Last night I got the news that Francis Magalona died at the young age of 44
Today, I gathered all my Francis M. music and began to listen.
I wish I could write more about his personal life but I’d rather leave that to somebody more qualified. What I’m qualified to write however is how he affected music the way I saw it, the way I remember “the man from manila”.
A lot of us grew up with his music, I know not a lot about him but one thing I do know is his contribution to Philippine music and to his generation is an achievement one can only imagine.
With a culture struggling for identity, he made it cool to be Filipino.
He was a man ahead of his time. When MTV was imposing their western ideals to the youth (during my time), when marketable music was defined by anything but pinoy, he turned it all around and made OPM appealing to us. Something worth a listen and sing along with.
His beliefs and ideals reflected thru his songs made us listen. Pinoy music will never be the same again. And this is what being an artist is all about.
Francis M. might be gone but his legacy will remain, and with today’s OPM being infested with novelties and saturated senseless crap, I’m sure with this “incident” , something good will come out.
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