What now, Regine Velasquez?

By Nestor Torre
Inquirer
Last updated 11:45pm (Mla time) 09/29/2006

IT’S BEEN some 20 years since Regine Velasquez launched her professional performing career. As a pretty newcomer and singing champion, she impressed audiences with her powerful voice and high notes.

At first, however, her image as a performer was a bit of a blur. Her mentors dressed her in outfits designed to make her look sophisticated and classy, but their “padded shoulder” look also made her resemble a female football linebacker.

Despite the visual kinks, Regine’s singing career rose steadily, and she soon tried her hand at something new for her -- movie acting. Alas, she did less well at her new sideline, because she didn’t photograph all that beautifully.

There was nothing wrong with her looks, the problem appeared to be with her eyes, which appeared to look a bit banlag (wall-eyed) on the silver screen.

So, after appearing in some teen flicks, Regine put her movie career on hold, and concentrated on singing and recording. With her wide range and powerful high register, she was a clear winner.

In time, however, Regine was criticized for her relentlessly birit (belting) style of singing. It was impressive, but also predictable, trying-hard and artistically limiting.

Her defenders argued that Regine was simply giving her audience what it wanted -- vocal pyrotechnics. It’s true: Pinoy listeners do delight in being blown away by a singer’s powerful high notes, and if their eardrums aren’t given an aural rinsing in this wise, they’re disappointed.

Unfortunately, there’s little that’s artistic about constant belting, so Regine’s growth as a performing artist suffered. Only much later did she heed cautionary comments about her performance, and opt for greater variety and subtlety in her singing.

She also re-launched her acting career -- and, this time, she was much more successful. Now that she was older, perfect looks were no longer absolutely required, so Regine clicked by playing kooky characters in a series of dizzy and ditzy romantic comedies.

Here again, however, she was criticized for being too kneejerk-kooky, so the effect of her performance was strained and -- that word again -- trying-hard.

Despite the brickbats, however, there’s no denying that, two decades after she launched her professional career, Regine is at the top of her game. She has many concerts, hit albums, performance tours abroad, TV shows, movies -- why, she’s a veritable one-woman entertainment conglomerate!

Now that she’s marking a major landmark, however, Regine could reevaluate her career thus far, and opt to plan it better, to meet the exigencies and realities of the next 10 or 20 years.

For starters, she could worry about her look as a performer and TV host these days, which she’s been trying to jazz and sex up with revealing outfits. Yes, if you’ve been around for a while, you’ve got to keep surprising your public -- but, the operative word is surprising, not shocking your audience.

Regine also needs to face up to rumors about her controversial love life. Whether the rumors are true or not, they tend to confound the younger members of her audience, so some clarification -- as in clearing away the debris -- is decidedly in order.

In terms of artistry, Regine could try much harder to use her popularity, not just to give her fans what they want, but also to open up new musical horizons for them, and to develop herself more determinedly as a performing artist.

She should also look for newer musical fields to conquer abroad -- not the usual Fil-Am audience, but a truly international one. That’ll take a lot of doing, but with her talent and experience, she could pull it off.

Finally, in the movies, Regine should play more age-appropriate roles, and do away with the artificially daft and ditzy acting shticks that some of her injudicious directors have foisted on her.

If she finally presents herself onscreen as her own person, Regine’s fans could love her all the more for it!