Goodbye Manila, hello Las Vegas

On New Year’s Day (New Year’s Eve in America), let us offer a prayer for our country and its people. On this occasion, I also ask that we say a little prayer for Martin Nievera because his Las Vegas stint starts on this day and its success will also be good for the image of the Philippines.

Forever proud of his roots, Martin would always introduce himself as a singer from the Philippines every time he would perform abroad. When he first performed in Las Vegas in spring (summer here in the Philippines), in fact, he kept telling his audience night after night (and this was for a whole month) where he comes from — to the point that the hotel management already had told him there was really no need to do so. "The hotel had to ask me to stop mentioning so much about where I come from because it was starting to sound like I was running for public office," laughs Martin.

Two weeks ago, I had the chance to talk to Martin at the birthday party of his mother, Conchita Razon and — at the same time — despedida party for him at the Dasmariñas Village home of Speaker and Mrs. Jose de Venecia. (All the arrangements were by Mrs. Marichu Maceda, who is the bestfriend of Martin’s Mom.)

Middle of December, Martin left for the US for rehearsals but returned immediately to spend the holidays with his family.

But the day after Christmas, Martin left once more for Las Vegas to finally start his Golden Nuggets Hotel shows, which would last all the way till Feb. 29. His contract after that may be extended for another two months — which means that he should leave March and April also free in his calendar of activities. After that, he still has series of shows to do all over the US and this would require him to be away from Manila for about a year.

The Las Vegas stage where he will be performing, may I point out, is the same stage were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Tony Bennett and other big names in the American music industry started. "That’s the stage where Frank Sinatra stood," Martin says excitedly, "his (former) dressing room is now my dressing room, his bathroom is my bathroom…"

Of course, as the hotel’s in-house singer, Martin will also be provided with his own suite — actually a two-story room with winding stairs, a fabulous living room, dining area, its own bar and a butler service.

When the Golden Nuggets Hotel was trying him out about six months ago, Martin was pleasantly surprised to see his name and face being advertised on a billboard right on the Las Vegas strip. If Martin was delighted over that one, his mother, Conchita, was delirious. Martin himself relates the story: "My Mom and the whole family also went to Las Vegas to support me that time. From the airport, we took the car — limousine siempre para ma-impress ang nanay ko. I didn’t say anything about the billboard first until we got there. Then, I pointed it out to her, ‘Oh, Mom, there’s my billboard.’ She broke down."

According to Martin, there were reasons why his mother broke down upon seeing his billboard on the Las Vegas strip. The first reason was that she was so proud to see her son’s face and name on a billboard — especially since this was Las Vegas and it was the first you’ll see on the strip.

And then it turned out that the place where the billboard was installed was exactly on the same spot where a restaurant once stood and this was where the Society of Seven (of which Martin’s Dad, Bert Nievera) would eat night after night after a gig in the ’60s. "For my Mom, it was like, oh my God, history was repeating itself. There was the Society of Seven in the ’60s and an offspring — of Bert Nievera — now has his billboard right where their favorite sandwich place stood. In the beginning, I was telling my Mom to stop crying na. O, sige, you’re proud of me — I get it. And then, she tells me, ‘You don’t understand, this is sacred ground for the family."’

As of this writing, Martin should now be on US soil getting ready for his Vegas act in Golden Nuggets and rehearsing mostly Frank Sinatra songs (his band members are Tom Jones/Ricky Martin remnants who had decided to stay behind in Las Vegas). Before he left I got to ask if there’s still any way we could stop him from leaving his beloved Filipino audience behind to try it out in Vegas and this was what he told me: "I was really close to not going because I had nights when I’d wake up crying just thinking, my God, what am I doing? Is this the right thing? And when I’m with my kids, I can’t stop crying in my mind because I have to leave them behind. It’s bad enough that I am a weekend father and now this…My friends in the industry tell me I’m crazy because they say I’m doing very well here and I’m leaving that behind. But if I didn’t try it out there, that would be my biggest regret when I’m old and in my rocking chair. I’d tell myself, I had the chance to do it nung bata pa ako — nung malakas pa ako. Why didn’t I do it?’

If you ask me, I say, go for it, Martin! Surely, we will miss you and your talent here. But there are times when you have to be unselfish and we just have to share him at this point with Vegas — and yes, the world.