Ruben Tagalog was a Filipino

Filipino people

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, famous for his works in the Kundiman

Kundiman

Kundiman is a genre of traditional Filipino love songs. The lyrics of the Kundiman are written in Tagalog. The melody is characterized by a smooth, flowing and gentle rhythm with dramatic intervals...

 style. He was also a part of the Mabuhay Singers

Mabuhay Singers

The Mabuhay Singers is a group of singers from the Philippines that was formed in 1958 and some the members became soloist like Cely Bautista, Raye Lucero, Naning Alba and many others....

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Career

He first caught the attention of radio listeners in the '40s when he hosted his own radio program, Harana ni Ruben Tagalog. His baritone voice filled his songs Ramona

Ramona

Ramona is a 1884 United States historical novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. It is the story of a Scots-Native American orphan girl in Southern California, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely...

, Sayang, Azucena

Azucena

Azucena is a Venezuelan telenovela that was produced by and seen on Venezuela's Radio Caracas Televisión. It was written by María Antonieta Gómez and Édgar Mejías, and directed by Tito Rojas...

and Nasaan Ka Ngayon with emotion. He revived danzas and balitaws like Nahan Kaya Ikaw, Bakit Ka Lumuluha, Barong Tagalog

Barong Tagalog

The barong Tagalog is an embroidered formal garment of the Philippines. It is very lightweight and worn untucked , over an undershirt. In Filipino culture it is a common wedding and formal attire, mostly for men but also for women...

, Dalagang Pilipina and Caprichosa. He was the first artist to record Bayan Ko

Bayan Ko

"Bayan Ko" is one of the most recognizable patriotic songs in the Philippines that, because of its popularity, is sometimes assumed to be a folk song and the unofficial national anthem of the Philippines...

and Ang Pasko ay Sumapit.

In spite of his last name being "Tagalog", he was actually a Visayan

Visayas

The Visayas or Visayan Islands and locally known as Kabisay-an gid, is one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Mindanao and Luzon. It consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are considered the northeast...

 from Iloilo

Iloilo

Iloilo is a province of the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of Panay Island and is bordered by Antique Province to the west and Capiz Province and the Jintotolo Channel to the north. Just off Iloilo's southeast coast is Guimaras Province,...

 and was a speaker of the Visayan language Hiligaynon

Hiligaynon language

Hiligaynon, often referred to as Ilonggo, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines.Hiligaynon is concentrated in the provinces of Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Capiz but is also spoken in the other provinces of the Panay Island group, including Antique,...

 (aka Ilonggo). He released at least two Cebuano Visayan albums. "Ruben Tagalog sings Visayan Songs" and a duet album with Cebuana

Cebuano people

The Cebuano people , are a Visayan ethnic group in Cebu and form the second largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines.-History:...

 singer Nora Hermosa called "Duet In Visayan".

In the early 1950s he became the first to popularize the Tagalog version of the 1933 Visayan Christmas carol "Kasadya Ning Taknaa

Kasadya Ning Taknaa

Kasadya Ning Taknaa is a Cebuano Christmas carol composed in 1933 by Vicente Rubi with lyrics by Mariano Vestil. Its famous counterpart is Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit, a modified version of the song written by Levi Celerio with lyrics in Tagalog ; however, Celerio is often given all songwriting credit...

" as "Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit". The Tagalog lyrics were written by Levi Celerio

Levi Celerio

Levi Celerio was a Filipino composer and lyricist who was born in Manila, Philippines. Celerio was a prolific song-writer, with over 4,000 songs to his credit. He is perhaps best-known for being a leaf-player, a feat for which he was put into the Guinness Book of World Records...

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