Pop Princess Sarah Geronimo
successfully staged her major concert for 2009—billed Record Breaker—last
November 7 at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
Uploaded: November 10, 2009
Sarah, whose
full name is Sarah Asher Tua Geronimo, was born on July 25, 1988. While Sarah earned her ticket to fame in 2003 through the singing contest, Star For A Night, her foray into the spotlight actually started
in the early ‘90s as part of various children's shows like Pen-pen de Sarapin (1992-1994) and Ang TV (1995-1996).
After opening
the evening with upbeat numbers, Sarah went back to singing love ballads. Her
first romantic tune that evening was the yearning single, "Right Here Waiting,"
originally recorded by American singer Richard Marx.
Christian
Bautista, one of Sarah's many contemporaries, rendered a string
of Jose Mari Chan classic singles—"Beautiful Girl," "Tell Me Your Name," "Constant
Change," and "Can We Just Stop and Awhile."
Sarah and
Christian performed another Jose Mari Chan tune, "Please be Careful With My
Heart." Asia's Songbird, Regine Velasquez, originally recorded the song
together with Jose Mari a few years back.
All of Sarah's
major concerts were done at the Araneta Coliseum: The Other Side (2005), In
Motion (2007), and The Next One
(2008). Each year saw a marked increase in gate attendance with Record Breaker perhaps surpassing the
others.
Viva's new
all-girl group, Pop Girls, joined Sarah in singing the catchy South Korean
smash, "Nobody," and together they performed
the tune's signature dance steps.
Sarah sang the
theme song of her two box-office movies opposite young dramatic actor, John Lloyd
Cruz. Both movies reportedly raked huge earnings for Star Cinema and were
included in the "Highest Top-Grossing Filipino Films of All Time."
Asia's Songbird
Regine Velasquez has always been a big supporter of Sarah's singing career.
Regine witnessed Sarah's rise to the top first-hand, having served as Star For A Night main host in 2003.
Sarah has been
tagged by some observers as Regine's possible "successor," owing largely to Sarah's career
path.
Young Filipino-British
singing sensation, Charlie Green of Britain's
Got Talent joined his "Ate Sarah" in singing the standard hit, "The Way You
Look Tonight."
The ever-unassuming Sarah tried her best to deliver a British accent during her spiel with Charlie.
When she asked Charlie to rate her accent, Green replied "Very funny."
Charlie is now
officially part of Viva Records, as announced by Sarah that evening. Showing
that he could also sing in Filipino, Charlie surprised the crowd by performing
the classic local ballad, "Dahil sa Iyo."
Sarah cited the
late Michael Jackson as one of her music heroes when she was growing up. The Pop
Princess paid tribute to the King of Pop with her rendition of "One
Day In Your Life," and "Ben."
Local tributes poured in following the demise of Michael Jackson last June. Many tribute numbers have taken up Jackson's well-known hits. But Sarah opted to cover the rebellious "They Don't Really Care," to cap
her own salute to the controversial pop idol.
Sarah, Billy,
Vhong and Luis dished out the hit singles popularized by the American ‘90s boy
band, Backstreet Boys. The four sweetened their rendition with cliché dance
steps commonly associated with boy bands of the past decade.
Incidentally,
Sarah collaborated with Howie Dorough of the Backstreet Boys in 2008 for the single, "I'll
Be There." The song was included in her platinum-selling album Just Me.
Sarah performed
the OPM classic hit, "Sana Ay Ikaw Na Nga." In spite of her success as an
actress, Sarah has repeatedly stressed that her recording career remains her priority.
With Christmas
just around the corner, Sarah performed a cover of "Sana Ngayong Pasko." The
poignant Yuletide single was popularized by Ariel Rivera in the ‘90s. Sarah
dedicated the song to everyone "na malamig ang pasko."
In spite of the
problems facing the music industry during recent years, Sarah's albums have
all been certified platinum sellers. Her debut album, Popstar: A Dream ComeTrue,
achieved a whopping 7x platinum status.
Recounting her
difficult yet inspiring journey to the top, Sarah performed Miley Cyrus's
modern hit, "The Climb." This ballad lamenting life's
struggles while remaining positive vividly captures Sarah's own story. Though
it wasn't her last material for the evening, the song provided Sarah a fitting
number to cap Record Breaker.