by aLfie vera mella
The recent concert of the Philippine-based celebrity singers Angeline Quinto and Erik Santos was successful. The packed venue was teeming with screaming fans and spectators almost after every song of Quinto and Santos, both as a duet and as individual performers. Quinto’s deadpan-style comedic spiels inbetween songs were effective, sending the crowd to laughter here and there. Santos’s superb vocal prowess was especially highlighted by his performance of a medley of Broadway theme songs with a backdrop of video slides depicting multiplicates of his own self singing the backing, contrapuntal, and complementary vocal parts. After the engaging and worthwhile couple of hours’ singing and jocund stage interplay between the two, Quinto and Santos happily obliged to have their pictures with the fans taken at the designated photo corner at the venue’s lobby. The concert’s success may be attributed mostly to the hard work and hands-on promotion of the couple Katya and Todd Labelle with their production team Todd Labelle Promotions. Yes, there are indeed so many Filipinos in Winnipeg; however, this does not automatically translate to modest ticket sales if the producers will not take the initiative to promote their project with a good enough lead time. Ultimately, the producers’ good reputation and friendly relations with their prospective goers and supporters count a lot too.
