Lea Salonga wows in online concert, raises P1.8M for COVID-19 frontliners

Lea Salonga delivered a theater-worthy performance and single-handedly raised over P1.8 million, all from the safety of her home.

The renowned Filipina theater actress pitched in for the "Bayanihan Musikahan," holding an hour-long concert on Facebook live to raise funds for the frontliners battling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the country.

Lea was able to raise over P113,000 within the first 10 minutes of her Facebook live concert, and the amount of donations reached over P1.2 million by the end of the session.

She performed a mix of OPM song and musical songs, even dedicating a couple for the frontliners, including as "Bring Him Home" from "Les Miserables."

She started and ended the stream with Ryan Cayabyab songs, capping off the night with the classic "Paraiso."

If you weren't able to catch the performance live, worry not — Lea promised she would do another session.

"For selfish reasons it's been great. I get to sing," she said. "I get to sing again in front of people. I get an outlet, I have my outlet which is fantastic. And in some way, all of the artists that get to do these livestreams for Bayanihan Musikahan, we get to help, and these livestreams translate to donations."

Bayanihan Musikahan has gathered a wide range of OPM artists for its fundraising initiative and has raised over P22 million as of April 2.

Among those who performed for a cause include Ryan Cayabyab, Sitti, Chito Miranda, Martin Nievera, and Bullet Dumas, among many others.

—JCB, GMA News