COED MAGNET On the peak of his reputation, Hajji Alejandro earned the moniker “Kilabot ng mga Kolehiyala” (School woman’s dreamboat) as his candy voice and charming appears left younger feminine followers gushing and blushing. —CONTRIBUTED AND FILE PHOTOS
Hajji Alejandro, the enduring Unique Pilipino Music (OPM) balladeer who, on the peak of his reputation within the Seventies, left legions of faculty women gushing and blushing along with his candy singing and boy-next-door attraction, died on April 21—two months after he was recognized with Stage 4 colon most cancers. He was 70.
The singer’s loss of life, confirmed by his household in a press release posted on social media yesterday, got here simply days after the passing of two different present biz giants: Pilita Corrales on April 12, and Nationwide Artist for Movie and Broadcast Arts Nora Aunor 4 days later.
He’s survived by his kids Rachel, Barni, Ali, and Michelle Alejandro, who requested for privateness as they “grieve this large loss.”
Alejandro was cremated on Tuesday, with a one-day wake at this time for household and shut mates.
Alejandro’s good buddy and colleague Marco Sison admitted that what occurred had but to completely sink in.
“Nakapagtataka. Ang bilis ng mga pangyayari,” Sison, seemingly referencing considered one of Alejandro’s signature hits, “Nakapagtataka,” instructed the Inquirer. “The fact is right here. We’ve got to simply accept it. However nonetheless, I can’t assist however really feel confused. Naiinis ako, nalulungkot. I’m in denial.”
Going solo
Born Angelito Alejandro on Dec. 26, 1954 in Alaminos, Pangasinan, Hajji began his profession in 1973 as a part of the favored musical group The Circus Band—of which he turned half on the urging of member Basil Valdez, who noticed the previous carry out in an orientation week presentation at Ateneo de Manila College.
In 1976, after three years and 4 albums with The Circus Band, Alejandro went solo, and inside the following 12 months launched such songs as “Tag-Araw, Tag-Ulan” and “Panakip Butas” (a Filipino cowl of the Jimmy Webb-Brooklyn Bridge track “Worst That Might Occur”) with songwriter Willy Cruz beneath Jem Data.
It was additionally round that interval that he met the then rising composer, and now Nationwide Artist for Music, Ryan Cayabyab. After working collectively in director Leo Rialp’s “Manila! Manila!: As Instances Goes By”—a dinner-cum-musical theater occasion that marked the reopening of the Manila Resort in 1977—Cayabyab discovered himself wishing that Alejandro would interpret “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika,” his submission to the primary “Metro Manila Fashionable Music Pageant.”
“He was with Jem Data then. And it so occurred that in that point, I had simply launched the LP “Roots to Routes,” additionally beneath Jem. Rialp was a buddy and a marketing consultant to the stated label’s different abilities. And to my shock, Cruz stated the staff would help the efficiency manufacturing and recording of ‘Kay Ganda,’” Cayabyab instructed the Inquirer.
The ballad of pleasure and satisfaction, compellingly delivered by Alejandro along with his clean and potent baritone, ended up profitable the highest prize. “I actually wished him to sing my track within the competitors. I used to be fortunate Hajji was my interpreter,” Cayabyab added.
That track, alongside along with his succeeding hits “Could Minamahal” and “Nakapagtataka,” turned him right into a family title. And earlier than lengthy, Alejandro had develop into a campus heartthrob, sparking swoon-fests at colleges, and a bona fide live performance performer, holding court docket at massive venues just like the People Arts Theater.
It was then that “Hajji attained the ‘Kilabot ng mga Kolehiyala’ standing,” Cayabyab famous.
The phrase “retirement” was by no means in Alejandro’s vocabulary. Only one particular person keen to hear, the singer as soon as instructed the Inquirer, was a ok purpose to maintain on singing. It was simply how he was designed, he stated. “I don’t know the rest.”
He stayed true to his phrase—doing what he did greatest and liked most till his physique might now not maintain.
‘Humahataw’
The final time Sison noticed Alejandro was on Feb. 13, for a pre-Valentine live performance with the OPM Hitmakers, a bunch of legacy artists additionally composed of Nonoy Zuñiga, Rey Valera, and—previous to his loss of life in 2018—Rico J. Puno. There have been no indicators in anyway that he was sick, Sison stated.
“He was giving his one hundred pc as he often did—humahataw,” he stated. “The next days, we heard that his abdomen was in ache, that he couldn’t even swallow water. The subsequent factor we knew, he was on the hospital and in want of surgical procedure,” he associated.
In a Fb submit, Alejandro’s associate of 27 years, singer Alynna Velasquez, revealed that Alejandro’s remaining days had been spent in palliative care, “within the comforts of your private home, within the firm of the folks you like” … and “listening to your favourite songs.”
“Your valuable voice had been impaired … However I felt your love even with out phrases. Regardless of the ache, restlessness and hallucinations, you tried to carry my hand,” Velasquez wrote.
Sison and his mates had been raring to see Alejandro in particular person since his prognosis, however the latter refused their requests. “I believe it was as a result of he didn’t need us to see him in such a state. Gusto niya lagi pogi. He stated we might solely see him as soon as he recovers. However he by no means did,” Sison stated.
“We misplaced not solely a colleague, a pacesetter, a giant brother. We’ve got been performing collectively since 2003. We talked about all the things beneath the solar. We will joke round one another with out anybody getting offended. That’s how deep our friendship had develop into,” he added.
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For Sison, Alejandro can be remembered as one of many pioneers of OPM; a celebrated and beloved artist whose spirit will reside on in each be aware and lyric of his songs. “I do know that each time we hear ‘Tag-Araw,’ ‘Could Minamahal’ or ‘Kay Ganda,’ we are going to all the time know: That’s Hajji Alejandro,” he stated. INQ