The Night Freddie Aguilar Became an Overnight Folk Sensation

By Joey Salgado

The First Metro Manila Pop Music Festival was a big deal in 1978. Hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people stopped what they were doing to watch music contests on television. And the First Metro Pop promised to feature the best amateur and professional singers and composers that the dominant musical force of the 70s, Original Pilipino Music (OPM), had to offer.

Hajji Alejandro won the grand prize with his interpretation of Ryan Cayabyab’s “Kay Ganda ng ating Musika.” But the night belonged to Freddie Aguilar.

On stage, Aguilar stood out from the other performers. Long hair, elevator shoes, printed shirt and bell bottoms that matched a wide brimmed sequined hat. Thin and lanky, he cradled his guitar like a precious child. Aguilar was an itinerant folk singer, shuttling between Olongapo and Manila, playing cover versions of popular folk songs. But on that night, he performed an original composition titled “Anak.”

He plucked a simple chord pattern, framing stark lyrics that told the familiar story of the prodigal son. He sang with eyes closed, each word clearly enunciated, the story unfolding slowly. “Anak” was an instant audience favorite. Aguilar, however, didn’t win any prize.

But the record executives at Vicor were quick to smell a hit song. They signed up Aguilar, and “Anak” was released as a single. The first pressings immediately sold out and the pressing plants could hardly keep up with the demand. An album, also titled “Anak,” became a monster hit.

Aguilar became an overnight star. He was only 25.

As a struggling folk singer, Aguilar used to sit at a corner table at Kola House, one of the premier folk houses during the 70s folk boom, waiting to be called by the manager to fill in for an absent folk singer. Asin’s Pendong Aban, at that time part of the folk duo Keith and Fred, recalls that Aguilar would often spend the entire night dozing off.

For years, Aguilar chased his dream of becoming a singer, to the dismay of his father, a former police officer, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Aguilar had said he wrote “Anak” two years before the festival as an apology to his late father.

After the Metro Pop performance and the hit single, those waiting days were gone. Aguilar was the label’s biggest star. He even outshone Florante, the folk bard with better guitar chops and lyrical skills. Florante had two hit songs, “Ako’y Pinoy” and “Pinay,” the year before.

No one also predicted that “Anak” would become the first Filipino song to conquer the world. The song has been recorded in over 50 languages. It was a big seller in Japan, Indonesia, and South Korea.

Aguilar would record other hit songs well into the 80s. At the height of the anti-Marcos protest movement, Aguilar recorded the nationalist anthem “Bayan Ko,” an audacious move from a singer who got his biggest break in a music festival backed by the Marcos government (Imee Marcos was part of the Metro Pop Foundation). But none of his latter songs would equal the enduring appeal and cultural impact of “Anak.”

Aguilar died on May 27 at the age of 72.