00:04 business with an anniversary concert. What can fans look forward to? Bo joins us now live on the final word. Bo, congratulations!
00:13 Thank you! And congratulations!
00:14 You're getting old!
00:15 Yes, I am.
00:15 Very happy!
00:16 Because I started at 10 years old.
00:18 Ah, I see.
00:19 And congratulations to you also, Best Factual Presenter. What can you say?
00:24 Oh my god, thank you so much!
00:26 It's an Academy Creative Awards.
00:28 But let's talk about you.
00:30 Okay.
00:30 So, 35 years in the entertainment industry. Has it been fulfilling for you so far?
00:37 Oh, of course. Just like any other artist, any other singer, any other performer, we've had our ups and downs, a lot of them.
00:44 And I'm still here and we're still durable.
00:49 Yeah.
00:50 And we're still reinventing time and again. That's why we're here.
00:54 Yeah, I mean, that key word, durability. And we always talk about sustainability.
01:00 Exactly.
01:01 How do you keep that for 35 years? I mean, the likes of Martin, Gary, 40 years in the entertainment industry.
01:09 While others cannot even survive 5 years, 10 years.
01:13 That's right. You know, Rico, I gotta give it to them. These singers who have their own signature songs.
01:20 Yeah.
01:21 They have their own pop songs to their names, okay? Attached to their names.
01:26 So, there are one-hit wonders. But still, they have their songs, right? Connected to them.
01:32 I only had one.
01:33 That's right.
01:34 Which is, "Pag Tumatagal, Lalong Tumitibay."
01:36 That's beautiful!
01:37 Composed by Nonoy Tan. And it's even a remake.
01:40 Yeah.
01:41 It's a remake.
01:42 Look, 35 years. "Boo Serrudo is really durable."
01:46 Exactly. It can also be Boo.
01:48 Oh, yeah. I just wanted to ask you that. When I met you, it was Bimbo, and now Boo.
01:53 Why the change in nicknames?
01:56 I'm sure a lot of people would also agree that you can't sell Bimbo in the US or anywhere else.
02:02 It has different meanings.
02:03 It has different meanings. But here, it's okay. They call me Bimbo. Fine. That's what they're accustomed to.
02:09 And I just changed it to Boo so I can go to different countries, Australia, US, and do shows there without being questioned, "Who is this?"
02:18 They might be expecting a lady dancing there.
02:20 Right.
02:21 So, I used Boo. And someone actually advised me to use Boo to make it simpler.
02:30 It's cheap.
02:31 Yes.
02:32 It's okay. "Boo Serrudo." But they can still call me Bimbo.
02:35 You know, Bimbo, Boo.
02:36 Oh, right.
02:37 You made a good point there with our concert game.
02:43 See, Martin, 35, 40 years. See, Pure Energy also celebrating its 40th year.
02:49 But you, 35 years and just one hit.
02:52 Yes.
02:53 But you have been able to maintain the strength in your career because you did both concerts and musical plays that no other artist can do.
03:02 Make that crossover.
03:03 Yes. I've been juggling my efforts between concerts and musical plays.
03:08 If I'm not doing concerts, I do musical plays. If I'm not doing musical plays, I would do concerts.
03:14 You found your niche.
03:17 That's it. So, back in about 2005, I thought I was at the crossroads of my career.
03:25 I thought that, "Wow, I've been there, done that."
03:28 So, I thought, "I'm young. I'm still young."
03:33 And, "I can't. There has to be something else."
03:38 And you would also sing the hit songs of other artists.
03:42 Exactly.
03:43 That's why you were coined by the late, great, iconic musical director and stage director, Freddy Santos, as the premier classical balladeer.
03:54 Yes. He gave me that title because back in 2005, 2006, we managed to combine musical theater and concertizing, which is only done by a very few artists.
04:11 Yes, that's right.
04:12 There's Lea Salonga who does that.
04:15 But right now, we also added another feature, like Freddy told me, direct Freddy Santos. I miss him a lot.
04:23 He suggested that I do also foreign songs.
04:27 Foreign language songs.
04:29 Foreign language songs. Spanish, French, Italian.
04:33 And which particular songs were these that you sang in foreign languages?
04:40 There's "Him Lamu" of Edith Piaf. There's a lot more. Of course, the common, "Sinema Paradiso" or "Se." And many others.
04:52 And you will be singing these foreign language songs in your concert?
