Leo Valdez

The Engineer (London, Sydney, Manila, Asian Tour, UK Tour)
(Image courtesy of Fletcher Callanta)

Leo started singing in church in the Philippines at a young age. At six, he sang solo God Bless You Merry Gentlemen in their Christmas concert and encouraged by his mother, won singing honors as a student at home and in Port Washington, Wisconsin where he was an American Field Service scholar for a year. Then he went on after three years in Architecture at university to become one of the top and multi-awarded performers in the Philippines where his name has been well known on radio, television and the live entertainment circuit.

At home before an intimate audience as well as the big stadiums of 15,000 or more, Leo staged numerous shows and concerts in the Philippines and over Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States of America, either as a solo or with a top-billing entertainment group for Filipinos based abroad.

He has done five record albums, three of which have gone Gold: Leo Valdez, Leo Valdez Now, Mea Paboritong Awitin (My Favorite Songs), and Leo Valdez - The Filipino Albums, I and II.

Leo has won award from practically all the live entertainment award-giving bodies in his country. The annual Alilo (Entertainment) Awards, the Philippines' highest entertainment award-giving body, gave him five: one as Most Promising Male performer of the year, one as Most Promising Entertainer of the year and three times as Best Male Performer of the year. The annual Tinig (Voice) Awards of the National Press Club named him three times as 'One of the ten most outstanding singers of the year. He won the Grand Prize in the first Asian Song Festival where he represented the Philippines. The judges gave him the Best Singer Award and the song, the Best Song Award.

The winning song Magsmila Ka (Beginnings), an inspiration piece, became Leo's 'career single' in his second album and in the same year won the Philippine record industry's Cecil Awards for Song of the Year. The song also gave birth to Magsimula Ka - The Musical, the longest running musical in the Philippines.

His theatrical experience includes the leading role as The Good God in the pop ballet Tales of the Manuvu and the bad spirit Ravans in the Ramayana-inspired pop ballet Ramahari, both highly successful productions of ballet at the other cultural center of the Philippines.

Leo has starred in the most successful musical extravaganzas at the Manila Metropolitan Theatre: Hindi Kito Malimot (I Will Not Forget You), Dahil Sa Iyo (Because of You), and Sarung Banggi (One Evening), which depicts Filipino martyred priests during the Spanish era in the Philippines.

Last year, Leo portrayed Jean Valjean in the highly successful Repertory Philippines Productions staging of Les Miserables where the high marks the audience and the critics gave him encouraged him to join Miss Saigon and experience a truly new phase in his career - performing in London's West End in one of the most successful musical theatre productions of all time.

(Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 1995)