MEMBERS of the musical group The CompanY, the country’s premier vocal ensemble, said that they have always wanted to come up with another hit single but the system is not set up for it.
“That’s difficult to do. We want to, really honestly. But it’s not supported by the system,” said Moy Ortiz, when asked if there were still efforts to come up with hit songs, at the sideline of the 4th Scholastic Readers Cup held at Shangri-la Makati City recently.
“It’s difficult to come up with an original hit when you only have three TV stations that will make you sing. We are not in any network so we are not the priority. TV is difficult. In terms of radio, not to be accusatory, but you know, there is a very light form of age-ism in a way because if you are of a certain age, and you don’t fit the demographic of Top 40, you don’t get in the playlist.
“That happens to local artists, that happens to international artists no matter how big you are. Look, the two members of The Beatles. They still come up with beautiful music but Paul McCartney can’t get on the playlist unless Rihanna and Kanye West are with him. It’s pretty sad but that’s the reality,” said Ortiz. “On the flip side, we are blessed with longevity and a catalog of hits. We can keep on doing live performances armed with our hits. We want to, but the system is not set up for it.”
In 1991, The CompanY blasted into the music scene and later spawned memorable OPM songs such as “Everlasting Love,” “Now That I Have You,” “Muntik Na Kitang Minahal,” and “Pakisabi Na Lang.”
With 27 albums under four different record labels, the vocal group is busy promoting their latest CD called “Nostalgia 2” under Universal Records Philippines. Aside from Ortiz, the other current members of the group are Annie Quintos, Sweet Plantado, Cecile Bautista, and OJ Mariano.
Ortiz said that most of their gigs these days are corporate. “Although sometimes you don’t see us with a lot of public performances, like 90 percent of our work is actually corporate.”
“Modesty aside, the reason why we are still in the game, the members of the group are articulate in English and Tagalog and some in Bisaya. So for purposes of the client, if there’s a product to push, they can do it via our spiels.
“Whenever we have corporate shows, we give it our best because our aim here is repeat business. Even in terms of pricing, we try to keep it very, very reasonable so that hindi kami ‘wham bam thank you mam.’ Babalik at babalik sa amin. We are blessed because our clients have been very loyal to us,” Ortiz added.
On Sept. 20, The CompanY will be one of the headliners for a fund-raising event in San Juan for the victims of war in Mindanao and soldiers of Marawi City. Joining the show are Ryan Cayabyab, Celeste Legaspi, and Basil Valdez. The vocal group will also perform at Robinson’s Magnolia in Quezon City on Sept. 9.
