Zuñiga teams up with a Cebuana for a duet
With more than 30 years in the business, it wasn’t until this year that Filipino musical icon Nonoy Zuñiga decided to take on a song in a different dialect. Zuñiga began as a folk singer in the 70s and had performed in venues like the Philippine Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Manila Hotel with his band. Recently setting his roots in Cebu for business, the musician, TV presenter, and physician teams up with 14 year-old Cebuana Jolianne Salvado for a duet unlike any other.
Unbeknownst to many, Doc Nonoy—who brought forth songs like “Init Sa Magdamag” with Sharon Cuneta, “Love Without Time” and “Never Ever Say Goobye”— has Bisaya roots through his mother who is from Samar. So it wasn’t at all that difficult for him to sing a popular Bisaya song, say in the ranks of “Pero Atik Ra.” Thinking of pieces to work on for his musical career, Nonoy had thought of doing songs in other dialects, like
Pilita Corrales who had Cebuano,
Tagalog, and even Spanish songs in her repertoire.
“We tried looking for a song that would make a good duet. Why not record a Visayan song? We’re very excited about this project, and that we have Jolianne here. This is my first time to do a Cebuano song. We tried looking for a nice song, something pop and we came across Vispop,” Nonoy explains in a press conference at the Hillary Hall of Quest Hotel, adding how he was impressed with the annual songwriting competition and the Bisaya songs that it churns out.
“Ang gaganda, and daming songs. Sana umabot sa Manila, and then we found ‘Pero Atik Ra’.” Nonoy says, referring to the well-received
composition by online personality
Rowell Ucat also known as Medyo
Maldito, and producer Jude Gitamondoc.
The song, a hugot ballad with witty lyrical undertones using splashes of irony was originally performed by Sinulog Idol winner
Jacky Chang in 2016.
The Nonoy-Jolianne collaboration has since been referred to as “Pero Atik Ra The
Duet.”
Doc Nonoy describes the song as very pop with a brilliant melody. And as he and
Jolianne, a The Voice Kids 2015 contestant, do their magic, they also gotten a hand from Nendel Endrina and Zebedee Zuñiga who arranged
Nonoy and Jolianne’s “Pero Atik Ra” duet musically and vocally respectively, while Cros Etorma came up with the music video.
“At least familiar sa mga tao. But it’s a different version. It’s a duet, which means everybody can do it now, whether male or female,” musesNonoy, who hopes to give Cebuano music a push onto national consciousness through the project.
“Sana marinig sa Manila. Even though it’s [the song] in Cebuano I hope maging hit siya. Kahit hindi nila maintindhan, because they like the melody, eventually they will hear the message of the song.”
The award-winning hitmaker admits that it took a while for him to get the nuances of the Cebuano dialect, because he is Waray, and had received a lot of help from the arrangers as well as Jolianne’s parents. As they released their digital single in Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube last month, Doc Nonoy adds how much change the music industry has gone through the years.
“Technology develops fast, so kung ano yung uso doon tayo. Naabutan ko pa yung mga 33, 45 [rotations per minute in vinyl records]. Tapos yung maliit, tapos naging cassette. Naabutan ko lahat yun hanggang ngayon. First albums ko plaka, and then may CD na. Tapos may mp3 [format] na ngayon and flash drives. But we’re slowly going back to the vinyl because of the sound,” Nonoy muses.
Nonoy, who is also a skincare specialist and had gotten his medicine degree from the University of Santo Tomas, saw the stark differences when it came to promoting artists today and when he was starting out.
“Before, you need these big, big companies and they will be the ones to really promote you. Now, parang you promote yourself. You put it up on the internet. And this is exactly what we’re doing now. We are hopeful that this song will not only make it in Cebu but hopefully penetrate Manila. They have to learn [about Cebuano music],” Nonoy, who established two businesses in Cebu (Piel’s Skincare Center with aesthetician Sylvia Cancio, and vegan resto Live Life) says.
And in comes 14-year-old Jolianne. Although much, much younger than her duet partner, the junior high school achiever from PAREF Southcrest is no stranger to the stage. After joining the Kapamilya Networks The Voice Kids singing competition, training under Pop Princess Sarah Geronimo, and had caught the attention of Lea Salonga in 2015-Jolianne has since shared stages with personalities like Air Supply, Stephen Bishop, Arnel Pineda, Jed Madela, Darren Espanto, Vice Ganda, Rey Valera, Marco Sison, and Haji Alejandro, among many others.
