I’ve always been a huge fan of female fronted OPM bands. So much so that when I decided to start a band, I knew it had to have a female vocalist; thus, the reason why Thrina came to fold to be the final piece of the missing puzzle. From Hungry Young Poets to Barbie’s Cradle, Mojofly to Kitchie Nadal and later on with Lougee Basabas, Session Road and Hannah Romawac, Aia de Leon and Imago, and lastly Acel Bisa and Moonstar 88. These were the bands/artists that we used to cover their songs when we did our round of gigs back in the day. I’ve seen some of them play live on stage, but I’ve never seen Acel live. Such a bummer if you live far away from Metro Manila. Acel is perhaps best remembered during her Moonstar 88 days, but her solo efforts were no slouch either. So when I found out that she’ll be having a “Farewell concert”, I knew this was something that I shouldn’t miss. So I booked a VIP ticket with some friends eager to finally be able to watch Acel live on stage. Of course since this was a twin event being an album launching too, I was also excited to hear her new album, curious how she would sound now. I haven’t been following Acel and other OPM artists as of late when I personally took a long hiatus with anything related to music, so being able to listen to something new from one of the artists that we look up to was something that I was looking forward to; especially knowing that Acel has been a Christian for quite some time. In fact if I am not mistaken, we once shared the same Christian Music record label distribution company in Praise Music. This was the time when Acel decided to embark on a solo career.
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| Acel Bisa Van Ommen in her element |
The show formally started a little past 8:00 pm with Acel welcoming her audience with the last track from her latest album. "My Cure" is an easy listening track that segues into a catchy sing song chorus that sticks with you as she belts out the chorus lines. Unmistakably, this is Acel in her element. And this is just the first song. As Acel introduces her next song “Second Choice” (the carrier single of the album that made it to Spotify’s New Music Friday Playlist), you’ll immediately know that this is going to be one special evening. You could immediately feel the positive vibe and the inspirational nature of the song that seeks to empower us by recognizing our self worth. The tone of the evening is set but then as Acel breaks into her third song, the haunting lullaby “Shut it Down”, where her emotive delivery of the song doubles as a plea for everyone to tone down the use of social media, changed the pace of the evening. It turned to be one filled with roller coaster of emotions. Good thing that her next song “You” reassures us again of loving and giving value to ourselves. Both songs send a message how the age of social media tend to turn most of us into narcissists or having that feeling that we are loved less when we start comparing ourselves to others, which is actually a wrong notion; because if we recognize God’s love for us, then we’ll never look for another kind of love or affirmation to fill that emptiness inside. This would then lead to her next song “Great Reward” which actually speaks about God being our great reward. That being able to nurture this relationship with him is the only thing in this world that matters. By this point, I knew that the album is something that I would like to listen more often and draw inspiration from.
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| Acel with her kids performs a Laufey original |
It was also heartwarming to see Acel being joined by her two sons as they performed a cover of Laufey’s song “From the Start”. Acel also took the opportunity to introduce her NGO Charitable institution RIGHT START which seeks to empower and give opportunities to underprivileged children. Joined by Denice Lao and a trio of her kid scholars from Right Start, they performed a song that speaks of the value of Children in our society. The ever lovely Clara Benin also makes a surprise appearance as she belts out two of her songs as Acel takes a breather and wardrobe change. As Acel returned on stage, she belts out a couple of commissioned songs and covers, with her refreshing take of Rico Blanco’s “Your Universe” being my favorite one of the medley of cover songs (hey I’m a huge Rico Blanco fan!). Then it was at this point that my favorite part of the concert came. When Acel began her testimony of how she encountered God and how God saved her and turned her life around. Her testimony would set the stage for her to finally sing her song for God. “Be Still” is that one track from her album that redirects all of the other songs’ messages to that one faithful God that she has been talking about in her other songs. If there were some vagueness about who she has been referring to with her other songs, this song would refocus all the attention to God. It’s a similar writing style that we do when we release our albums; writing songs that has some vagueness to it so that secular mainstream audience would not be overtly turned off by the religious messaging of the song (at least when released as singles) yet dropping one praise and worship song in the album to direct the listeners that all of the songs in the album are actually our faith stories and our way of honoring God by witnessing his faithfulness to us.
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| Queens of OPM Rock Acel and Lougee Basabas of Mojofly |
Yet the night was still full of surprises as Acel introduced her guest performers EJ DE Perio, a Christian artist himself that I have his songs on my OPM Christian Music playlist, as well as Lougee Basabas of Mojofly. Lougee also shared her story about how she encountered God with Acel’s help, turning her life around as a Christian. She then proceeds to sing her new song with Acel, a Christian Contemporary Pop/Rock song that she offers to God. Lougee has been a very able and talented singer-songwriter that took the reins of Mojofly when Kitchie Nadal pursued a solo career, owning the band with her hit song “Mata”, perhaps the most popular song in Mojofly’s catalogue. And that’s saying much coming from someone who had totally busted his first two Mojofly cassette tape albums featuring Kitchie on vocals being heavily played on the cassette player. Of course, the evening wouldn’t be complete without Acel performing her greatest hits, “Sulat” and “Ang Pag-ibig kong ito” (a Leah Navarro original) from the second Moonstar 88 Album, “Torete” from the Moonstar 88 debut album, and her first solo hit song “Pitik Bulag.” She completes her originals by ending her set with the final song from her latest album, the song “Buhangin” which succinctly encapsulates her upcoming journey, like sand that is blown by the wind to new places worth discovering. In between those songs and some song finales for the evening, Acel breaks into praise and worship mode as she belts out covers of some of the most popular Christian songs now (You’re Love is Extravagant by Casting Crowns, Gratitude by Brandon Lake, Always on Time by Elevation Worship, Goodbye Yesterday by Elevation Rhythm and Gracie Binion), joined by her friends (Lei Bautista of Prettier than Pink to name one) and her family. She even quipped that it feels like everyone is in Church this evening.
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| The finale breaks into an impromptu Praise and Worship evening |
To be honest, to be able to witness this was a thing of beauty. For someone who’s been fighting and advocating for Christian Music to someday be heard more and being accepted more by mainstream audience outside the confines of Church, it just puts a smile to my face that I am not alone in this ministry after all. To see Acel being able to shift and turn the evening from being a secular concert celebrating her songs to turning it into an impromptu Praise and Worship night filled with her life’s testimony, and witnessing how God worked his love to find and saved her. It’s something that I can only dream of for our band and our songs. To know that someone has already done it, it gives me great comfort and joy that with this ministry that I have been fighting for since 2006, someone actually shares it too. And not just from some start up artist, but someone who has a name and already has a platform to speak from.
I went home inspired to continue with the mission. To write songs to help uplift wounded souls.
Thank You Acel for this evening. May God Bless you and your music. May it inspire multitude of lives to seek God and start a faithful relationship with him. I am at peace knowing that there are more of us working for the Lord and willing to be his witness and storytellers to share his great love for us in song form.
You can visit Right Start on their website for more details and how you can be a part of their ministry on this link:
Right Start - We provide creative caring spaces for the poorest children in the community
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