Last Friday, I performed at a 2000-capacity London venue as an opening act for an award-winning Filipino comedian/actor. This guy is huge in the Philippines, he has broken box office records, has millions of fans on Facebook, he’s the Filipino equivalent to someone like Russell Brand in terms of success.  Anyway, what happened to me was pretty surreal.

The doors opened to the masses of people queuing around the block who came to see the show, but bag checks meant that it was running behind schedule. Therefore, while the artists had initially prepared two songs each, we were all told to cut our sets to just one song. I was a bit miffed. The show eventually started and the first act went on, completely ignored the change and sang two songs! The following three acts did the same! All the while, I thought to myself I work hard on my music, and opportunities such as this don’t come along every day, so just like everyone else I plan to do the same. I was up next…

Sound check

I introduced myself to the crowd and went straight into my first song ‘Living In The City’. I finished to loud cheers but before I even got to say thank you to the crowd, I turned to see the two hosts starting to walk on-stage, as one of them said in his mic “Thank you very much Jorda-…!”, I immediately cut in and responded back in front of the 2000-strong audience into my mic ”I have another song prepared!” – the organisers had tried to end my set then and there as the whole show was running late. Both hosts were taken aback by my response and I could feel the awkward intensity coming from the audience (my mum was in the crowd!). I then said “it’s just two minutes long man just please let me sing it!”, turned to Kieran, my guitarist and went “Okay go”. But as he started to play, he responded “They’ve switched it off”. Frustrated, but keeping my cool, I turned to Ray, at the sound desk and said, “Could you please switch the guitar back on?” Still nothing… I then addressed the audience ”I’m singing ‘Use Somebody’ by Kings of Leon do you want to hear it?” and the whole auditorium screamed back ”YEEEAAAHHHH!!” Relieved, I thought to myself Yes! They’re on my side! I turned back to the sound desk and retorted, “See, they want to hear it! Now could you please switch the guitar back on and let me sing the song?” Ray did so and Kieran started playing. I sang my heart out and the crowd cheered so loudly at the end – what had happened minutes before was worth it, i thought!

At first, I felt maybe what I did came across as a desperate bid to sing more, which really wasn’t the case as I did originally have two songs prepared and all I wanted to do was showcase them! But when I spoke to the others backstage and some friends about it, they thought what I had done was great and that the crowd would definitely remember me because of it. At the end of the day, you can’t argue with the audience.