A night, a flight with Ate Guy

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.” Nhat Hanh

By Alex P. Vidal

I DECIDED to write about Nora “Ate Guy” Aunor after reading in the Internet that she and her former screen partner, Joseph “Erap” Estrada, have reconciled a week before super-typhoon “Ruby” lashed at the Philippines.

Now the mayor of Manila, Estrada must have forgiven the diminutive former Asia-Pacific CNN best actress of the century awardee.

All’s well that ends well. Let bygones be bygones.

The “reconciliation” happened almost four years after my controversial one-on-one interview with Ate Guy at the Olympia Pizza in Surrey, British Columbia on May 14, 2010, where she surprised everyone when she refused to defend Estrada, who cried poll cheating against the newly-elected President Simeon Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. (http://globalbalita.com/2010/05/23/eraps-showbiz-friend-aunor-rebuffs-poll-cheating-claim/)

In that interview, Ate Guy planted a kiss on both my right and left cheeks as if we were old friends immediately after we were introduced to each other.

“Aha, ikaw ha (so it’s you),” Ate Guy chortled, while pointing a finger at me. I kissed her once. She kissed me twice.

Showbiz na showbiz ang dating. Haha.

It was actually my first face-to-face meeting with her.

Before they officially announced that Ate Guy lost her voice and wasn’t able to sing in her concerts in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney in Australia sometime in August 2010, we already learned about the bad news three months earlier when she was in Calgary, Vancouver, and Toronto in Canada in May 2010.

‘LIVE’

In a concert billed “Nora Aunor Live in Vancouver” held at the Massey Theater in New Westminster, B.C. on May 15, 2010, the popular and petite actress apologized for “disappointing a lot of my fans here in Vancouver, especially the producers and all of you” during the aborted February concert saying she was—and is still—under medication and her doctor has advised her to “slow down” and take a rest for at least six months.

Ate Guy admitted her voice sounded like “I just woke up in the morning.”

She confessed doing a “lip-sync” during her May 15 performance produced by Foxy Production and Marcyz Production in cooperation with Rhonrose Printing and Thee Mustard Seeds Entertainment Ltd.

The following day, May 16, we flew together on the same flight to Toronto where she also announced during her Ontario concert that it was her last show.

News that she has ended her singing career grabbed headlines especially in entertainment.

“Noranians all over the world phoned each other, jampacked their e-mails and Facebook,” reported the Toronto-based The Philippine Reporter.

“News about the demise of her singing career spread like wild fire, after all, Nora is popularly known to be the only singer in the music industry endowed with a ‘golden voice,’” it added.

Grace Perucha, producer of the Tribute to Nora, said the superstar was not happy that she was unable to give the fans what they expected her to do.

This means, to hear her sing ‘live’ on stage.

AUSTRALIA

In Australia three months later, Superstarstruck reported on September 5 that Ate Guy’s concerts were supposed to be three days.

Danny Dingle reported: “Thousands of fans filled the concert venues in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney who came to hear her golden voice. In the end, they all went home without hearing a note of her famous voice.

“Instead, the audience heard a very public personal apology for Nora’s inability to fulfill her contract to perform. It became a meet-and-greet the fans show.

“To an outside observer, that might have been enough to cause a riot, to turn the expectant fans into an unruly mob, boos and all, for feeling shortchanged.

“But nothing of the sort happened. When she began to speak and revealed the reason for her non-performance, they instead fell to a hush, content by the experience of seeing the superstar in person, privileged to be before her presence as if she were royalty.

“They respected her revelation and took her story into their hearts. They were relieved that at least, she can still speak.”

CAMATOSE

Dingle added: “She explained her botched facial rejuvenating procedure in Japan that left her comatose for five days.

“To save her life, the doctors performed tracheotomy, but unfortunately damaged her vocal cords in the process.

“It was a bombshell revelation that confirmed what had been reported in the media. Many hearts were shattered that afternoon, many wept, as realization strongly hit the fans that the superstar could not sing anymore.

“She tried, in the “Dahil Sa Iyo” duet with Kuya Germs. But the golden voice flat-lined, severely damaged.

“Nora is hopeful that it could be ‘repaired’ someday, but costs would be astronomical. The fans were full of pang-unawa, pagmamahal, pagkaawa and concern for her well-being.”