Photo from Instagram/@hermusicofficial
The Oscar- and Grammy-winning singer’s performance at Kalye highlighted her connection to Rey Valera’s enduring love song.
NEW YORK — H.E.R. led diners in a rendition of “Maging Sino Ka Man” during a karaoke night at Kalye, a Filipino restaurant on the Lower East Side.
A video shared by the restaurant shows the singer performing part of the chorus before inviting those gathered around her to join. The appearance was part of Kalye’s “Kalyeoke” event.
The song has held personal meaning for H.E.R., born Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson. Raised in Northern California by a Black father and a Filipina mother from Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, she has spoken about the influence of Filipino music and family traditions.
“My mom’s favorite is Sharon Cuneta, so I used to sing ‘Maging Sino Ka Man’ all the time,” H.E.R. said in a 2021 television interview. “That was my Filipino go-to song.”
Wilson was already singing the song at age 11, when she appeared on “Adobo Nation,” a program on The Filipino Channel. Asked whether she could sing in Filipino, she performed the ballad and spoke about her hopes of becoming a touring musician.
She later returned to the song during a visit to the Cabanatuan home where her mother grew up, leading relatives in a family rendition.
Singer-songwriter Rey Valera wrote and originally recorded “Maging Sino Ka Man” in 1979. Valera has said he composed it in a cemetery in Meycauayan, Bulacan, where he found quiet to write. The song centers on unconditional love and a refusal to let another person’s background or outside opinion determine whom one chooses to love.
Sharon Cuneta later recorded the song for the 1991 film “Maging Sino Ka Man,” in which she starred with Robin Padilla. Erik Santos and Hannah Precillas subsequently recorded versions for television adaptations.
H.E.R., a five-time Grammy winner and Academy Award recipient, is also part of DreamWorks Animation’s “Forgotten Island,” scheduled for theatrical release Sept. 25.
Her Kalye performance connected Valera’s composition, Cuneta’s rendition and a Filipino American artist’s family memories.
