Rico Blanco.
Like many of his fellow OPM artists, 2013 was quite a year for Pinoy rocker Rico Blanco. Still on a roll after the warm reception to his second solo album “Galactik Fiestamatik” in 2012, the talented singer-songwriter started 2013 flexing his acting chops anew on the ABS-CBN afternoon teleserye “May Isang Pangarap”, which began its five-month run last January.
The following month saw Rico as host and judge of the TV5 talent reality search “Kanta Pilipinas”. Also in February, he collaborated with fellow artists Ely Buendia, Raimund Marasigan and Barbie Almalbis for an update of Heber Bartolome’s “Tayo’y Mga Pinoy”, which was used as a commercial jingle for Smart Broadband’s latest offering.
He then spent the rest of the year performing as his alter ego Fiesto Bandido in several successful concerts, including an independence day concert at the Music Museum last June and as only one of two Filipino performers in the Sundown Music Festival in Singapore by November.
Then tragedy struck. After killer typhoon Yolanda left a path of destruction that included Tacloban City where his relatives are based, Rico shifted his priorities from that of his own career to the welfare of the typhoon survivors, including his kin.
He took part in the TV5 telethon “Tulong Kapatid, Sulong Kapatid” that raised around P30 million in a matter of hours. Rico also performed in one benefit show after another, including the “Smart Bro Live and Loud” concert with Barbie Almabis also last November.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Rico ended the year and welcomed 2014 with three straight days of pop-up concerts in several barangays in Leyte, which began last December 31 and will conclude Thursday, January 2.
Recalling how much he used to spend his summer vacation with his cousins and other relatives in Tacloban, Rico was more than happy to deliver some post-yuletide cheer for the typhoon survivors with whole day peformances in Tacloban City, Palo, Tanauan last New Year’s Eve, in Barangay Cogon, Palo Leyte and other nearby sites on New Year’s Day and at Barangay Kabakungan, Dulag, Leyte on January 2.
The pop-up concerts were conceptualized after Rico sent a message to the Twitter account of Oxfam, “an international confederation of 17 organizations working in approximately 90 countries worldwide to find solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world”.
In the aftermath of typhoon Yolanda, Oxfam has assisted more than 30,000 people in Leyte with hygiene kits of essential items that will help people maintain their personal hygiene, training and promotion of community wide hygiene sessions with children and adults, and mapping and needs assessment to identify public health risks in the communities.
Rico offered to help Oxfam in its emergency response efforts in Tacloban. His laudable efforts include helping compose the Waray version of Oxfam’s jingle on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene or simply WASH. Oxfam’s program on WASH in Leyte is being implemented with the Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children as members of the WASH cluster in the province.
Aside from the jingle, Rico also agreed with Oxfam’s plan for him to sing to typhoon survivors in Tacloban and nearby towns this holiday season. Hence, the pop-up concerts with the hash tag #riconnect that saw Rico return to the city that gave him a lot of good memories—a place he hopes to see rise again in 2014.
Rico Blanco holds New Year shows for typhoon survivors in Tacloban, nearby towns
Source: InterAksyon.com (January 02, 2014 at 08:27AM)
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