Zsa zsa padilla

Zsa Zsa Padilla, a Philippine female singer, released Zsa Zsa in 1998. The album is comprised of several original Philippine songs as well as remakes of both international and Philippine material. Padilla has an expressive voice, though she sounds a bit stiff on parts of some songs.

The album was released when a trend toward remakes of international material had been ongoing in the Philippines for some time, and Zsa Zsa sold extremely well. However, it is alarming that foreign remakes are more popular here than locally composed songs, and this is a situation that needs to be corrected. The album's biggest hit was a revival of Boz Scaggs' 1970's ballad, "We're All Alone."

Other international revivals include versions of Lionel Richie's, "Stuck on You"; Captain and Tenille's "Do That to Me One More Time"; and a version of "Last Night I Didn't Get to Sleep at All." Padilla performs these songs with sensitivity and passion, though, as noted before, she sounds stiff at times, mostly on the opening verses, but tends to come alive on the choruses.

Other songs on Zsa Zsa include passionate, easy listening love songs, a style of music quite popular in the Philippines. These songs, including, "Sana Nandito Ka Ngayon" (trans: I Hope You Are Here Now) and "Ganyan Kita Kamahal" (trans: That's How Much I Love You), are nothing special, but they aren't bad, either.

The heartfelt and passionate Philippine-composed ballad, "Where Do I Go From Here," is a contender for the album's best song, and Padilla shines here. An absolutely startling number is the dance-inflected, "Why," also Philippine-composed, a wondrous tune that shows Padilla can confidently handle adventurous material.