Elmo gears up for something big

These days, Elmo Magalona’s happiness is written all over his face. When he talked to the press at a recent event for Oishi, he couldn’t stop talking about how grateful and happy he is to still be on their roster of endorsers. Elmo has been with Oishi for almost three years now, and according to the young actor, their partnership just gets better with time.

“Every year we do bigger things,” Elmo shares excitedly. “Like one of the first few years, me and Tim Yap rode in a chopper and landed in a school in Bulacan to spend time with the students. We gave them Oishi products pa. Sobra silang nag-enjoy. The year after that, we did a campus tour. Jeepney naman ang gamit namin. It was me, Ramon Bautista and Slater Young. This year, ito — we did this big Snacktacular event.”

The Oishi Snacktacular event was held at the atrium of Glorietta 2, where throngs of fans gathered to watch Elmo and his fellow Oishi endorsers. The event was set up like a fair, with booths featuring a lot of products. But for Elmo, the best part of the day was getting to interact with everyone who came to see him. He gamely posed for photos with whoever asked. Having grown up in a showbiz family — the son of Master Rapper Francis Magalona — Elmo is aware of the power of celebrity and how even the smallest things he does can have a big impact on other people.

“It’s unexpected, me just doing something like that” — posing for photos and signing autographs — “makes people happy. It’s something that’s special and it’s something that I really cherish,” he says.

That’s precisely why the 20-year-old actor works so hard. He really does cherish the ability to have a positive impact on the people who support him. His hard work has translated into good ratings for the shows he’s been in, the latest of which is the Villa Quintana remake. His tandem with fellow showbiz scion Janine Gutierrez was a success (there are rumors of an off-screen romance between them), and the show itself had a good run.

The show aired its first episode in November last year and ended last June 6. Since Elmo is still basking in the glow of its success, he decided to take some time off while gearing up for his next move — which is sure to be something big.

“Yeah, mga eight months tumakbo yung Villa Quintana. What’s next? Right now pahinga lang muna ako, kasi I worked really hard for a while din naman. And I’m also preparing for something even bigger for late this year,” he teases.

Could that something be related to music? Elmo does have some new material ready. He was among the singers tapped to interpret a song in contention for the top prize in this year’s Philippine Popular Music Festival (a.k.a. PhilPop), an annual songwriting competition spearheaded by Ryan Cayabyab.

“My latest single is with Jay-R and Q-York, and it’s called Qrush on You,” Elmo shares. “That was another super different experience also. For PhilPop, a song has to be about something that’s very Pinoy. Dapat makaka-relate ang mga Filipino. In Qrush on You, may lyrics doon na parang, ‘Me and you connect like the sun and stars,’ so it’s very traditional and I think a lot of people will like it.”

As the interpreter of the song, he didn’t have a hand in writing it, but Elmo says he’s looking forward to doing more songwriting in the coming months, with an eye towards putting out a full-length album when he feels he’s ready. He doesn’t want to release anything unless he put a hundred percent of himself into crafting it.

“Yeah, sina Q-York yung nagsulat nung song and I just performed it for them. As far as songwriting goes, I’ve written some things, but right now, I haven’t really been writing. I have some unreleased stuff though. I hope I can release my songs in the future, but right now I don’t see that happening just yet. I want to be more prepared, and I want my songs to be prepared also when I do release them,” he says.