May 09, 2024
Facing a crossroads in his life, one of the country’s top entertainers Gary V is not perturbed; his faith has told him which path to take
Gary Valenciano, famously known as Mr Pure Energy, is about to turn 60. This raises the question of whether he will retire or not. Valenciano is one of the few artists who have reached Superstar status, has conquered every musical artist’s dream and is still performing. He is renowned for his high-energy performances, complicated jumps and gyrations, and a non-stop tempo called “hataw” in Tagalog slang. However, with him reaching 60, it remains to be seen whether he will still be able to deliver the energetic performances he is known for.
This is a valid question, considering that he has been on insulin for 45 years now because of Type 1 diabetes plus tuberculosis, pneumonia and knee surgeries. He’s also had a heart bypass, cancer of the kidney, hepatitis, dengue and Covid-19. With his full share of hospital stays, he, too, contemplated the matter. “A few years ago, I started thinking about slowing down. I was feeling tired. I just came from a bypass. I wanted to pull back. I wanted my last concert then to be my last,” Valenciano recalls.
ABOVE Mr Pure Energy serenades the crowd at Gary V: Back at the Museum
A Matter of Faith
When the pandemic hit, however, things began to change. Gary V, as he is also often called, did an online concert and two tours in the United States and Canada, one in 2022 and the other in 2023. “I was like, hey, wait a minute. How come my energy is back to the way it was before? I was surprised to feel my body feeling strong and energised,” Valenciano says.
So, in 2023, when he started looking deeply at his life, Valenciano went to his safe place and turned to his faith. He prayed, asking God the big question: How long can this go on? How long can I do this? Valenciano shares the divine answer he got, “It was then that something I saw many years back, in 2008, became very clear to me.”
So touched was he by this connection he felt with the Lord that he chose to end his April concert, Mr Pure Energy: One Last Time, with a sharing of this experience. “I am keeping it a secret until the concert,” Valenciano says in this interview conducted a month before, but he reveals it to Tatler after swearing us to secrecy. Since the concert would have been over when this issue hits the stands, he read his spiel to us, with permission to share it here.
He starts: “I know that many have questioned why the title of this concert is Pure Energy: One Last Time. I can’t blame any of you for thinking, ‘What? He’s retiring?’ After all, that’s how it sounded from the start.
“And then, I often hear people say, ‘Kayang kaya mo pa naman, e [You still can do it].’ And [it] would become so real because the mind would believe what people would say, but the body would start saying otherwise.
“Once a career has lasted this long, it often brings to mind the question, ‘How long can this go on for, in this way?’ The thing is, I got an answer, and it came in a way that only God can provide.
“What I’m about to share with you is something I have never felt worthy enough to experience. It was on November 14 and 15, 2008, that I was celebrating my 25th anniversary at the Araneta Coliseum.”
He continues reading as we paraphrase for brevity. Valenciano says that on November 15, 2008, the second of his two-day concert, he woke up with no voice. He tapped his wife Angeli and said, “Hon, I have no voice for tonight. You have to pray for me, please.”
Angeli sat up on the bed and placed one arm around her husband’s shoulder and her other hand upon his. “But all I recall from that prayer were her first few words. Because that’s when it began. Her voice started to fade into the background, but only to usher in what I believe was a vision,” Valenciano relates.
He walked and stopped twice again. At the last stop, he saw the concert the night before and every other concert he’d been to since the beginning of his 25-year-old career. And he heard God say, “It was fun, right?” A teary-eyed Valenciano nodded and whispered, “Yeah. It was.” Before he can add, “And I’m going to miss this, Lord,” God read his heart and responded, “There’s more. But it’s that way, pointing to [another direction towards] the horizon.”
Valenciano looked toward where God was pointing to but saw nothing. Then, He said, “It may not be as grand, Gary, but it would be fulfilling. Maybe even more fulfilling than in the past. Do you want to go?” No words came out of Valenciano’s mouth; he simply nodded and started walking forward with Him once more.
