Francis M's Final Set

Today is a historic Saturday. I watched Oscar nominee for best film Frost/Nixon in a private cinema screening, watching the Oscar show just now, and afterwards seeing NIxon over youtube and JFK from Gina's file.

In Philippine music, this is also a historic weekend.

Yesterday in noontime variety show Eat Bulaga, bosing Vic Sotto announced the news that Philippine King of Rap Francis "Kiko" Magalona passed away.

He was supposed to sing Superproxy in The Final Set concert of The Eraserheads, another Filipino music icon. Kiko and The Eraserheads frontman Ely Buendia are good friends who share not just the passion for music but the tenacity of surviving each own's medical problem. The two are working together with other artists and call themselves The Sickos and had 3 days of recording material for a CD which is expected to be a massive hit soon.

Kiko's music will live on...

I have not met or watched Kiko but I have had two occassions of crossing paths with his beloved family:

summer of 1997 - I was on my first airplane flight on my way to Cebu and Kiko's family were together with us in the plane. I remember his wife Pia and their group winning most of the Cebu Pacific show me game prizes.

summer of tutorial in Loyola Student Center (LSC, forgot the year) - this was when Bob became my roommate in the university dorm but I was mostly staying at LSC where I was teaching Math to Kiko's junior Frank. That time, Frank's sister Maxine is already in Ateneo. Now Frank is studying Fine Arts in UP Diliman, and is expected to be an important artist in the near future having done vocal track mixing and camera works on the side.

My sincerest condolences to the Magalona family.