NEWSFLASH

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POPS AT CAPTAIN'S BAR: SOLO, RENEWED

Makati City, Sept. 20, 1998 - Four months after husband Martin Nievera's very public disclosure of the breakup of their marriage and his subsequent departure for the US, Pops Fernandez is finally recovered enough to take to the concert stage and do what she does best -- be the undisputed Concert Queen that she's been for many years.

She confided to friends in media that the marital split had affected her so much she had shied away from public performances, sticking only to the less personal medium of television.

"I was much too affected I can't even bring myself to perform, sing or smile when I am feeling so rotten inside,'' she said during lull while rehearsing at the Captain's Bar of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati, where she will hold a solo concert on Sept. 26.

Exhibiting an inner strength belied by her fragile appearance, Pops has emerged a definitely independent woman, steadily holding what's left of her home life together. She has decided it is time to be busier with concerts.

Some movie writers observed that Pops no longer evades questions about what went wrong with her marriage, which means she's more ease with what happened and is coping with it better than she herself had expected.

She has gained a little weight, which actually make her look sexier, than her old thin-as-a-reed look.

It is a new Pops, and energized and sure Pops, who will be featured in ``Pops Fernandez: Natural Woman'' to be directed by Rowell Santiago on Saturday, Sept. 26, 9:30 p.m. at the Captain's Bar of the Mandarin Oriental. Musical director is Homer Flores.

"It will be basically a Pops concert, with the repertoire that they like including today's hits,'' she describes the concert's repertoire.

What about reconciling with Martin? "We really can't tell. It would be really up to him and me.''