Ara Mina recalls story behind hit 'Ay, ay, ay Pag-ibig,' the most -awaited song in her 'All of Me' 30th anniversary concert

Ara Mina

Widely known in the Philippines as good actress with awards to boot, some people have forgotten that Ara Mina is also singer with hits under her belt.

The biggest among these is "Ay, ay, ay Pag-ibig" which earned for "Ara Mina," the eponymous debut album, a Gold Record award. Written by Norman Caraan of The Boyfriends, it was released in the late '90s.

At the press conference for her upcoming  "All of Me" 30th anniversary concert slated July 11 at Newport Performing Arts Theatre, she disclosed that the song will always be memorable to her because she was coached no less than by Charo Santos on how to sing it.

"Very soft daw dapat ang atake so yun ang ginawa ko," she told Rider PH.

This vocal style actually attracted a lot of attention. "Ay, ay, ay Pag-ibig" was deemed by some people as in the vein of Mariah Carey's "My All" except that the Tagalog "counterpart" is a departure from the American diva's belting capabilities.

"Ay, ay, ay Pag-ibig" opened a lot of doors for Ara as far as her music career goes. Because of the hit song, her record label, Star Records (now Star Music) decided to produce another album for her entitled "Heavenly," which produced her second hit "Oops Teka Lang" used as theme song of the film of the same title starring Robin Padilla and Claudine Barretto. 

Ara's version of the Rey Valera-hit "Kung Kailangan Mo Ako" was also used as the theme song of the ABS-CBn mini-series "Sa Sandaling Kailangan Mo Ako." 

In 2008, Ara produced her 3rd album released under Sony BMG. It has acoustic covers of hit songs like "What Do We Mean To Each Other" by Sergio Mendes, "Somebody" by Depeche Mode, and "Very Special Love" by Maureen McGovern.