THE NEW MR. FAITHFULLY
by: Lorelie Dino
13 November 2010 will forever be remembered as the first official concert of Jovit Baldivino, first ever Pilipinas Got Talent champion. Batangas-native-famed karneng baka, matalim na balisong, and kapeng barako, he shot to popular stardom with Journey’s all-time favorite “Faithfully.” DZRH-owned Aliw theater provided very nice and intimate accommodations for his mega-performance.
A small package yet comes with a big voice, Jovit definitely has the confidence in working it out onstage. There were still many seats left unoccupied. The rowdy crowd were getting impatient by the lateness, sarcastically clapping hands for it to get started, but he managed to gain back the momentum for the crave for his singing powers once the electrifying guitar and cymbals were hit. In posters it said the show starts at 7, in tickets it said 8, by 9 o’clock, when is the real showtime? Funny as how it was announced in 5 minutes heads up it’s finally about to begin, you’ll be amazed at the Pinoy ingenuity. What happened, in less than 5 minutes, everybody change your seats! As quickly as how smartly Filipinos are, the change seats tactic made the ambience all the more homely.
With scaffoldings backdrop and bright red, blue, green, yellow lights shining down on a new, bright star, Jovit Baldivino kicked off the night with no-hands, back flip to “You Give Love A Bad Name.” He right away gave his “Maraming Salamat!” for all the loving support to his debuting show. It was stellar-casted by exceptional guests that included the much desired slim Kim Chiu, heartfelt balladeer Bugoy De Leon, beautifully gifted Yeng Constantino, funny as ever love team and true-to-life lovebirds Melai and Jason. Sam Milby could not make it as he was hospitalized with a bout of fever and throat infection, most likely from his grueling schedule also the night before for Richard Poon’s 25-orchestrated PICC concert. Nevertheless, it’s Jovit who’s the headliner for the stage and he fully took control of it. Not only does he have the incomparable talent, he’s got the male Pinoy suaveness as well.
His repertoire included songs from his first and sophomore albums, “Faithfully” and “I’d Do Anything For Love,” respectively. Second song was “Carrie” and he often asked the crowd to raise their arms who are enjoying the show. You can tell right off bat that Jovit has very strong vocals. He commands his own delivery. Followed by his own rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Please Forgive Me,” he has very lively interaction of candid candor with the audience.
Nyoy Volante is the genius behind the mastery of his musical directorial job with a 9-member band. Jovit was backed up by silver, gliterry-attired, funky dancers pumping to Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” The men were in hot, leather pants while the women were in sexy short skirts and rocked all the more steady to “Highway Star” by Deep Purple. By the 6th number, he had the crowd chanting competitively with each other by saying Mahina! Mahina! to another Bon Jovi hit “Living On A Prayer.” He even jokingly asked the fans again to raise the arms of those enjoying and then raise the arms, too, of those who were not.
Bugoy made a special appearance, crooning to Brian McKnight’s “One Last Cry” and R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly.” Serving as a huge encouragement to many Filipinos, Bugoy gives outstanding performances that had me in buckets of tears with his choice of inspirational songs that night. With that kind of melancholy melody, who wouldn’t cry? Yeah, I guess only I did cry, nobody else did. Embarrassing! Nevertheless, the message for everyone is to “Keep On Dreaming!”--- “if I just believe it, there’s nothing to it.” For Bugoy, his dreams are coming true. He reinforces it by relaying that if he can do it, so can we. He reached a diverse range of octaves with his rendition and different decibels were played.
Back to Jovit, an OPM from his debut album, he bared his soul to “Paano.” He then introduced his guitar and performed his own original composition “Tama.” In pink sassy attire, Kim Chiu Bollywood-fly-danced and had a punchline comeback from Jovit when he asked how her love life is going. He suddenly hit “Too Much Love Will Kill You.”
In full glitter, Melai Cantiveros playfully did a duet with Jovit by blasting to Imelda Papin’s “Isang Linggong Pag-Ibig.” Jealousy entered when Jason Francisco danced to King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” in different versions from Tango to Tinikling, including Boogie style and Swing. The MelaJasonPexers came in full support with their emblazoned signage. They added the fun ingredient to this enjoyable concert of Jovit’s.
A back-to-back combo of Air Supply’s “Making Love Out Of Nothing At All” and “I Can Wait Forever” romanticized the night to a higher notch. In a cute black and white ensemble, Yeng sauntered onstage with her self-composed lovely songs that included “Jeepney Love Story.”
Late into the night, he sang rock hits after hits from Bon Jovi and Jon Bon Jovi’s “Always” to Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’Mine”. Thinking it was the encore with yellow garland around his neck, “Faithfully” took the breath away of the audience. Jovit immediately came back to hold everybody’s horses with Chicago’s “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” and finalizing it on a resounding applause with his wide “Open Arms.”
11 o’clock on the dot, the show ended but this is only the start of it all. Your life’s travels to many more roads of success is on its way, Jovit B. You just keep on rocking the stage, you definitely know how to own it. Being the modest person that you are from your lineage, you’ll definitely make it big time than you could ever ask for. It’s no wonder you’re the Philippines’ grand winner. Congratulations on your first ever major concert, cheers to many more!
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