Erik Santos wants to be an icon
By bentan | Coke Music Studio

Erik Santos (Jerome Ascano, NPPA Images)

Erik Santos wants to be Martin Nievera. Or Gary V. Or, yes, Zsa Zsa or Regine.

Not content being merely the local Prince of Pop following his rise to stardom when he won the ABS-CBN singing competition Star in a Million in 2004, Santos wants to be an icon.

Icon, says the Oxford dictionary, is a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.
It isn’t easy, he admits.

Especially when the music industry is growing by leaps and bounds and it’s hard enough keeping up with trends and new singers and maintaining one’s popularity, he says.

And then there are contemporaries of equal caliber panting after the same untouchable spot: Christian Bautista, Sarah Geronimo and Rachel Ann Go.

Times have changed

“We’re happy because all of us are able to maintain what we have kung ano man ang nasa career namin,” he tells Yahoo! OMG Philippines at his press conference last week for his PowER IKons concert. “Pero ngayon, hindi ka dapat mangampante kasi ang bilis ng pagpalit, lalo na sa music.”

Then, he says, “Maglabas ka ng isang single, isa, dalawang taon ang airplay. Halimbawang 20 years ka na sa industry, yung kinanta mo mare-recognize pa rin kahit after many years.”

Now, “ang bilis ng change sa music,” he laments. “Kami, masaya na kami ng dalawang or tatlong buwan na airplay sa radio, kase napapalitan kaagad.”

Tribute to icons

This is why PowER IKons, his upcoming concert on August 13 and 18 at the Music Museum pays tribute to the singers he looks up to and who have become icons by their sheer staying power and songs that have become classics.
Continue reading →