, they sing together again in Forever, the Louie Ocampo and Martin Nievera classic that was picked to be their album’s lead single.

Speaking of original Pilipino music, here are the songs on top of the Pinoy MYX Countdown at the MYX Music channel a week ago. Given only a few weeks to go for this year, these are also the songs by which we will close 2013. Here goes the list:

Ikot-ikot by Sarah Geronimo; Magda by Gloc-9 featuring Rico Blanco; Ang Parokya by Parokya Ni Edgar feat. Gloc-9 and Frank Magalona; Stop Stop by Gracenote; Luna by Up Dharma Down; Pansamantala by Callalily; Paakyat Ka Pa Lang, Pababa Na Ako by the Oktaves; Changes by Save Me Hollywood; Mahal Na  Mahal by Sam Concepcion; Oha by Enrique Gil.

Unlove You by KZ Tandingan; Sa Tuwina by TJ Monterde; Ang Bagong Ako by Greyhoundz feat. Loonie and Biboy Garcia; Help Me Get Over by Jonalyn Viray; Rakista by Join The Club; To Survive by Franco; Ngiti by Young JV; Pinky Swear by Blue Boy Bites Back; Di Mo Man Sabihin by Ronnie Liang; and I Believe In Love Again by Jason Farol.