When she mounts the stage, she not only stands up there and sings. The voice soars in a haunting falsetto, whistles, floats in mid-air, flutters, quivers, silently settles down or climbs the musical scale again.
That magic weapon – her voice – can do most anything at her command. And how she wills it to do amazing things! Never mind if the former housewife had no formal voice training. Lani knows how to transform her voice into an instrument of listening pleasure the minute she opens her mouth to sing.
When her voice pauses in pregnant silence toward the end of Minnie Ripperton’s Loving You, the crowd at the fully-packed, 4,000-seating capacity Waterfront Hotel Ballroom watch with bated breath.
Reclining on a lounge sofa at center stage, Lani politely asks the audience, "May I lie down?" Her face then assumes a watch-this look. Next, it becomes a study in concentration, total focus.
Then, without warning, her voice skyrockets to a whistling falsetto of the chorus - La la la la la . . . Dubi-dubi-dubi-dubidu-bidubidu . . . Laaaaa!
Someone squeals at the back. The rest cheer. If that’s not vocal acrobatics, I don’t know what is.
Leave it to Lani to glide through the highest notes with the ease of a pilot who knows his terrain like the palm of his hands. Her voice soars with the passion of a woman guiltlessly caught in an illegal love affair in an impersonation of sexy diva Didith Reyes’ Bakit Ako Mahihiya. Lani’s lung power matches guest Joey Generoso’s (of Side A band) equally-commanding vocals in the duet Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang Dumating.
When she sings the Cebuano version of the classic Kapantay ay Langit (she may not be a Cebuana as even Vina Morales wrongly thought, but boy, did she learn the dialect pronto!), Lani had the audience twirling on her little finger.
And she’s a singing chameleon. You think it’s just the classic, slow numbers she’s cut out for?
Oh no. When she sings the bouncy The Best of My Love, Lani proves she can shift from the stirring to the uh, more mundane without skipping a beat. You feel as if you’re in a rollercoaster where the ride can twist and turn with every minute, every second ticking excitedly by.
The rollercoaster takes you on a pleasure ride of songs and emotions. One moment, you’re caught up in the sentimental Ikaw Lang ang Mamahalin. The next, you’re playing merrily along in Lani’s jazz version of Ryan Cayabyab’s novelty song Limang Dipang Tao.
Oh, how she can be irreverent! Watch her pay tribute to the "legitimate divas" (who are the illegitimate ones, anyway?) and see the kooky Lani at work.
Her Zsa Zsa Padilla number comes complete with the "Divine Diva’s" come-hither look and the hand-on-thigh signature pose.
Lani snaps out of the elegant, sophisticated stance to lapse into Jaya’s finger-in-the-air, elbow-swinging style, and the audience doubles up with laughter.
Lani flashes Sharon Cuneta’s sweet smile while crooning the Megastar’s signature song, Ikaw.
The girl does her homework. She greets the crowd in Cebuano: Maayong gabi sa inyong tanan (good evening). She even laughs at herself: "My maiden name is Bayot (meaning gay in Cebuano)," she admits as she descended the stage.
Lani knows her version of Loving You (a cut from her album) is a strong favorite in the Cebu radio stations. So sing the tune she did in this, the first leg of her Crossover tour. Not only that.
Lani walks all the way to the back of the audience, thrusts her microphone on a guy of her choice, asks him to sing the chorus part of the song with her.
She repeats the gesture twice, and the hotel crowd, made up of well-heeled young professionals, roars their approval.
For a crowd known to be so discriminating people won’t think twice about leaving the show in a huff as a sign of displeasure, or worse, falling in ominous silence all throughout a ho-hum concert, that sign of delight was something else.
The response is far from coaxed. It is a spontaneous outpouring of appreciation from an audience who counts the likes of Pilita Corrales, Manilyn Reynes and Vina Morales as province mates.
When the standing ovation comes after Lani’s supposed last number, a Whitney Houston medley, no one is surprised at all. It’s even the most natural thing to do.
To shouts of "Encore, Encore!" Lani responds with a mix of Broadway hits, a self-described forte of hers: As If We Never Said Goodbye (from Sunset Boulevard) Movie in My Mind (from Miss Saigon), Memory (from Cats) and Climb Every Mountain (from The Sound of Music).
The show, her first major solo concert, was a make-or-break thing; an acid test of how far Lani can go as main performer in a big venue. If the Waterfront show is any gauge, Lani is ripe for the next giant step in her four-year old career: a solo concert at Araneta Coliseum on Sept. 8.
The discriminating crowd whose hearts Lani conquered at the hotel ballroom that red-letter Saturday night, will attest to that.