Christmas visits Unified

Christmastime sent out a shower of blessings to Unified last Friday, Dec. 15. That was the day when tickets to the upcoming show starring Asia’s Songbird Regine Velasquez and Pop Princess Sarah Geronimo were first released to the public. And lo and behold, by the time the day was over, Unified had already sold a staggering P17.5M in tickets. That means that in just one day, the show was almost literally sold out.

Now, it was not only Christmas day arriving a few days early for Regine and Sarah. It was also a celebration of Valentine’s Day two months before the event. Unified is a Valentine’s presentation from Viva Live. It will be held at the Araneta Coliseum in Araneta Center, Quezon City, on Feb. 14 and 15, 2020. It is directed by Paolo Valenciano with Louie Ocampo and Raul Mitra as the musical directors.

That fans of Regine and Sarah would want to make sure that they have tickets to the concert and will be at the best seats at that, is not at all surprising. They literally adore these ladies who are two of the country’s finest performers and biggest stars. That means in every way, like motion pictures, as Regine and Sarah have both starred in several box-office blockbusters. Their hit recordings can play one after the other for days. They have TV shows, are strong in social media, popular product endorsers and concert artists.

Although they often sing together in television shows, they were recently seen singing together with Megastar Sharon Cuneta in the ABS-CBN Christmas Special, this is the very first time that they are collaborating in a full-length live concert. The very thought that they would be singing a lot of their hit songs live one after the other is more than enough encouragement to send fans to the ticket offices or to the Internet to get the choice seats on that first day.

It is also a fact that there is some sort of sentimental connection between Regine and Sarah that makes their decision to finally do a concert together truly special. Way back in 1994, Regine was the host of the Viva TV show franchised from London titled Star for a Night on IBC-13. This was the very first reality show for singing talents in the country.

Because she has always been supportive of newcomers, show host Regine also sort of mentored the young contestants and was constantly giving them advice regarding their singing, the way they look and how they behave with people. It is a fact that to this day, those contestants look up to the Songbird as the big sister they are lucky to have in show business. One of those contestants was Sarah.

Star for a Night gave Sarah her big break in show business. She had been singing since she was three years old. At the age of 14, with nothing happening to her career, she was ready to give up. But then she joined Star for a Night and her fortunes changed. She handily won the competition with her rendition of Celine Dion’s To Love You More and was on the road to stardom. And Regine was part of that breakthrough. That established the connection between the two singers and there were times when Regine would jokingly refer to Sarah as “pinanganak ko yan.”

Unified finally brings Regine and Sarah together on the Big Dome stage. It will surely be a tuneful evening of songs that have become parts of the soundtrack of our lives. Among these are Araw Gabi, Tala, Tadhana, Ikot-Ikot, Hugot, Kilometro, Dadalhin Kita, Ang Tangi Kong Pangarap, Ikaw, Forever’s Not Enough, Kung Maibabalik Ko Lang, I Finally Found Someone, On The Wings Of Love, It Takes A Man and a Woman, I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing, Sa Iyo, You Are My Song and so many others.

(Tickets to Unified are priced at Platinum P11,200; SVIP P8,960; VIP P5,600; Patron P3,920; Lower Box P2,800; Upper Box P1,680; and General Admission P560. Tickets are available at Ticketnet online or at [02] 8911-5555 or at Viva Live 8687-7236 or at the Araneta Coliseum box-office.)