What’s new, Roselle?

Roselle Nava is all grown-up and faces a problem so familiar to other stars facing maturity. Because she started out as a young girl in the entertainment business, most people still see her as a teen-ager. Not bad for a time when youth reigns and everybody is obsessed with holding back the clock. Think Botox and facelifts and facials, etc. etc., even chopping off a year or two out of one’s age. But it is also very bad for an artist who wants to try out new things, face bigger challenges and be regarded as a mature performer.

The first thing Roselle did upon the advice of her new manager Wyngard Tracy is to lose weight. So she now goes to the gym regularly. The results of her workouts are starting to show, slimming her down and filling her up in the right places. Truth to tell, she looks so good nowadays that people are starting to wonder if she has had anything done surgically to improve her figure. "Nothing," she says. "I just work out and it feels so good. In fact I think I have become addicted to exercise because I find myself going to the gym all my free time."

Next for Roselle is a new sound for the album she is set to do under her new contract with Viva Records. Roselle has already proven her worth as a hitmaker. Anybody who can make a hit by covering Gerry Paraiso’s You after the phenomenal sales of the original version by Basil Valdez certainly has what it takes to make the charts again and again. And she did, with original works like Bakit Nga Ba Mahal Kita and Dahil Mahal Kita. She has also won a number of awards for these efforts, including the Most Promising Female Performer 1994, Female Performer of the Year 1995 from the Awit Awards and the Parangal ng Bayan’s Best Female Recording Artist in 1998.

But because she is making some changes in her life, Roselle’s next album will surely be something to look forward to. She will have Joey Benin as producer. The Side A member has already composed and produced for many of local music’s biggest stars. He is expected to put a stronger pop spin to Roselle’s singing style as well as to write some new songs for her that will sell like his Forevermore. "I am looking forward to working with him," says Roselle. "I have already heard some of his songs and I think they’re great."

Roselle is also looking forward to performing tonight, July 11 and tomorrow, July 12 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo of the Cultural Center of the Philippines for Lagi Kitang Mamahalin, the Musical Tribute to National Artists.

"I also did the show last year. I was in one of the medleys." This time around though, Roselle gets to do one of the main solo numbers. "I will sing Anong Sarap. It is a song from a zarzuela so I will be in period costume. I am very excited. I see it as a sort of promotion and a sign that there are bigger things coming up for me very soon."

Anong Sarap is from the zarzuela Paglipas ng Dilim written by Leon Ignacio and Precioso Palma. Roselle will perform the number with the Tanghalang Pilipino and choreography by Edna Vida.

The CCP Tribute to National Artists features one of the largest assemblies of pop and classical talents ever seen on the local stage. Aside from Roselle, audiences on Friday and Saturday will also be treated to numbers by Sharon Cuneta, Regine Velasquez, Gary Valenciano, Jolina Magdangal, Verni Varga, Eugene Villaluz, Wency Cornejo, Jose Llana, Bituin Escalante, Ayen Munji, Jong Cuenco, Sheila Francisco, Isay Alvarez, Anna Fegi, Franco Laurel, Calvin Millado, Lorna Llames, Paolo Santos, Tex Ordoñez, JM Rodriguez, Carlo Orosa, Tonipet Gaba, Noel Rayos, Arnold Reyes, Dexter, Cris Villonco, Sarah Geronimo, Mark Bautista, Jason Velasquez, Streamline, the Tanghalang Pilipino, Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, Ballet Philippines, the Madrigal Singers, UP College of Music Choir and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

It will surely be an evening of Philippine artistry that will surely be remembered. Direction is by Cris Millado, musical direction by Chino Toledo, choreography by Edna Vida, Denisa Reyes and Alden Lugnasin, light design by Dennis Marasigan and sets by National Artist Salvador Bernal.