OGIE ALCASID GRATEFUL TO GEN Z ARTISTS FOR POPULARIZING HIS OLD HITS

Ogie Alcasid is grateful to Rob Deniel for reintroducing his music, particularly his 36-year-old song Nandito Ako, to the young generation.

- By NATHALIE TOMADA

OGIE ALCASID COULDN'T BE HAPPIER that his 36-year-old song Nandito Ako is making waves again, climbing the charts and going viral on TikTok.

It all started after Gen Z artist Rob Deniel performed Nandito Ako and Ikaw Sana live during a Wish event in July, which also paid tribute to Ogie and other OPM icons. His heartfelt interpretation struck a chord with his young crowd.

"A few months after, nag-viral yung performance niya ng Nandito Ako and Ikaw Sana. His audience started recognizing the song and wala naman siyang recording dun, so they went to my Spotify. Then, I started noticing wow, from 500,000, to 600,000, to 3.3 million (monthly listeners), by God's grace," Ogie shared during an interview.

He added with a laugh, "It's only now that they started listening to my music because they have no choice. It's either pakinggan nila yung live ni Rob or kung gusto nila Spotify, pakinggan nila yung song ko. Thankfully, they liked it, too.

"It just came at a time when I was trying to grow my listenership. I had a lot of help from the younger audience through the likes of Rob Deniel."

Now, Nandito Ako has become the No. 1 song on his Spotify. "I'm so happy. Ang galing kasi sa Spotify. 'Pag meron kang nagustuhang kanta, biglang papakinggan mo na lahat. That adds to people discovering and appreciating your music anew."

Asked about possible collaborations with Rob, he shared that the Viva recording artist was his special guest during his 58th birthday celebration late August on his noontime program, "It's Showtime," where they sang his 2001 composition Ikaw Sana together.

That's now Rob's new single, Ogie revealed.

"Kinuwento sa akin ni Boss Vic (del Rosario of Viva). They sent me his version, which is great! I think he's a better singer than me, and I'm so happy that someone as influential to the younger people as him appreciates the music that we used to do," he reiterated.