How the song 'Nandito Ako' came to be
Aaron Paul del Rosario, writer-composer of “Nandito Ako,” the first song that made Ogie Alcasid popular, is excited and honored that the composition is also the title of a new TV5 teleserye starring David Archuleta of “American Idol” fame.
In a recent Facebook exchange of messages, Aaron said: “This is really great, a nice birthday gift for me.”
He marked his birth anniversary last Jan. 13, the day he learned David is singing and starring in “Nandito Ako.”
Aaron feels sad David can’t record the English version of the song, "Forever With You," as he is already leaving for Singapore on Feb. 5.
Aaron recalls how “Nandito Ako” came about.
It was 1989, after he stayed for a few years in San Diego, California.
“I came over for a short vacation. I visited OctoArts (the recording company that discovered him as a singer-songwriter). Bob Guzman of the famous Boyfriends was head of the Artists Development Department of OctoArts, and he told me they had an upcoming artist who was going to record an album with them. He told me to watch their new artist who was having a mini mall concert to see if I could write an original song for him.”
Impressed
Curious, Aaron watched the newcomer’s mini concert, certain that he would stay just for a while.
“But I stayed till the end of the show,” Aaron relates. “I was truly impressed. The artist Bob Guzman told me about, turned out to be Ogie Alcasid, a former Kundirana member. He could sing, dance and tell jokes well enough to thrill the audience and elicit from them favorable response. Ang galing niya. But I noticed and heard that the crowd was always shouting the name ‘Manilyn (Reynes)!’
Aaron did a little research and found out that Manilyn was in a loveteam with Keempee de Leon. Aaron surmised that Ogie could be the third angle in a love triangle.
“That inspired me to write ‘Nandito Ako,’ the gist of which is that in a relationship, there could be someone out there waiting for his chance to tell the girl of his fancy his secret feelings and that he’s just waiting in case the girl’s relationship with her boyfriend turns sour. It tells of the feelings of a hopeless romantic, who’s fantasizing that someday the girl he loves, who unfortunately belongs to someone else, would somehow by a twist of fate, fall in love with him too.”
“Nandito Ako” the teleserye also stars Jasmine Curtis Smith and Eula Caballero with veteran actress Perla Bautista among others.
It starts airing Feb. 20 on TV5.
