Jan. 29 is Red Lettermen Day in Iloilo City
Iloilo -- January 29 has been declared as RED LETTERMEN DAY in Iloilo City. This was made official by an Executive Order issued by City Mayor Jerry P. Treņas in honor of the famous singing group who are scheduled to perform in that Southern Philippines city on the said date.
The City Mayor is reportedly elated that The Lettermen's scheduled performance in Iloilo coincides with the culminating day of the city's internationally-acclaimed Dinagyang Festival, thus rendering the 2006 edition of the annual event doubly significant. Treņas is also said to be thrilled that response to The Lettermen's concert has been so overwhelming that fans from neighboring provinces in the Western Visayas region are heading for Iloilo City to enjoy the Dinagyang double-treat. The phenomenon provides affirmation to Iloilo City's billing as one of the best tourism destinations in the Philippines.
Organizers of The Lettermen Live in Iloilo concert, led by a local citizen, Aristeo Demavivas who is himself an internationally known performing artist, said the City Mayor's edict will be further substantiated when The Lettermen are given the keys to the city upon their arrival. The presentation will be held - live, no less - at the Freedom Grandstand, in front of thousands of spectators and television viewers, at the height of the Ati-Atihan tribes competition, the highlight of the Dinagyang Festival itself.
The rare and compelling gesture is also in view of the fact that The Lettermen concert in Iloilo, set at the Rose Memorial Hall of Central Philippine University, establishes a historic first. It could be said that no performing artist - whether as an individual or group - as highly popular and internationally acclaimed as The Lettermen has performed in Iloilo City in recent memory.
The Lettermen's gig in Iloilo is part of a four-city, Philippine-tour which opens the singing group's concert calendar for 2006. (The trio is already booked for various live performances in many places, most in US cities, up to mid-2007.) The Philippine tour opens Manila in January 26 at The Manila Hotel followed by two successive nights at the Araneta Coliseum. After Iloilo, the trio will also perform in Cebu and Davao.
Dubbed as the "Boy Band of the "60s," The Lettermen's close-harmony pop songs with light and easy arrangements broke into the music scene in 1961 with their first hit, "The Way You Look Tonight," followed by "When I Fall in Love" which made them best vocal group of that year.
Other famous recordings also include "Theme From A Summer Place," 'Smile,' 'Goin' Out Of My Head / Can't Take My Eyes Off You,' 'Hurt So Bad,' 'Shangri-La,' and 'Put Your Head On My Shoulder."