The plan was to end this spiel and the concert with Take Me Out of the Dark, a personal favourite which he wrote. “This song became viral, internationally even, in 2020, during the pandemic,” Valenciano shares. “People were looking at what artists from all over the world were putting online. And I was seated right there [pointing to a spot behind him in this home studio from where he was talking to us]. It’s only a small room, but it looks bigger in photos.”
Hanging On
Today, Valenciano veers from the old path of hataw concerts to gigs in smaller venues with new, more appropriate moves. He also lowers his range, when necessary, a technique common to all artists, both local and foreign.
“There’s a difference between a big venue and an intimate venue,” Valenciano says. “I could still do concerts in intimate venues, around 2000 seats, unlike my 10,000-seater venues. We are going on a tour this year to do just this.” He is still, however, open to big venues if it is not a solo concert or if he can share the stage with other singers.
The Source
Success never entered his head, however. Valenciano knows exactly why. “The Lord made sure I had something to keep my feet on the ground. And that was my diabetes. It is a blessing. If I didn’t have that, who knows how success would have changed me?” He also credits Kundirana for this discipline. “Kundirana taught us how to bring joy to others through music.”
He has been bringing joy with his music for 40 years and admits in his closing spiel: “Friends, doing things like this has never been easy. What’s more, now in the season of my 60th year of life? Nakakapagod din [It’s also tiring]. I’ve given you my all tonight as I’ve consistently tried to do so in the past 40 years. I’ve sung, danced, laughed, cried and hopefully inspired some of you and celebrated life with you. And this is how I want you to remember me.”
Valenciano emphasises that although he may be concluding a season, it’s not the end of the series. He calls it merely the final page of a chapter, not the final page of the entire book. With a clear goal in mind, he looks forward to the future, which he aptly describes as “the great unknown”, and places his complete trust in God, whom he refers to as “the source of True Pure Energy”.
Valenciano already had a taste of the new path last year when he did ten sold-out concerts at the Music Museum, a venue for 718 people. He gave his audience a great concert, so much so that many went back to watch it three or four times.
His life has also taken on another path in 2018 that led him to students on campuses. Called Face to Face with Gary V, the series of dialogues have numbered 58 already. “I just felt in my heart that I wanted to reach out to them [the students], so I opened my doors, and the schools opened theirs. I speak to 150 to 200 students about my life and journey. I don’t just speak to them; I speak with them. If I have the answer [to their questions], great! But if I don’t, we’re in the same boat, but it was great to hear each other out,” he says.
According to Valenciano, the response is “really close to the word ‘unbelievable’”. He adds, “We have a conversation. I share my flaws as well, including my diabetes, which always generates a Wow from them. They think that I am someone who has achieved so much despite what I’ve got. Yeah! That’s my way of reaching out to them.”
Valenciano realised that face-to-face communication fits the Lord’s description of “not as grand but more fulfilling”.
From the Top
Valenciano’s singing career was nourished in school. In senior high school in La Salle Greenhills, he joined Kundirana when the popular collegiate singing group was just a decade old. After just one year, top singer Pilita Corrales spotted his talent and invited the new graduate to guest on her show. After that, impresario German “Kuya Germs” Moreno guested him in GMA.
Performing is probably in his genes. Though he shares that only some family members are musical, talent abounds. His mother, the Puerto Rican Grimilda Santiago, was an excellent actress and was part of the Teatro Fil-Hispanico.
“My luck changed on November 12, 1985,” Valenciano remembers. The song Di Na Natuto not only put him on the map but continued to push his career higher. But he recalls, “And yet, I was not happy, nor even satisfied. I was always trying to outdo my last performance. I was struggling with insecurity, always thinking we may have a sell-out crowd now, but what if it’s not like this next year or next month? Or what if somebody else comes along?”
Of course, there was someone else. “There was a guy named Martin Nievera,” Valenciano teasingly refers to one of his best friends. “I would see him and get wowed by the way he talked and worked up the audience. I’m not like that! Galing nya!”
“I’ve given you my all tonight as I’ve consistently tried to do so in the past 40 years. I’ve sung, danced, laughed, cried and hopefully inspired some of you and celebrated life with you. And this is how I want you to remember me”
– Gary Valenciano –
