Rachel Alejandro And The Everlasting Career
By Mikael Rizada Borres
Rachel Alejandro, the hit-spawning songstress whose string of hits in the 1990s like “Bulag Sa Katotohanan” and “Don’t Know What To Do” ached the hearts of music-loving Filipinos, realized she was famous for the first time when fellow singer Ogie Alcasid pointed it out to her.
“One time, when I was with Ogie, he said, ‘You don’t know, noh?’ Sabi niya [He said], ‘You’re like the biggest thing right now!’
“And I was like, ‘Huh?!” said Rachel while putting on a shocked expression to show her surprise.
But to the listening public during that era of Philippine music, Rachel stood as one of the biggest stars in the industry. At the time of Rachel and Ogie, the former just released yet another hit with “Nakapagtataka,” which followed successful singles “Mr. Kupido,” “(K.S.P.) Kulang Sa Pansin,” and “Kay Tagal” from her debut album Just A Minute. “Yeah, I mean, that was a good time. It was a time when I was young, and I guess for most artists, that’s how it is, usually. It’s when your fans are at that age that, you know, they really love music and it’s the time of them growing up. So high school, college, that sort of thing.”
But even with all the success, Rachel was a bit confused by what Ogie said to her. “I was just happy to be working,” she said. “I don’t think I ever really took stock of it that way, na parang [that’s like], ‘Wow, I’m famous’ or whatnot. I don’t think about those things. I just like being able to work.”
She describes herself as someone who finds bliss through her work, and it’s very much a description that has been persistent to be true throughout her 30 years in show business. Around the time of the interview, Rachel was in the midst of the transition to having more US-based work, submitting audition tapes for different roles, considering that her husband and writer Carlos Santamaria is based in New York. She told me was able to bag two movies (one of them being the murder mystery “Sinister Cover-Up”) and a commercial for the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Rachel alongside her That’s Entertainment castmates.
The mindset of finding happiness through her work started when she was performing in musicals at eight years old, then hosting the GMA variety show That’s Entertainment at twelve years old. “It was fun, it was a fun time. I can’t say na parang, ‘Oh, sayang because I didn’t have a childhood,’ or, you know, wala ko’ng ganun na drama.
(It was fun, it was a fun time. I can’t say, ‘Oh, what a waste because I didn’t have a childhood,’ or, you know, I didn't have that kind of drama.)
“I was very, like, ‘Wow, I’m so grateful just to be one of those people that found their calling.’”
She supposes that her life may have looked different compared to the lives of other young people during her youth, noting how her day would ramp up after school while her classmates’ were winding down. By the time she was in her final year of high school, she was barely going to school. (It’s something she wouldn’t advise students to do at all). “The teachers were complaining because they were saying, ‘How are we gonna even give you any kind of honour?” she recalled. “‘Oh, you’re in the running for valedictorian this year, but you’re barely here.’”
Rachel didn’t get that valedictorian spot, which is something she felt indifferent about since her sights were already set on what she wanted to do. Although she acknowledges that the sights kept on changing – as she first wanted to be more of an actress, finding that kind of work to be more exhilarating for her – the chips and cards were placed and played in a way that put her in a specific trajectory for her career.
The trajectory in music doesn’t end, and will probably never end for Rachel as she keeps on working to this day. While she is trying her hand in more acting roles, she is also touring in America and the Philippines, performing for her fans and those who wish to reminisce about the 90s for a night. She is more than willing to provide nostalgia to those who see her at one of her gigs.
She joked that whenever she is about to sing “Paalam Na,” the signature song she co-wrote with fellow singer and then-boyfriend Dingdong Avanzado, she would mention him as her “now-good friend,” then tease the crowd some more about the past relationship after she sings the song. “It’s always the phrasing, ‘My now-good friend,’” said Rachel. “And they [the audience] love that! They love that. People are always, like, ‘Wooohhh!’”
In many instances, the audience who is enraptured by Rachel’s performance on-stage may not know about the behind-the-scenes hassles the singer has to manage on her own to make her presentation as smooth as possible. When she was part of the cast for the jukebox theatre production All Out Of Lover, she burst a blood vessel in her vocal cords on opening night. Due to technical issues with the vocal monitors that would normally allow the performers to hear their voices and the music, she accidentally overexerted her voice to hear herself.
“During the beginning part pa lang of the show, para kong nadapa [it was like I stumbled],” Rachel recalled. “It’s like an athlete who got a sprain during, let’s say, a basketball game or whatever.” For the rest of the musical’s run, she was “limping along,” trying new ways to sing while still ensuring that her cords don’t get any more damaged.
“And it really is parang, ‘Lamunin na lang ako ng lupa’ type of moment,” she joked.
(And it really is like a “Just let the ground swallow me up” type of moment.)
“But maybe some people thought na yun talaga! Diba? Kasi, as the watcher, syempre, no one knows naman, ‘Oh my God, she’s limping.’ No one can see that. They just think that, ‘Ay, yan lang ang abot ng boses niya.’”
(But maybe some people thought that the song was supposed to be like that! Right? Because, as the watcher, no one really thinks, “Oh my God, she’s limping.” No one can see that. They just think, “Ay, that’s all her voice could reach.”)
Rachel on the set of the murder-mystery flick, Sinister Cover-Up.
“And that’s where I feel worse because I know I’m capable of so much more than this!” said Rachel while she had her hands in a fist shape and moved them up and down. “‘Di nyo lang alam [You just don’t know]!’ You know? That sort of thing.”
She knows that accidents and mistakes like what happened during her time in All Out Of Love have happened before and will happen again. What she thinks is the best way to cope with those accidents and mistakes is to take it on the chin and march on.
But then again, it is only human for Rachel to be her own worst critic. Ill-wishing commenters may want to discredit her singing and how she conducts her life, but no one is harder on Rachel Alejandro than Rachel Alejandro. When she feels like her voice was not at “100%” and her performance wasn’t as good as she would like it, she said, she would overanalyze as some form of mental self-flagellation.
At times when those moments where she is disappointed with herself – which occurred more often in her younger years – she can be reminded of the advice made by her father, singer Hajji Alejandro. “When I was younger, I was really harder on myself, and when things would go wrong in a show, I took it really hard,” said Rachel.
Rachel was reminded of a situation when the zipper of her bustier broke, forcing her to hold to the top while singing until she left the stage. “So kung may ganun na mangyare, feeling ko, parang [So when something like that happens, I felt like], the whole show crumbled in front of me, and I didn’t have the maturity at the time to say, ‘You know what? Things happen, and I can stop the show anytime. I can go backstage, have the zipper fixed, and come back.’”
But during that specific moment, all she felt was panic and dismay. “So my dad was the one who told me that, ‘You know what? People came to see you. They paid money to see you. And, you know what? They’ll forgive you. Things happen!’
“If I had been mature enough and, I guess, if I was the Rachel now when this happened, I would have been able to say, ‘You know what, guys? Let’s take this from the top. I’m just gonna get off-stage and get the zipper fixed.”
“But those are the things you learn from experiences, falling flat on your face,” Rachel noted. “I think that the older you get, you more you’re like, ‘Been there, been that. It happened before, it’s fine. We’ll survive.’ That kind of thing.”
Rachel and Mikael conducted the interview through Zoom on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
Recommended Song: Kay Tagal - Rachel Alejandro
Images from Rachel Alejandro’s Facebook Page
