MOVIEGOER: Marco Sison's Top 10 OPM favorites
Published Jul 17, 2025 12:13 am
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Updated Jul 17, 2025 07:31 am
Marco Sison
He was 15 when he sang his first kundiman, a precursor to what is now known as OPM, or Original Pilipino Music.
Marco Sison remembers the occasion quite well. It was for a singing competition among different schools in Laguna.
The song was ‘Ang Barong Tagalog,’ originally sung by Kundiman King, Ruben Tagalog. Then, as a high school student, he represented his hometown, Binan.
The young Marco, already a veteran of amateur contests in Binan and nearby towns since age 8, ran away with the championship title. It was to be a portent of more and better things to come.
Marco says he was initially hesitant to sing ‘Ang Barong Tagalog,’ which he found not quite in sync with his musical taste then. Like many emerging youths of the time, he was more partial to the love songs of Frank Sinatra and Mat Monro, his idols.
Besides, those were the songs his mother, Pacita, a former club singer, taught him at home. It helped that Marco had a bit of the nasal quality of balladeer Monro’s voice, which would manifest more clearly as he grew older and learned new vocal techniques.
A huge part of his learning came by way of Student Canteen, the daily noontime show on GMA that was quite popular in the 1960s and 70s. Marco enlisted in the program, where he won for 14 weeks and was declared champion in 1978. That opened the road to a showbiz career for the young man, then only 19 or 20, and alrewady quite a looker.
That was also the time, the late 70s, when OPM was breaking ground. The new wave excited the winning Canteener, inspired by the overwhelming new sound emerging. It was the time the likes of Hotdog, VST & Company, Anthony Castelo, Celeste Legaspi, Hajji Alejandro and Rico Puno were turning in hits one after the other.
Marco felt an overwhelming urge to come into his own as a singer. He was lucky enough to land a recording contract with Zodiac Records, where he cut an album, his very first. One of the songs in that long-player, I’ll Face Tomorrow, an OPM, was to become a hit years later.
Then along came a succession of hit songs under WEA Records, seeing to it that Marco’s star was rising by leaps and bounds: Make Believe, My Love Will See You Through, Always, Si Aida, Si Lorna at Si Fe, Ikaw Lamang. These songs have stood the test of time and have ensconced Marco in a niche that’s his own.
I asked Marco, in line with his July 25 major concert at the Theater at Solaire, what his favorite OPM songs are. It took a while to list them down, as he has always been a faithful OPM lover. Here are his top 10 favorites:
1) With A Smile, by Ely Buendia of the Eraserheads: Beautiful melody.
2) Kahit Ika’y Panaginip Lang, sung by Basil Valdez, by Ryan Cayabyab: Unpredictable tune has highs and lows. Quite hard to sing.
3) Kung Tayo’y Magkakalayo, by Rey Valera: One stanza is quite touching. “Aking nadarama, pagsasama nati’y di magtatagagal, kay laki ng hadlang, sa ating pag-ibig.”
4) Give Me A Chance, by Ric Segretto: Metropop winner, a challenge to sing.
5) You, by Gerry Paraiso, sung by Basil Valdez: Classic Pinoy love song.
6) Why Can’t It Be, by Rannie Raymundo: I like the song’s message.
7) Make Believe
8) Always
9) My Love Will See You Through, all three by Nonoy Tan: These songs changed my life.
10) Araw-Gabi, by Ryan Cayabyab, sung by Basil Valdez: Simple yet unpredictable tune.