Love is in the air in Forever Love

MANILA, Philippines - The title of Bon Jovi’s hit You Give Love A Bad Name can never be said of Pop Diva Kuh Ledesma when she staged her most recent Valentine concert Forever Love at the Captain’s Bar in Mandarin Hotel last Feb. 12 and 14.

True to the concept of the show, concert goers were treated only to love songs that give love a good vibe. Although the repertoire consisted of tunes that fall under different categories in music (dance, ballad, jazz, standards, OPM, pop, etc.), their lyrics assert that love can be eternal if we choose ‘‘the one” wisely, and fight for that person if needs be. Some of these were The Way You Look Tonight, Betcha By Golly Wow, I Didn’t Know I Was Looking For Love, And I’m Telling You and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

Kuh is so careful with her messages that she even tweaked a line in the song Hawak Kamay. Instead of singing the original line, “Tumingin ka lang sa langit, baka sakaling may masumpungan,” Kuh sang, “Tumingin ka lang sa langit, siguradong may nagmamahal.”

The Pop Diva wowed the crowd with her versions of This One’s For You (a mash-up of the Elton John and the Barry Manilow classics of the same title), the standard Nearness Of You, the jazzed-up That’s All and the troubadour-staple, First Time I Ever Saw Your Face.

Kuh enunciates her words so carefully that’s why her messages can’t be missed. Her sophisticated nuance is such that she hits even the high notes without these sounding shrill or sharp. She also is a master of restrained ad libbing in that she only improvises from the main melody whenever she needs to fill in a rest or gap in the musical arrangement.

Then of course, there’s her legendary stage presence. Acknowledged as the epitome of class, Kuh was diva all the way from the gowns she wore right down to the commanding way she walks onstage. Her bearing demands attention even as her stage movements convey a natural confidence.

Kuh won in her gamble of tapping as guests, Jomari Yllana and Christopher de Leon. Although the two will never be singing champions or concert kings, they can definitely carry a tune given the right songs. For Jomari, those were U2’s All I Want Is You, Jose Mari Chan’s Tell Me Your Name and After Image’s Habang May Buhay which he rendered as a duet with Kuh complete with vocal blending.

Christopher, on the other hand, sang Hanggang (the theme song from one his movies and a Himig Handog Love Song finalist) and a medley of How Do You Keep The Music Playing, Tonight I Celebrate My Love, Maybe, etc. with Kuh.

But of course, Kuh also sang her own hit songs such as Wag Kang Mangako, I Think I’m In Love (which doubled as the audience-participation song) and Till I Met You as one of the encores (the other was Barbra Streisand’s Somewhere). Asked to sing Dito Ba, she balked given the song’s message.

Like she said in earlier interviews about Forever Love, Kuh gave tips on how to find love (“falling in love is divine intervention,” she hints) and keep a loved one. She and Christopher even acted out different scenarios onstage to point out that love flourishes best if we, as the song goes, try a little tenderness.

To keep the younger people in the audience happy, Kuh sang Nobody by Wonder Girls and even rapped mid-way in one part.

Versatile, virtuous and vivacious — three V’s to describe Pop Diva Kuh Ledesma in Forever Love.