04:55 Maybe just one. Just one. My concert, actually, is about my life. I'll tell them about my life. It's not necessarily a show-show. It's not like, "Hey, I'm here!"
05:08 And sing a lot of covers.
05:11 A lot of covers.
05:12 In your one hit song.
05:13 There's got to be a story behind every song.
05:16 So, like what direct Freddy told me before, every show you have, it has to be conceptualized.
05:23 It has to be thought of really deeply so that people will keep coming for more.
05:29 Because it's not just blurting out songs and making pasigat here and there.
05:35 It's about giving more meaning to...
05:39 Your life. Your 35 years in the entertainment industry.
05:44 So, if you would divide this 35-year career in three blocks, in your first 10 years, what would you say was the big highlight?
05:55 Well, of course, I had my album back in 1992. My produced album, which was released by Universal during that time.
06:05 That's where "Pagtumatagal, Dalang Tumitibay" comes from.
06:09 I have also composed two compositions from there. "Pagtumatagal" was composed by Nonoy Tan.
06:14 That's a Wadab hit.
06:16 Yes! We had him recently here on the show.
06:18 Thank you, Nonoy, for allowing me to use your song. It's okay, naman.
06:24 And then, in 20 years, your second 10 years, what would be the major event?
06:31 Oh, I did a lot of musicals. I did "Grease", I did "West Side Story", I did "Ramahari", I did...
06:41 I can't count. There's a lot.
06:45 Really memorable musicals where you performed in?
06:49 Memorable... I had so much fun. There was "Ramahari", there was "Grease".
06:57 One of the memorable but hard was "West Side Story" because I had an accident.
07:05 I had a knee operation two weeks before the opening and I was stony.
07:10 So, I was limping throughout the run.
07:12 Maria.
07:13 Maria, Maria, Maria. My knee is hurting, Maria.
07:19 What about between the 21st year and the 30th year?
07:23 There, that's where my "Serudo Classico" series came in.
07:27 That's when we contemplated putting together, concertizing Broadway musicals and my classical training.
07:37 And singing foreign language, they all merged into one where Freddy helped me combine them to produce concepts, conceptualized shows which people...
07:50 Well, I'd like to say they appreciate. That's why we keep coming back. I have a regular audience for that.
07:57 And that's what we're doing again.
07:59 We had about more than 200 shows already for "Serudo Classico".
08:03 Some of them, a lot of them actually, about a hundred of them, I was backed up by the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra.
08:11 14 piece, 18 piece or 8 piece but still it was an orchestra.
08:17 Alright, so now you're in the midst of your 31st to the 40th year of your career.
08:24 What's that?
08:25 Durability, how about durability?
08:28 You're really talking about durability.
08:30 We are restarting everything, the "Serudo Classico".
08:33 So what kind of songs? Give me your top three songs that you will be performing in this 35th anniversary concert.
08:41 I will do "A Million Dreams", I will sing "Himalaymu" or the French song.
08:50 What about OPM hits?
08:52 Of course my song and a composition of mine and some movie theme songs of the 80s.
09:04 Can you divulge to us who will be your special guest for this concert or is it just a one man show?
09:13 It's a one man show but I have surprise guests, really very pretty ones.
09:19 I heard it's a sold out concert.
09:22 It is.
09:23 October 11th.
09:24 Oh by the way, it's on October 11th.
09:27 We forgot the date of the concert.
09:31 It's Wednesday at the Teatrino.
09:34 Why are you like that? I can't even watch.
09:38 It's during the final word.
09:41 We'll start it at 10.30. Can you catch up?
09:44 We figured because some people cannot watch October 11th so we opened up another date just last week.
09:56 That will be November 15th aside from this October 11th show.
10:00 Also at Teatrino.
10:01 Also at Teatrino because that's my home already. I'm so comfortable performing there.
10:06 It's like my music room, it's like my man cave already.
10:09 Can I just mention the cell phone number?
10:13 Okay sure.
10:14 It's 0918. If you want to, Cassidy.
10:17 Yeah, 0918. I'll write it down.
10:18 0918 926-2297.
10:24 There.
10:25 That's right.
10:26 There.
10:27 If it lasts, it really gets stronger.
10:29 Just like you.
10:31 35 years. What can you say?
10:34 Thank you so much for joining us on the final word.
10:36 Thank you for having me here.
10:37 And good luck on your 35th anniversary concert.
