Coming soon: Kuh’s tell-all book

They say that when a woman cuts her hair, it signifies a major change in her life, such as when Sarah Geronimo did it to alert the world that she was (reportedly) asserting herself against suffocating parental control on her love life or when Kris Aquino did it after her and Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista’s “work in progress” went pffft.

So when Kuh Ledesma showed up at the recent presscon for her latest album, Memories (which marks her return to Universal Records), with a short hairdo, some media guys (this one included) wondered if something was the matter in her life. No such “upheaval,” thank you! It’s for her role in the new GMA soap My Destiny as, again, the mother of Tom Rodriguez, her son in the landmark Kapuso bromance drama My Husband’s Lover (MHL, with Dennis Trillo as the “other man” in the troubled marriage of Tom and Carla Abellana).

“I rested for five months after MHL folded up,” said Kuh and it was enough for her to resume acting which, besides singing, she really loves so much, except that, she said, the craft (especially in a teleserye) can become so demanding of one’s time, especially if you’re not a spring chicken like the new generation of actors.

Kuh’s early films included Peque Gallaga’s Oro, Plata, Mata (in which her “shining” moment was when, as a ghost, she was decapitated), The Year of Living Dangerously (starring Mel Gibson), Tinimbang ang Langit (with Christopher de Leon, directed by the late Danny Zialcita) and Till I Met You (also the title of one of her hits, with Robin Padilla and Regine Velasquez as co-stars).

There wasn’t any lack of movie offers but then, the roles didn’t appeal to Kuh.

“Mother roles ang uso at that time at ayoko pang maging mother,” said Kuh, “so medyo hini-hindian ko ‘yon. So sabi ko, ‘Lord, dito na muna ako sa singing, tutal hindi pa naman ako kinakapos sa pera.’ Actually, I love to act; I even studied some acting in the States. But you know, I can’t keep up with the work schedule of younger actors. I take my hat off to actors like Tom and Carla. They were the main actors and what they had to do? They would stay up until seven or nine o’clock the next morning so hindi madali ang ginagawa nila.”

Before she resumed acting, Kuh said that she had to ask The Lord if it was the right time.

“Lahat naman nadadaan sa prayer, di ba?”

During her five-month rest, Kuh held a one-woman exhibit. Included in her bucket list is mounting a Music & Magic Kuh Ledesma Reunion (MM was the group with which Kuh started her career) probably in September with a possible US tour and another concert (to be titled 35 Only) next year to mark her 35th year as a solo artist, recording another album of songs with the word “ikaw” in the titles, and writing her autobiography.

Asked if the book would be a tell-all, sparing nothing and laying bare everything that the public has been wanting to know about her but was afraid and didn’t have time or the chance to ask her, Kuh smiled.

“Yes, I will tell all. I have nothing to hide naman, eh.” It’s a potential best-seller. Would it generate, knock on wood, libel suits like most smash-hit books usually do? Stand by.

The last actress who wrote a tell-all book was Pilar Pilapil who, in one chapter, makes the readers wonder what she meant by how “cruel” her father was when she recalled that he called her to his room and shut the door to scold her for staying out late, without revealing what “cruelty” happened behind the closed door.

It was the George Canseco song Dito Ba that catapulted her to stardom in 1979 and, besides the Martial Law anthem Ako Ay Pilipino, became Kuh’s signature song. However, the two songs are not included in Memories because the album consists of compositions by Cecile Azarcon who has been living for years in New York where a tribute concert was held in her honor a few weeks ago.

I’m sure you will love to listen again to such Azarcon classics as I Think I’m In Love, One More Try (which enjoyed a successful revival as the theme song of My Husband’s Lover), So It’s You (theme of a recent Regal movie starring Tom and Carla), Special Memory (originally sung by Iwi Laurel), Huwag Kang Mangako, Hello and How Did You Know (originally sung by Chiqui Pineda and remade by Gary Valenciano as theme song for a Star Cinema movie starring Aga Muhlach and Kristine Hermosa).

On the album’s jacket, Kuh sings praises for Azarcon:

Every Cecile Azarcon song is destined to be a hit. I’ve always loved how she writes her words. They are very natural and heartfelt and because they come from her own experience of love, joy and pain, they flow really well. Her music is very easy to remember.

It has always been a great pleasure for me to record her songs. On about the second time I hear Cecile’s song, I can sing it and that’s why music-lovers have an easy time loving them.

I do hope that you fall in love with these songs again. I’ve included the minus ones so that you can sing them in your own way to your friends and family. I hope they make you fall in love over and over again.

Thank you, Cecile, for trusting me with your amazing songs. And thank you, Universal Records. It’s so nice to be back home.

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