Lani Misalucha wants to retire in 5 years
If we were to base Lani Misalucha’s career path on the stories her husband Noli told Yahoo Philippines, no one seems more inclined to sabotage her own career than Lani herself.
Take her plans for the future.
The 45-year-old Las Vegas-based singer, who is performing tonight at the Araneta Coliseum in La Nightingale, her first major concert in the Philippines after 7 years, just wants to retire real soon.
Plans
“Ayoko naman umabot ng 60 na ganito pa rin nagkakakanta,” the 45-yar-old singer told her husband.
So, she’s giving herself another 5 years in the biz. Or 10 if forced to.
But she’s been down that road before.
Two blows
Every time she thinks of doing something other than sing, something happens that pulls her back to the limelight.
Back in 2003, Noli and Lani lost their life savings of some P7-8 million on an investment that turned out to be a pyramiding scam.
On the same year, she had a miscarriage.
Trials
“I don’t want to call it a misfortune, part yun ng trials sa buhay mo, mga challenges sa buhay mo,” said Noli of the time.
But, added her husband of 24 years, “She was really disappointed and disheartened.”
Even the shaky political scene at that time led Lani to ask her husband to explore the possibility of settling abroad since Noli had once worked as an OFW in Saudi Arabia.
Stay-at-home mom
Never mind if she was at the peak of her career in the Philippines, winning awards right and left and filling her 2001 concert at the Big Dome with 18,000 fans.
Noli said she just wanted to be a stay-at-home wife and mom to daughters Lian and Louven, preferably elsewhere.
So, they planned to move to Canada.
Except that one of Noli’s friends, hearing of the relocation, was shocked that he would consider such a thing.
Lani as investment
“Why are you going to Canada? There’s nothing there for Lani! Ibuburo mo lang siya. She’s a singer tapos isa-stuck mo lang diyan.... Sikat na sikat siya, what will happen to her?” Noli recalls his friend telling him.
Instead he offered to fly them to Las Vegas so he could invest in Lani. He would “pay” the couple more than double what Noli would get working in an IT company in Canada.
All Noli’s friend wanted was for Lani to find fame and fortune on The Strip. (Which she did, eventually.)
The home care business that never was
Still, the couple continued to explore their options. Largely because Lani wanted to go into business.
With her business management degree, she thought of opening a home care business in California.
But, a visit to an actual facility dashed her hopes.
“Na-depress siya,” Noli recalls.
“I don’t think I can do this. If I’m gonna do this, I don’t think I can manage this for 6 months or 3 months,” she said.
Success in Vegas
So Vegas, once a back-burner option, lured Lani back to the limelight.
Her stint has been remarkable: the first Asian to headline in a Main Showroom of the Las Vegas Strip, voted Best Singer in the annual Best of Las Vegas poll in 2007, performing for years with the group Society of Seven at iconic Vegas venues like the Flamingo.
She would regularly fly back to the Philippines to record albums and tonight, she stages her comeback concert at the Araneta Coliseum.
Hectic sked
The next few months will be particularly hectic for Lani. After her Araneta concert, she will fly back to the US to spend the holidays with her youngest daughter, her son-in-law and her beloved grandson. (Their eldest in now in the Philippines for extended missionary work.)
Then she flies back to Manila where she’ll grace the New Year’s Eve countdown of the Solaire Resort & Casino together with Martin Nievera and Arnel Pineda.
After stints in Hawaii and Beijing, she returns to Manila in February to team up with Regine Velasquez, Martin Nievera and Gary Valenciano in a two-night Valentine concert at the Mall of Asia Arena.
She dreams again
Yet, even as she fulfills her public role as a diva (in the best sense of the word), a big part of her heart yearns for life away from the stage.
“She’s more of a lola than a singer… more of a wife than a singer… more of a mother than a singer,” said Noli, now 51 and working in the construction industry as a freelance contractor.
So Lani dreams of retiring soon.
But then again, she’s been down that road before.
