She still slouches. But she opens her mouth bigger now. The hair is not lost in wild, homeless curls anymore. The curves are more defined – having been touched by hands who must have been mesmerized by the voice of this enchanting witch whom I have loved like my little sister. The breasts are full like the moon in a hot night. She throws her hair like a woman who has had to pull hair with life and love and has survived. The hands are more experienced now.
They have always talked like they had a life of their own. The eyes are naughtier. The nose still refuses a job – and it has managed to survive the misfortune of not looking like Julia’s – but does Ms. Roberts sing better than her? Jewels adorn her neck and wrists and the hoop earrings dangle from her ears like women of joy. They don’t look gaudy anymore. In the middle of her spiels – I thank God for His kindness – for having made her blabber bearable. I didn’t faint or fell off my chair at the fabulous music lounge-dining hall of the Country Waffle at Annapolis, Greenhills.
Now she can be truly funny and gay. Unlike years ago, I would flee to the Red Sea everytime she would deliver her spiels and I would be alone in abject desperation because Moses wouldn’t be there to console me.
Dessa launched her new album under the Premium label of Star Records. It’s called Respect-Dessa. You’ll have to get a copy of this brilliant compilation of some of the most heart wrenching and heart warming songs you’ll ever hear. You would know what Respect for this small girl is all about.
Respect is a 12-track album which includes the carrier single Heartbreaker (written by Trina Belamide). Other original cuts in the album are Suffer Like This, Mahal Kita, Never Fall in Love Again and Love a Love. It also includes revivals of songs like Hey, Look at the Sun, Alone Again Naturally, Point of No Return, Saan Ka Man Naroroon and the album title track. Completing the album are No Less, the song which gave Dessa the Best Interpreter Award in the 4th Asia Song Festival in 1999 and Noon, Ngayon, a duet with Rannie Raymundo which was one of the finalists in the Metropop 2000.
In the album launch, Dessa was radiant in a fuschia tight-fitting blouse and dark bootleg pants. She frolicked and galloped with the members of the press, brimming with candor and fun. Then it was time for a mini-concert. She opened the show with Hey, Look at the Sun, a song composed by Sergio Mendes. Then she sang Mahal Kita, Saan Ka Man Naroroon, No Less and Heartbreaker. She then closed the mini-show with Aretha Franklin’s anthem for girl power, Respect.
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me!" Dessa belted. Aretha Franklin would have been proud. She sang it with so much passion, I wanted to kneel and weep for forgiveness for all the times I screamed at her. After all, why can’t you respect a girl who has made the country proud by bagging the FIDOF prize in the 1993 Voice of Asia competition held in Russia, the "Best Interpreter Award" in the 4th Asia Song Festival in Malaysia and many, many more?
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