Donna Cruz tweaks ‘Habang May Buhay’ for frontliners

Cebu-based singer-actress Donna Cruz wrote the new lyrics for the song “Habang May Buhay,” which was dedicated to the frontliners. This is a project of PAMI, Inc (Professional Association of Managers) and was recently uploaded to the Facebook page of PAMI.

According to Donna, it took her less than 30 minutes to finish writing the lyrics for the new version of “Habang May Buhay,” a Wency Cornejo original which she also recorded and was the title of the film that co-starred her with Ian de Leon under Viva Films.

“I changed the lyrics of ‘Habang May Buhay’ to dedicate it to our frontliners. I was inspired na magpasalamat sa ating mga bayaning tunay and isa po doon ang asawa ko,” said the singer who is married to Dr. Yong Larrazabal III.

According to Ms. Shirley Kuan, the manager of Donna, the artists will be asked to have individual messages for the frontliners. “I told Donna to sing a line from the song. But after reviewing the lyrics, she said it does not fit so I told her to change the lyrics. What she did was revise the lyrics of the whole song. I liked it so instead of making Donna sing it solo, I shared it with PAMI and asked them if they want we can do various artists. And PAMI members liked it. That’s how it started.”

The next step was to ask Wency Cornejo who readily agreed. They used Donna’s existing minus one piano accompaniment done by no less than Willy Cruz.

The song was produced by Jeff Arcilla who included the handwritten lyrics of Donna in the video which made the song more heartfelt and meaningful. Donna also dedicated the song to Willy Cruz.

She also thanked the individual artists who participated in making the video that was meant to give thanks and salute the efforts of the frontliners who are the real heroes in this fight against COVID-19.

Aside from Donna, other singers who participated in the video are Tom Rodriguez, Geneva Cruz, Christian Bautista, Morissette, Celeste Legaspi, Rachel Alejandro, Franco and Ayen Laurel, Isay and Robert Seña, Raymond Lauchengco, Jolina Magdangal, Pops Fernandez, Ogie Alcasid, Lovi Poe and Sharon Cuneta.

The greetings of support, thank you and salute for the frontliners became a work of love and passion. The artists did not hesitate to do their share in making a greeting and singing.

We’d like to invite our readers to visit the PAMI page in Facebook to view the video. You may like and share it so it could reach more frontliners.