Richard Yap’s first love

MANILA, Philippines - Richard Yap never imagined he’d end up in the acting business someday, but once upon a time, he already dreamt of being in the entertainment scene — as a lounge singer.

“My ambition before was just to be a lounge singer. For me, that was already okay because I didn’t think I could make it in the recording industry,” reveals Richard.

The Be Careful With My Heart star got more than he actually wished for. The 46-year-old businessman/commercial model-turned-actor, whose unconventional and belated route to showbiz is a perpetual source of media fascination, has released an 11-track, all-covers album under Star Records, with his version of the Basil Valdez original Don’t Know What to Do, Don’t Know What to Say as the carrier single.

Richard says that music is his “first love.” He was part of his high school glee club in his hometown in Cebu, which won a national singing contest during his time. He also had his own rock band in college albeit short-lived. An ’80s music baby, he counts Queen, Mike Francis, Phil Collins and especially, Kenny Rogers, as his main music idols. “Kenny Rogers started singing at the age of 50. So, I said, there’s still hope for me,” he muses. His “singing voice” was discovered when he had to perform for the mall shows of Be Careful With My Heart.

At the news of his album, initially, you can’t help but wonder if he’s just another actor given a recording break because of his popularity rather than an actual vocal talent, as is the trend, but his ease, background and confidence in the medium translate into the album, which combines pop ballads and alternative songs that fit his tenor. The result is how record producer Rox Santos also describes his voice, romantic, serenading, and if we may add, mellow and cool with a caressing effect that will surely draw a sigh and smile from his fans.

Don’t Know What to Do, Don’t Know What to Say has already been chosen as the theme for the upcoming Dingdong Dantes and Bea Alonzo film from Star Cinema. The rest of the songs are Promise Ain’t Enough, Think I’m In Love Again, Can Find No Reason, You Take My Breath Away, Chasing Cars, High, Afterglow, Please Be Careful With My Heart, Salamat and a Chinese version of Oh Babe.  A concert may not be far behind. He also hopes to collaborate with Please Be Careful With My Heart composer-singer Jose Mari Chan. 

When asked which track best captures his state of mind, state of life, Richard picks out High by Lighthouse Family. “(I feel) high on everything happening now, high for all the blessings.”

Still, Richard is ready for any criticism. “Everyone has their own opinion, meron talagang ayaw, meron talagang gusto. We can’t please everyone and they can say what they want, but let’s all be decent people.”

Asked for the other showbiz goals he has set for himself, Richard admits that “everything that is happening right now, they just fell into place. I never really thought of making an album. I didn’t plan on going into showbiz. Let’s just see what happens; we will just go with the flow. We’ll stick with this for the meantime and I’ll try to hone my craft to do it better and better.”

Richard also wants to work with Dawn Zulueta and Anne Curtis, and looks to explore roles — save for the sexy roles (“let’s leave it to the younger ones” and the gay roles “I still have a young son”) outside the “ideal-man-devoted daddy-Sir Chief mold.” He says, “Every actor doesn’t want to be typecast… We have to choose the right roles. Kung sa tingin ko na hindi naman bagay sa akin, hindi ko tatanggapin.”

He also hints at a possible movie project, but it’s not the big-screen adaptation of Be Careful With My Heart, which was withdrawn from the roster of this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival in December. 

Meanwhile, Richard explains that the movie version of his smash-hit daytime series with Jodi Sta. Maria that turned Richard as a household name as “Sir Chief” had to be cancelled because “if we do the movie, we’d be taping six times a week, baka di namin kakayanin. The production decided not to push through with it — we wanted to do it — but we wanted to come out with something beautiful rather than something rushed. Maybe we could do something else later on.”