"I don't care," she said, "as long as I look good on stage."

And Ms. Soriano does look good, on and off stage. She can still sway to the rhythm effortlessly even though she now has to strain her voice to reach the high notes of some songs.

"You're entitled to a few mistakes at my age," she laughed. "People are more forgiving. Even if my voice cracks or I forget some lyrics, they still appreciate me."

Songs like her trademark "Eres Tu" remain part of her repertoire, as well as an OPM medley and an ABBA medley.

"I choose to sing songs that are melodious and pleasant to the ear," she said, apparently shunning the R&B sound of Beyonce and her kind.

As a performer, Ms. Soriano describes herself as a "persona."

"I have to be packaged," she said. "I'm not like other singers who have a beautiful voice. I am not a great beauty. I have flaws. When I'm on stage, it's the total persona that you see."

As a performer, Ms. Soriano still has a lot of mileage left in her. She can still pack a crowd and keep the audience excited with her songs and free-flowing spiels about her life, her loves, her weight and her age.

But she refuses to look back, not even at the number of record albums she has done, the movies she has made or the TV shows she had—For Men Only, Carmen on Camera, and Carmen in Color. In fact, there is no record of Carmen Soriano, the singer on Wikipedia or on IMDb.

"I don't keep memorabilia," she said. "I don't look back. The future I'm looking at might be worse than my past.

"I did some crazy things, lost money on some bad investments, but I have overcome most pitfalls. I treasure most my health and my faith in God. I am happy that I am performing again. I'm happy to be alive."