Often opening for huge acts during their Cebu and other regional legs, Jolianne is also no stranger to Doctor Nonoy. In fact, Jolianne has opened for him a number of times. It also helped that her mother, Johanna, used to sing with Nonoy, and being under the same management, Jolianne has been in the company of the musical icon for a while now.
“The first time I saw Jolianne, I was really, really impressed. At a very young age, she has a beautiful voice and style. I think she doesn’t know about it yet. She’s going to develop that voice, it’s going to be powerful. About five years from now, sobrang galing na nito,” Nonoy says of Jolianne, adding how during their time together, he admired Jolianne for her talent, wit, intelligence, courtesy, and humility.
“Iba ang attitude niya, Hindi siya mayabang,” he quips of the young singer.
Jolianne in turn recalled how she had met the Nonoy Zuñiga for the first time: in a five-hour car ride from the airport to a hotel with her parents.
“Yeah there was a bit of pressure but as I got to know him, the pressure just sort of drifted away. I’ve worked with him in concerts prior to the duet and sometimes I forget that he’s an OPM icon because I’m so at home with him. He’s a friend to me,” Jolianne says, almost in disbelief that she could be friends with someone as highlyacclaimed as Nonoy.
“Working with him, it was great because I didn’t feel so scared even though he’s an icon and he taught me about which parts of the song I had to improve on and we coordinated well. Throughout working together, I learned a lot about spiels during shows, connecting with the audience, what to do, what not to do. Right now, I feel like I’m kind of struggling with that but I believe I’m getting there,” Jolianne muses.
Doc Nonoy light-heartedly warned the young girl not to get into romantic relationships just yet as a word of advice, to which Jolianne laughs off and said that likewise, she’s not looking into that part of life just yet and is prioritizing school with singing on the side.
“Most of the things that I learned, I didn’t exactly get them in words, but by seeing him [Nonoy] work, I get to see how the best in the business do it,” Jolianne says.
Since her The Voice Kids stint, Jolianne still has no plans of joining another competition for all of national television to broadcast. The consistent top student really wishes to focus on her studies, but since she’s also passionate about music, is also pursuing her interests. Apart from singing and enchanting people with her sweet and skillful voice, Jolianne plays the ukulele and composes songs here and there.
At 12, the young lady wrote “I Can’t Go On,” a powerful and emotional piece about seemingly wanting to discontinue something that isn’t bringing any good to her. Jolianne explains how the song was rooted from her struggle during exams at the time when she was writing it, but people had also interpreted it onto relationships.
Performers her age often go about the easy-going and carefree themes. But as she tries to picture out her future in the music industry, Jolianne hopes to become a versatile performer with a distinct voice that also speaks about society, the self, youth and growing up apart from love and relationships in her music.
One of her major influences include seven-member South Korean idol group BTS, who has made recent global impact with their fun, empowering and diverse music with their latest release “Love Yourself: Tear” debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart and becoming the first primarily foreignlanguage album to top the US chart in over 12 years.
“I want to do what they [BTS] do. I want to talk about the youth, experiences, all these different societal issues. I want to do that to. They are pretty difficult to talk about but the first thing I need to do is definitely educate myself. There is still a lot that I don’t know about. I haven’t written that many songs. I wouldn’t limit myself to a particular genre. I want to be as versatile as I can. I just have to go on with the writing, get it to flow freely. And I hope to get there,” the singer muses.
As she builds her foundations and pours herself into her work, Jolianne hopes that this latest venture with Nonoy is a start in the right direction, seeing as she would also really like to flourish. Highlighting her Cebuano roots and sharing that with others outside of the Queen City, both Jolianne and Nonoy take pride in the all-Cebuano production.
As for Nonoy, he considers Cebu his second home. He also assumes the job of doing his share in making something close to his heart wellreceived in the capital.
The OPM celebrity says that he would be performing “Pero Atik Ra” in “Music and Laughter,” an upcoming concert at the Theatre at Solaire with Willie Nepomuceno to make sure that he spreads the word about Cebuano music and that Manileños have to learn about it too. Nonoy adds that he is open to doing more songs in other dialects apart from Cebuano. It’s just that he would like to bring back Cebuano songs because there used to be so many of them that became hits before namely “Usahay” and “Matud Nila” — and yet not many have succeeded those songs afterwards.
“Maybe other Visayan dialects too. Cebu, talagang center of music and talents. And karamihan sa singers na nadi-discover ngayon Cebuana, like Morissette Amon. Talagang magagaling ang Cebuano. I’m proud of this project. Maganda, ang daming talent. Such a bunch of talents, voice, composers. It’s just a matter of promoting it and bringing it to the larger market. Excited kami kasi ibang klase,” he says.