The real story behind the song ‘Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin’

The well-loved song “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin” is the theme of the popular ABS-CBN teleserye of the same title starring Coco Martin who with his dual role showcases his versatility as an actor. With this project, Coco is amassing more fans and admirers. The young actor is indeed achieving more success in his career. The latest recognition he received was URIAN’s Actor of the Decade Award.

Going back to the teleserye, the writer of the song is Aaron Paul del Rosario, who married a neighbor of ours in Iceland, East Fairview. Aaron wrote us to relate the origin of the song. “It was my first Christmas with my then girlfriend who eventually became my wife Cathy Laud. I made a Christmas card for her, but as most cards, it needed a message – a personal one. So I wrote her a poem. It titled it ‘I Will Love Thee But Once.’ The final lines of the poem as you would guess was, ‘But once will be forever.’”

“I was very proud of that line but it was too deep. Even if I made it to an English love song, the idea might not be commercial enough to sell CDs. So when BMG presented me with a bright new artist named Ariel Rivera, the timing was perfect. I decided to translate the lines in Tagalog which fortunately retained its meaning even in the dialect. Thus was born ‘Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin’ BMG asked Ryan Cayabyab to arrange the song. How great was that?”

Who would have thought that a simple love poem more than two decades later would resurrect itself into a major teleserye. Aaron continued: “I was blessed that it was sung by many major artists, Ariel, Regine Velasquez and Gary Valenciano. And to have so many of our country’s great actors in the teleserye is a wonderful blessing to see my song come to life. And that is the real story of “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin.”

Aaron now lives in the US (San Diego, California) with his family. He and Cathy have two children.

Aaron wrote many hit songs during his heyday and among them are “Nandito Ako,” “Pagkakataon,” “Hindi Ko Kaya,” “Paminsan Minsan,” “Bakit Ngayon Ka Lang” (which he co-wrote with Ogie Alcasid), “Kahit Bata Pa,” “KSP (Kulang sa Pansin),” “Kailanman,” “Feel Na Feel” and “Kapag Tumibok Ang Puso.”

Source: Manila Bulletin

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