Startist in Spotlight
By SARAH JANE VON WETTBERG
Bay Area Filipino-American R&B band Legaci is having a breakout season of sorts, thanks to You Tube, the same video-sharing website that helped launch the career of international Pinoy performers Charice Pempengco and Arnel Pineda of the Bay Area’s famous Journey band.
The quartet composed of Chris Abad, Delfin Lazaro, Dominic Manuel and Micah Tolentino are currently the backup singers of emerging pop prince Justin Bieber of Canada in his first world concert tour.
The 16-year-old Bieber, who was also discovered via You Tube, started his “My World” concert tour June 23 in Hartford, Connecticut. This week, his hectic schedule takes Bieber and his group to Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on July 24, Jobing.com Arena in Phoenix the next day, Sprint Center in Kansas City on the 28th, Verizon Arena the next day in Little Rock, and at the FedEx Forum in Memphis on the 31st.
Legaci, which was started in 1997 by a group of Fil-Am high school chums from Vallejo, got its big break after Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun, who discovered Bieber three years ago in much the same way — watching him perform on videos posted in You Tube – contacted the group. From there, he didn’t let go.
Braun’s attention was gripped by Legaci’s version of “Baby,” the spring smash hit by Bieber, which they posted in You Tube. With Cathy Nguyen and rapper Traphik, the group re-arranged the Bieber hit song and transformed it into a passionate piece of pop. Braun was so impressed with the Filipino group that he invited them to join Bieber.
“I absolutely loved what I saw,” Braun told the New York Times News Service’s Josh Kun. “I really wanted someone to be in the band that was from YouTube, so that Justin could give something back to the community that gave so much to him.”
A week after receiving a call from Braun, the Pinoy singers flew to New York for rehearsals and then joined the Canadian pop sensation live on MTV and on Z100, New York’s leading pop radio station.
“The group has been pleasantly surprised by just how much it has been embraced by Bieber’s fans, many of whom now follow Legaci on Twitter and subscribe to its YouTube channel. The connection is not lost on Braun, who is working with Legaci on a record deal,” NYT’s Kun said.
Bieber bonded quickly with his Filipino backup singers. The chemistry between the pop star and his back up vocalists is such that he made room in his set during his current tour for Legaci to perform one of its own songs.
It is the kind of exposure on the big stage that the Pinoy band hopes will enable a generation of music lovers to see that it is not unusual for Asian Americans to be on the spotlight.
The Filipino group is certainly thankful and proud for its shining moment, knowing the kind of exposure they get on the road with Bieber is more exposure than they would ever get working a single with a major label.
Before the current “My World” tour with Bieber, the Pinoy quartet has performed in some of the biggest stages of American pop — with their phenomenal teenage boss, of course.
“There they were, belting perfect four-part harmony on “Saturday Night Live,” finger-snapping and line-dancing like the Temptations on “The View,” “Ellen” and “Today,” and crooning to a hysterical, sold-out crowd of 15,000 at the annual KIIS-FM Wango Tango blowout in Los Angeles. (They took the stage just after Kesha and Adam Lambert, just before Ludacris and Usher.),” wrote Kun.
Micah Tolentino, 30, and one of the original members who started Legaci 13 years ago, fully appreciates their current break, which hopefully would lead to bigger things in the future.
“Even if most people just know us as Justin Bieber’s Asian backup singers,” Tolentino said, “we’re proud to be out there, to show the world that Asian-Americans are talented.”
Like many other Asian American bands before them, Legaci band members have tried to break the glass ceiling that makes it tough for performers from their ethnic group to gain acceptance into the mainstream entertainment market.
History tells them that it took a long time for African American performers — and to some extent Hispanic American talents — to overcome the same barrier decades ago.
In fact, it was this difficulty getting the attention of the music industry decision makers that prompted the group to go to YouTube. After years of frustration looking for the big break, Legaci decided to promote their brand of music by uploading videos of their compositions in the Internet.
Encouraged by the career-changing breaks achieved by compatriots like Pempengco and Pineda, who were both discovered a few years ago via YouTube, the group turned to what has become the virtual launching pad for Asian-American artists seeking the exposure rarely afforded them by the mainstream recording industry.
Chris Abad said they began posting videos of their group in 2007, doing versions mostly of top R&B hits, in the hope of duplicating the considerable success of fellow Fil-Am Jeremy Manongdo (better known as Passion) who managed to rack up thousands of subscribers to his YouTube channel in just a matter of months.
The rest, of course, is history. And there is no telling where their newfound fame will take Legaci’s musical journey.
Said the band’s Delfin Lazaro: “We know how long it’s taken African-American groups to be totally accepted by the mainstream. That will happen for Asian-Americans too. We want to open that door, and then we’ll bring everyone with us.”
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