Lea Salonga owes her career to Celeste Legaspi
24 Jul - Lea Salonga has recently revealed the reason behind her moving performance of Celeste Legaspi's song, "Tuliro".
As reported on ABS-CBN, the musical star who performed the song as a tribute to Legaspi on the show, "ASAP", shared that the stage actress played a significant role in her success as a performer.
While everybody knows that Salonga's road to stardom started when she was selected to play Kim in the musical "Miss Saigon" at the age of 18 - back when it was first staged in West End in 1989, and in Broadway in 1991, it was actually Legaspi who contacted her mother and persuaded her to let Salonga audition for the role.
"She said to my mother, 'You have to let your daughter audition for this. She's the only one I can think of that could be right for that,'" said Salonga.
The actress said that while her mother was skeptical at first, she was able to go to the audition and win the role eventually, which helped launched her international career.
(Photo Source: Lea Salonga Instagram)
