How my classmate became Tina Turner

April 1st, 2008 admin Posted in News |

LOS ANGELES—Among the girls in my University of Sto. Tomas AB Communication Arts class in the mid-1970s, Luisa Mendez stood out because she always wore the reddest lipstick and full makeup.

Students of communication arts (termed mass communication in other colleges) are always looked up to or looked down on as “show biz na show biz.” No one was more show biz-y even back then than Luisa. She had already appeared in a Repertory Philippines production of “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off.” She went to auditions to join show bands (eventually landing a spot on the last generation of The Ambivalent Crowd). In class, and this will probably be the first time that she’ll hear this, we called Luisa the “Wella Girl” because, well, when she was called on to recite, she always began with “Well, ah … ”

When Luisa joined the Hall of Fame show band, I occasionally saw her at Manila’s watering holes. Cut to many years later—a classmate, Babsie Amurao, who is based in Manhattan, told me that another classmate who lives in Vancouver thinks that a Tina Turner tribute performer named Tiny Tina could be none other than Luisa. This classmate, who saw Tiny Tina in a Vancouver TV show and read about her in a local newspaper, decided to watch her show. Later, she found that it was indeed our Luisa, who won the title, “World Rock and Roll Tribute Artist Champion,” in the first World Tribute Artist Championship held in 2003.

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