‘SWEET AND LOVING’ | Richard Merk fondly remembers Nora Aunor

Nora Aunor had lately been suffering from emphysema arising from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, according to a source with direct knowledge of her condition.

Aunor, dubbed as the country’s one and only Superstar, died April 17. She was 71.

She was sickly as a child and, at age 7, coughed up blood. Her parents thought she wouldn’t survive, but she did, wrote Nick Joaquin as Quijano de Manila in an excellent piece in the July 11, 1970 issue of the Philippines Free Press, “Golden Girl: How the Lowly Morenita from Iriga rose to become Superstar Nora Aunor.”

Born to poverty, the family of Nora Villamayor, the fourth of five children, couldn’t have dinner until her father, a porter at the railway station, came home with his earnings.

“There were times when the children went to sleep without eating,” wrote Joaquin.

As a child, she was teased by other kids as “Nora Negra,” but she ignored them and excelled in school, topping her class from first to fifth grade.

A year later, her music odyssey began.

“In the sixth grade Nora did not win first honors. She had become a movie fan, especially of Susan Roces movies, and a pop-music addict, especially of Timi Yuro songs. Now, from the time she woke up in the morning, she was singing. And all day long she was singing — or so it seemed to her family,” wrote Joaquin.

She was 12 when she joined the amateur singing contest “Darigold Jamboree” in Naga to pay for her elder sister’s tuition.

Her piece, “You and the Night and the Music,” written in 1934 by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz, was a jazz standard, with the likes of Frank Sinatra recording it.

Nora won with a cash prize of P20 — exactly the amount needed for her sister’s tuition.

Trying her luck in Manila, she topped the “Darigold Bulilit” tilt for 14 weeks — “retiring an undefeated champion.”

But though she lost the first time she joined “Tawag ng Tanghalan,” she tried for a second time and won with the song “People” — from the 1964 Broadway musical “Funny Girl” starring Barbra Streisand — and reigned, again, for 14 weeks, an undefeated champion.

Nora went home with a trophy, a TV set, and P200 cash.

In 1967, at age 14, she turned professional and joined the radio shows “Oras ng Ligaya” and Operetang Putol-Putol” — where she met a fellow cast member, Richard Merk.

A year later, she released her debut album, “My Song of Love,” on Villar Records.

In the same year, she started recording album after album on the Alpha label. At one point, in 1970, Alpha released three Nora Aunor albums, all in the same year.
Nora Aunor in the early 1970s. Photo: Jingle Chordbook Magazine
Of all the men she had been linked with, whether real or just to please the fans — including Tirso Cruz III, Manny de Leon, Juan Rodrigo, John Rendez — it was Merk, whom Nora, after marrying Christopher de Leon, lived with.

“I met her in 1967 at the CBN radio station in Intramuros,” Merk tells Soundtrip in an online chat. “We had a show called ‘Operetang Putol-Putol. She was my puppy love.”

Nora was then 14.

“We even formed a band and rehearsed at the then Nichols Air Base,” recalls Merk.

Nora’s eldest brother had joined the army and was then stationed at Nichols, where their aunt Belen was residing. Her brother suggested that Nora study at the camp school and stay with auntie Belen, who agreed and take care of Nora’s expenses.

Soundstrip: Richard, when did you and Nora start living together as a couple?

Around 1986 we lived in (at Scout Limbaga in Quezon City) and got married in Las Vegas. I got her pregnant but it was an ectopic pregnancy and we lost the baby.

Did you have a hand in the change in her singing style in the ’80s and ’90s, since people started noticing she was jazzing up the songs she was doing on her “Superstar” TV show, and especially at her first and last concert at the Araneta Coliseum in 1991.

Yes, because I was coaching her during recordings. I guess she picked up on it.

How would you describe Nora as a person, as an artist, and as a lover?

She was a sweet and loving person. As an artist, she was a perfectionist. She made sure she knew her lines, whether in singing or during movie shoots. As a lover, I couldn’t ask for more. She was great, so loving! She was always concerned about me. I was kind of spoiled with her.

What is her greatest legacy as an artist?

Her legacy is her being a National Artist, being the one and only Superstar, and being a good person. I loved her very much. Her passing has broken a lot of hearts, including mine