Then & now, Zsa Zsa does everything for love

I will do everything for love.

Zsa Zsa Padilla said that in a Feb. 1999 interview included in Your Funfarer’s book. When I sat down for a Valentine interview with Zsa Zsa the other day over lunch at Via Mare (Timog Avenue), I asked Zsa Zsa if she would do the same... for love.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed, “I guess I would.”

That was during her life with Dolphy and Zsa Zsa’s attitude towards love hardly changed now that she’s living happily ever after with Conrad Onglao after a six-month rude interruption due to some misunderstanding that was ironed out during a chance encounter at a mall.

Zsa Zsa Padilla now wears not just one but two engagement rings. ‘Baka three or more pa until we get married,’ she joked.

Zsa Zsa and Conrad have so far spent Valentine’s together four times. Asked how many more Valentine’s do they have to wait before they finally (finally!) decide to get married, she for the first time ever and he for the second time (his first marriage having been annulled), Zsa Zsa admitted, “It’s not a matter of when. We’re just waiting for some things to be cleared.”

Something legal?

“Yes, legal. I can’t divulge it just yet. You will be the first to know when it’s ironed out.”

Zsa Zsa now wears two engagement rings and she proudly showed them to us.

“I might have three or more,” she joked, “until we finally get married.”

On Feb. 10 (a Saturday), Zsa Zsa will have a concert titled Beginnings (inspired by her album) at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Lahug, Cebu City. Three days after that, she and Conrad will fly to Hong Kong for a Valentine break.

“We will stay on the Hong Kong side, not on the Tsim Tsa Tsui side where Dolphy and I used to stay. I always associate that side of the island to Dolphy.”

Has observing Valentine’s become, well, routine?

“Not really. We usually spend the day with all the clichés. Candle-lit dinner and all that stuff. And walk, just walk. With Dolphy, I couldn’t really walk because since he was hikain, he couldn’t walk that much. Conrad also loves to walk and that’s what we do abroad…walk and walk and walk.”

“Actually, we love to travel together. We are compatible in that sense. We like to cook, we like to walk. Recently, I enrolled him in a gym so that he would be healthier. We are helping each other out to be healthier. I’m at the gym three times a week; I do Pilates, zumba and yoga also thrice a week. On Sundays, we run together.”

And then, ehem, shower together?

“Sometimes, hehehehe!!! Kanina nga, I was forcing him to take a shower with me. I was making lambing to him, ‘Will you shampoo my hair?’ Hahahaha!!! The idea was for us to shower together…but what happened?”

Turning 54 this year, Zsa Zsa looks as beautiful as she did 35 years ago when she debuted in a Valentine concert with the Bad Bananas (Christopher de Leon, Edgar Mortiz, and the late Jay Ilagan and Johnny Delgado) at Mandarin Oriental.

In that 1999 interview, I asked Zsa Zsa: How do you envision yourself when you’re 50 or older? Do you know what her answer was? Yes: “Maybe I shall be a plain housewife by that time, nag-aalaga siguro ng mga apo. But then, if I still can, I’ll still be singing. I want to be like Pilita Corrales who is still Pilita Corrales up to now.”

So far, her only married daughter, Karylle (to Yael Yuzon), still has to make Zsa Zsa a lola.

Together with Dolphy and now with Conrad (not one of his children with ex-wife has made him a lolo), Zsa Zsa has been to four corners of the world. So what country or city is her favorite?

“Las Vegas. It’s always Las Vegas because my parents live there. With my family, we eat out and seek out new restaurants on The Strip. Otherwise, I just cook for them at home. Or I watch shows.”

Among the memorable shows she has watched on The Strip were those of Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand.

“I love Celine Dion’s songs, same with those of Streisand. But I don’t like it when Streisand starts going political.”

With her beloved Conrad Onglao and on their long-delayed wedding: Waiting for some(legal) matters to be cleared

At this stage of her accomplished career, does she still learn from other singers, older or younger than her?

“Definitely! You never stop learning from anybody. Siempre, there are new styles to follow. Different singers, different styles, and you learn from them. Of course, I have my own singing style given to me by God. In my car, extreme ako. I listen to very, very old songs. I tune in to a radio station that plays mga lumang songs. In the shower, I listen to Top 40.”

What songs bring back sweet memories to her?

“Oh, a lot! When I listen to old songs on the radio, I remember my childhood. Mga kanta na hindi masyadong familiar. My mom would always turn the radio on so I listened to all kinds of songs. That taught me how to easily pick up melodies so ang dami kong alam na kanta starting from the ’60s.”

And what song evokes sad/painful memories?

“Yes, Through The Years,” the song that she sang in near tears during the necrological service for Dolphy at a theater in ABS-CBN that has since been named after him. “That was six years ago na pala! How time flies, ‘no! When I recorded that song, Boss Vic (del Rosario Jr.) told me, ‘O, yan, gusto ko i-revive mo,’ kasi theme song pala nila ni Tita Mina (Aragon, his late wife). When I sang it, I really could relate it to Dolphy…you know, being together through the years. Madali namang naka-relate ang audience that has been with me also through the years.”

Does she have a theme song with Conrad (or are they too old to have one)?

“I remember him when I hear songs like The Look of Love, the song by Diana Krall. Music is very important, that’s why we have so-called soundtracks of our lives, di ba?”

In the next breath, Zsa Zsa suggested that we play a game, and I watched her with delight playing it by herself.

“High school days. I fell in love with Streisand when I saw her in A Star is Born with Kris Kristofferson. Evergreen,” she named one Streisand song and started singing lines from it. “I was also amazed at John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever... you know, How Deep is Your Love and all those BeeGees songs.”

In what medium does she express herself absolutely, in singing or in acting (she’s in the Kapamilya soap Wildflower as the mother of Aiko Melendez, leading to its conclusion next week)? “In both,” she said.

(Produced by JMFojas Events, Beginnings is for the benefit of Pope John II Home For Priests in the Archdiocese of Cebu. Zsa Zsa’s special guests are Zia Quizon, Robin Nievera, the Cebu Clergy Performing Artists, Rev. Fr. Jonas M. Mejares OSA and the Jeduthun-Bohol Singing Priests. For tickets, call 0917-4331178 or 0932-1899870.)