The fragrance of Kuh's worship

Did you ever imagine that you would one day hear Kuh Ledesma talking about how God changed her life in an album? I never did. Not that her spiritual side was ever in question, it was just that Kuh was never one to talk much, more so about her personal life and as in this case, of her failings. But as the cliché goes, things change and so has the Ice Goddess. In fact, she is all warmth and joy in the new CD titled Fragrance Of Worship.

The album is made up of popular pop worship songs Who Am I, We Are The Reason, Trust In You, Above All, Love Begins With You and All The Heavens. There is a new composition titled Fragrance of Worship by Cecile Azarcon-Inocentes, the same writer who came up with the classic Lift Up Your Hands for Basil Valdez. And I am glad that Kuh decided to include Could You Be Messiah. Arranged by Bob Aves, the Gary Valenciano song turned out to be the most beautiful cut in the CD.

These songs are interspersed with spoken tracks of Kuh talking about her personal story. This is her life’s testimony on record. There is not room enough for the sort of juicy details that tabloid addicts would love to talk about. Though never did I think that Kuh is the sort of person who would stoop to that pedestrian level. But she still tells a lot. In the album, Kuh admits to so much more than her fans ever thought they would hear from the local pop diva.

Her narration goes from the carefree early days as a young girl getting advice from her grandfather. Then it continues on to her first taste of music success with the show band Music and Magic up to her invincible period when she felt she could do anything she wanted. From there, it goes down to the dark days when her marriage began to fall apart. Knowing how reticent Kuh could be to discuss stuff such as these during interviews, the decision to talk about them in an album surely took a lot of courage.

But as she said in My Personal Journey, which opens the album, she has wanted to do this for a long time now. She just had to tell everybody about her journey because it was during those dark days that she was led to rediscover her faith in the Lord. She knows now that that difficult time happened for a reason and it is because of this that Kuh believes she has become a better, certainly stronger person. So through the CD, she now wants to tell the world how God led her to this. She has accepted that He is the reason and the answer for all her why questions in the past.

Who knows? Kuh’s Fragrance Of Worship may just be what you need if you are experiencing darkness in your soul right now. If you listen to this, you might also get your questions answered. My only beef here is that Kuh is talking in English. I know it is the language she is now most at home with. But doing the album in conversational Taglish would have made it more effective and would have surely helped more people.

But that is such a minor complaint. Fragrance Of Worship is really quite an accomplishment. It is not only notable for all the things Kuh has to say but also for her songs. She has never sounded better. There is a lilt in her voice, a vibrant quality so young and alive that I am hearing for the first time.

Is this the result of her spiritual awakening? Maybe. But no matter what, it is a wonderful change. How nice to know that this famous diva has allowed God to use her in this manner and made the hearts of us listeners all the richer because of her efforts.

As she quotes from the Acts 4:12 in the album cover, “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”