Discovery of Lea Salonga

Yesterday I discovered Lea Salonga on YouTube.com
Lea Salonga is a Musical singer, currently singing on Broadway, New York.

Actually I had discovered her in 2001 but didn't pay attention at that time.

Another singer, Leah delos Santos, was having a rehearsal on a plaza in Berlin (Germany) in 2001 while I was having a walk and was passing by. The singing caught my attention and I took a break and became interested in the songs. I did some internet research later on and came across the name Lea Salonga, too (due to the similarity of names).

However, I did not know anything specific about Lea Salonga apart from some sound recordings that I found on that occasion and which did not please me too much at that time since the live experience of Leah delos Santos had impressed me more.

Now yesterday evening by chance I came across Lea Salonga again on YouTube. I had the chance to watch a video of her first major audition on the Phillipines in 1989 when she was 18:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0xyePzdGA

It seemed to me that she just saw the song Sun and moon that evening for the first time at the grand piano with Claude-Michel Schönberg, the composer. The song belongs to the musical Miss Saigon which refers to the Vietnam war and came out in 1989, the year of the audition.

Actually I hadn't known that the guy at the grand piano was Claude-Michel Schönberg but guessed correctly that he was the composer which I found today when I checked it on wikipedia.de

What totally smashed me however was, how professional Lea Salonga behaved even though she was only 18. But I guess after being in business for about 10 years you learn that. (She started singing about 7 as she said in one of her interviews). I never could have done what she did when I was her age.

She was even so cool to ask Claude-Michel Schönberg for an autograph before she started singing. Of course, I guess she wanted to show that she knew his previous works and probably flatter him a bit, too, thereby making him be more patient in case of lapses.

But on the other hand she really showed how cool she was even just a few seconds before an all decesive audition. Maybe that impressed those guys there, too?

Meanwhile, Lea Salonga is married and has a baby daughter. She married in 2004 and got her baby daughter last year in May 2006. Currently in 2007 she is on Broadway again

My personal wishes for Lea Salongas future are that
* she keeps some of her natural determination
(that she showed in her first audition for Miss Saigon)
* she stays real,
* she stays cool,
* she does not get envious or jealous on other performers who are younger 'cause it would destroy the purity of her heart and make it opaque.

I think she overacted a bit in Inside the Academy (PDA Phillipine TV Academy soap?) where she kinda obviously seemed to play the role of a mother which she actually became in 2006.
I would say that people don't expect her to play the role of a mother - just being a mother would be sufficient from my point of view.

---------------------------------------------------------
Audition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0xyePzdGA
Inside Academy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-WRjv0VHc
Biography: http://www.filipinoweb.com/leasalonga.html
Biography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0758964/

End of discovery.