These girls get Ogie Alcasid all giddy and giggly
“Have you ever experienced going home, looking at your loved ones and suddenly feeling better? You just feel different. Lalambingin ka na. It’s such a great feeling. I know it’s corny, but those are the little things that matter.”
If we hadn’t known any better, we would have assumed that Ogie Alcasid was waxing poetic about the sweet, caring ways of his wife, Regine Velasquez. Or perhaps the simple joys of being a father.
And while all those hold true for his family, Alcasid, in this instance, had something else entirely in mind. Something fluffier and more nimble. Something with two more legs and eight more lives (allegedly) than he has.
“You just know that these cats love you, no matter what,” Alcasid said of Lily and Lala, the two Maine Coon cats that had the usually laid-back and soft-spoken music artist gushing and giggling like a giddy new parent.
“Aww, so cute!” he said as he swiped through his phone gallery and showed us photos of the feline beauties. “Ang gaganda nila, ‘di ba?”
Alcasid found Lily and Lala about two years ago through his favorite online fruit vendor, who happened to be selling cats at that time. (Quite the selection there, we must say.) While browsing for avocados, he chanced upon a listing for the Maine Coon kittens. He initially planned to get only one cat, but he fell for the kitten, so much so that he ended up buying another.
“Sobrang na-in love ako,” said Alcasid, who used to own cats when he was still with his ex-wife, Michelle van Eimeren (mother of his daughters, Leila and Sarah).
Half-sisters
The cats are half-sisters, but couldn’t be more different personality-wise. The smoky gray Lala is friendlier and malambing, but prefers the company of his and Velasquez’s son, Nate, or their five dogs: Chanel and Vision (Shih Tzus), Lou (poodle), Ringo (Labrador), and Paul (aspin).
Lily, the one with black tortoiseshell and white fur, “is a snob,” but sleeps with the couple anyway. In fact, when the master bedroom fell in disrepair, the couple had to transfer to Nate’s old room and sleep on the floor for eight months. Still, Lily stayed with them until construction was done.
And of all their furry friends in the household, it’s Lily who has apparently adopted Alcasid’s and Velasquez’s musical inclinations.
In a video Alcasid posted on Instagram, Lily is shown listening to the Dua Lipa dance hit “Levitating.” At first she gives the camera a side-eye. But while her cold stare says she’s not having any of it, her head-bobbing (right on the beat, too) says otherwise.
Lily and Lala have their own beds and share a scratching post, but are mostly free to roam around. They seem to have surprisingly sophisticated taste, too, lazing on Alcasid’s Eames lounge chair together when they feel like it. And oftentimes, they would hop onto the bed and knead the couple’s backs or legs—a sign of comfort and affection.
Snuggles
“We always talk to them and cuddle. They lay on top of us and ask for snuggles,” the singer-songwriter told Lifestyle.
Alcasid is so infatuated he turns into a puddle of mush just watching the cats do the most mundane things. “I’m like, ‘Look at Lily—sleeping on the bed!’” he said in the same high-pitched, cooing manner he talks to his cats.
“Kaligayahan na namin ‘yun!” added the singer, laughing at all the silly nothings he finds himself doing.
And he’s convinced that the cats—Lily, in particular—feel the same way, and even watch over him as he sleeps. “Cats are light sleepers. When they get jolted out of their sleep, they look at you and make sure you’re sound asleep before they go back to theirs … Ang cute!” he said.
Alcasid is set to hold “Ogie-oke 2: Reimagined”—a repeat of his successful sing-along-themed show—on Nov. 30 at the Newport Performing Arts Theater. (Tickets are available on TicketWorld and SM Tickets.) Lily and Lala won’t be there to share the stage with him but special guests Bini, JM dela Cerna, and Marielle Montellano will do more than just fine.
Enduring classics
His set list will be composed of his enduring classics, like “Nandito Ako,” “Mahal Kita, Walang Iba,” “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang,” but with unexpected, more contemporary arrangements. Because while the younger generation know him as a television host or a comedian (thanks to “It’s Showtime”), not a lot of them, he observed, actually knows that he’s a musician.
This is his way, he said, of reintroducing his music. “They may have heard them from their parents or uncles, but they don’t really know the songs,” said Alcasid who also plans to release a similarly wired EP, titled “Ulit”—which will feature young singers—either in February or March next year.
“I got this idea from Elton John, who came up with a collaboration album (‘The Lockdown Sessions’). He worked with the likes of Dua Lipa and Charlie Puth. And I thought that, if someone iconic like Elton John is open to doing something like that, why can’t I?” he said.
Alcasid himself is an icon in his own right. But while he has been in the entertainment industry for decades now, he still believes that there’s still room for growth. He still cares about how people perceive him and his work. And his experience doesn’t necessarily make him immune from bouts of sadness.
But what he doesn’t do is let unfounded negativity, or criticisms beyond his craft, get the better of him.
Some people “will always try to take you down.” But you have to take stock, Alcasid said, on those you hold dear. They’re the ones who “truly matter.” It can be your partner, a family member, a friend and yes—even your cats!
“Lily and Lala give us so much joy. And yes, they help us forget that the world can be so cruel sometimes,” he said.
