Lani lords over major music charts

Listening to Lani Misalucha's album which is currently No. 1 in Astroplus Megamall and Podium, and Top 5 in Music One and O Music Video, is almost like having a choice seat inside the Flamingo in Las Vegas, USA where the Filipinos' pride regularly wows

By Guil Franco (Correspondent)

Published: Mon 27 Nov 2006, 10:56 AM

Last updated: Tue 14 Nov 2023, 4:05 PM

the international audience. How to explain this phenomenon of a runaway album sale which is simply amazing? It could be that the Lani Misalucha album is a veritable major and much-awaited music event that musicphiles all over country have catapulted the fast-selling CD to the top of the charts.

Lani has been in and out of the Philippine music scene since the late 1980s, as a vocalist in various bands, as a soloist in the lounge and hotel circuits, as singer for commercial jingles and multiplex tapes. It is amazing to note that although she stopped singing professionally for periods of time, opportunities never cease to come knocking at her door. It seems that music is her destiny.

Now being heard over the airlanes is "Christmas Won't Be the Same Without You" soon to be a staple during the Yuletide season. But still all the 14 carefully-selected songs in the album are potential hit singles. Whether Lani Misalucha is simply crooning or powerfully belting, she gives her heart and soul to every song.

It is not important that her repertoire in the self-titled outing has been sung by various performers, since Lani's very own treatment of these songs has made them the definitive versions!

Lani Misalucha never planned to be a professional singer. She simply loves to sing, and boy, can she sing! With the voice of an angel cascading up and down the scales like a roller coaster, a full three octaves of heavenly music, full throated, full chested and fully seasoned, she can sing a song as few others can.

Born into a musical family, with parents who are operatic singers, Lani grew up immersed in song, with siblings similarly endowed with wonderful voices. Growing up and listening to the radio, she expanded her musical horizons to various genres and styles, and developed a dynamic versatility.

Lani can easily shift from ballad to pop rock and even jazz. She may even surprise her listeners with a sudden burst of operatic aria in a seasoned soprano voice. Recording multiplex tapes of the songs of great singers, she can, with alacrity, imitate the voice and style of, among others, Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and even Barbra Streisand.

No wonder, Lani is the preferred choice of foreign artists who have come to Manila to perform. She was the special guest of music industry icons Kenny Loggins, Brian McKnight, Sergio Mendes & Stephen Bishop.

It is the beauty and power of Lani's music that flew and blew her across the globe, performing in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and the Middle East and singing for the King of Malaysia, the Sultan of Brunei, and President S.R. Nathan of Singapore. But it will always be the beauty of Lani's persona that will transcend through every song, heartfelt and genuine in its delivery of all the best that it has to offer, all the best that is yet to come.