Keeping it ‘quaran-chill’ in the time of COVID-19

“Quaran-chill,” which stands for quarantine and chill, is one interesting millennial term I came across while tuning in on the ETC channel. It sends us the message to just chill out, stay indoors and remain optimistic while we are still on quarantine — whether ECQ, GCQ or modified ECQ/GCQ — because the fight against the pandemic is not yet over and “the end is not in sight” as the song goes, until a COVID-19 vaccine is found.

If you’ve been watching shows on ETC, you must be familiar with the series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which is on rerun these days, airing Mondays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. with Saturday encore at 6 p.m. You can also stream the complete episodes on NBC.com.

The American musical comedy-drama series, which premiered last January, centers on a computer programmer named Zoey Clarke (played by Jane Levy), who had a pretty normal life until an earthquake hit while she was inside an MRI machine. Since that incident, she has “possessed” the ability to hear people’s thoughts through music and taken on a newfound purpose to help people around her more than ever.

Created by Austin Winsberg, the series’ first season with 12 episodes also starred Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Peter Gallagher, Mary Steenburgen and Lauren Graham. Mandy Moore was one of the producers and the choreographer for the series.

Prior to working on the series, Jane debuted in 2011 and has appeared in various films and TV series, including the ongoing Netflix thriller series What/If in 2018, alongside co-stars Renee Zellweger and Blake Jenner. Forbes considered her as someone “to watch for” while TV Guide and The Insider.com named her one of the breakout stars in 2011. Interestingly, Jane has no musical theater background. She admitted in a Variety interview that she’s a “rookie” who works alongside “extremely experienced and knowledgeable musical theater actors.”

Singer-actor Skylar, meanwhile, is a familiar face in mainstream movies whose breakthrough film is the comedy Perfect Pitch, which has two sequels.

Skylar is reunited with co-star Alex after working together in Glee, another musical comedy-drama series that was aired on ETC and had a successful run from 2009 to 2015.

For a quick look back, Glee, about a group of ambitious misfits that tries to escape the harsh realities of high school by joining a glee club at McKinley High, starred Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, the late Cory Monteith, Darren Criss, Melissa Benoist, Skylar and Alex, among others.

It was a memorable series for Filipino gleeks (the term referring to the fans of Glee) after Charice Pempengco (now Jake Zyrus) guested on the show’s second season as Sunshine Corazon. And who would have forgotten Cory, who played the well-loved character Fin Hudson and was Lea’s reel and real-life boyfriend, who died of a drug overdose in 2013. Cory would have turned 38 last May 11.

Like Glee, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist has a comprehensive list of songs featured in every episode such as Celine Dion’s All By Myself, Cyndi Lauper’s True Colors, The Partridge Family’s I Think I Love You, The Beatles’ Help!, Jonas Brothers’ Sucker, Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Megan Trainor’s No, Katy Perry’s Roar, Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name, Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation, Destiny’s Child’s Say My Name, No Doubt’s Don’t Speak, Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours, Ed Sheeran’s Perfect, Air Supply’s All Out of Love, John Legend’s All of Me, Doris Day’s Dream a Little Dream of Me, Don McLean’s American Pie, and the list goes on.

Speaking of playlist, mine is an assortment of songs from the Backstreet Boys, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, The Bread, The Corrs, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, official movie/TV soundtracks, OPM songs and K-drama OSTs.

The series makes one realize that sometimes all we need is to believe in the healing power of music during this time of crisis. So, what’s on your playlist?