Beyond the ‘McDonald’s Guy’ persona

TOWARD his 81st birthday last year, McDonald’s Philippines Founder and Chairman Dr. George Yang did not only stop to talk a while with friend and lookalike Jose Mari Chan – they sang together in the TV commercial, “Live Your Dreams,” where they switched places.

Well, both men didn’t have to as everyone knows Chan is as much a successful businessman as a singer-songwriter and Yang is himself an accomplished performer, having staged a solo concert at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), played Genghis Khan in the musical “Marco Polo” and essayed a role in a zarzuela shown in New York and San Francisco, among others.