Long before it became that HBO show about a bunch of high school kids starring Zendaya, Euphoria was a word attached to one thing and one thing only: it was the definitive nightclub of the late 80s and all throughout the 1990s. Manila has never been lacking in nightlife options, but for partygoers of a certain age, Euphoria was the first and last stop for a wild night out on the town.
Located at the basement of the since-demolished Hotel Intercontinental on No. 1 Ayala Avenue in Makati, Euphoria sprung from the mind of the Philippines' undisputed nightlife king, Louie Ysmael. His story is oft-told, having made his mark on the country's party scene with such legendary bars and clubs like Stargazer, Louie Y’s, Venezia, and Nu Vo. But Euphoria, which lasted 12 years, was clearly something else.
For the first time, he opens up about the history of the legendary club: how it came together, what made it special, and how and why he eventually let it go. Here is the untold story of Euphoria, in Ysmael’s own words:
Louie Ysmael stands in front of the entrance of Euphoria
PHOTO: Louie Ysmael / Jay Javier
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How did you get into clubs in the first place?
I used to go to clubs all over the world. Basically, when I left for abroad to study, I was a young teenager, and I was going to clubs in New York. And then as I grew older and moved to Europe, I went to a lot of clubs there, too, and this was already in the mid-60s. I basically saw the trend of how clubs evolved, not just in design, but also in music.
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My first venture, business-wise in clubbing, was Stargazer, which opened in December 1979. And then I moved to Louie Ys, on top of the old Hyatt. And then from Louis Y’s, I opened Kuya Pare in Mile Long in Makati. It was a place with a live band catering to older people with Latin music, and other alternative dance music, like Latin salsa. There were bands alternating with canned music. It was a small place, very classy.
And then we opened Euphoria.
When was that?
December ‘87.
I just noticed you’re wearing a Euphoria shirt.
This is a product of the online Euphoria event that we did just recently, of Euphoria music and DJs. The producers were selling T-shirts, and I was left with a few. May sapatos din e. Adidas.
So Euphoria opened in 1987. How did it happen? I mean, what was there before in the basement of Intercon?
The basement of Intercon was Where Else. It was the club of the Intercon at that time. And then when I took it over, we changed the name. We basically got the same venue but redesigned it.
The original designer of the club was a Singaporean named David Tan. We used the same structure as Where Else, but we put a nice balcony and a mezzanine. And the lights and sirens were state-of-the-art for that time, made by Juliana's of London.
Ysmael hanging out with his friends at Euphoria
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Sorry, I thought Where Else came after Euphoria?
No, no. Where Else was the original name of Euphoria. It was the first hotel disco in Makati. Right after that, Circuit opened at the Hyatt on Roxas Boulevard. This was mga 1969.
We took over Where Else and changed the name after to Euphoria. And it was an instant success. My original partners were Biboy Enriquez, Iñigo Zobel and Ed Roxas. We sold it in ‘99 to Mark Jimenez. And he gave it to his son, Marcel Crespo, to run. And then he decided to call it Where Else again. It was like a revival.
Let's talk about the name. How did you come up with Euphoria?
Funny. You know how people feel when they take drugs and they drink? They feel “euphoric.” And that’s basically the feeling that you get when you’re in a club, right? The music makes you euphoric.
Plus, the fact that, you know, the (People Power) revolution of Cory was in 1986 and we started constructing (the club) in 1986. So when there was the Cory revolution, people were quoted as being “euphoric.” They used to say that a lot. So I kind of like adapted it to suit a party image for the club. It was kind of apropos for that time. Eventually, it became a household name in clubbing.
Do you remember opening night?
It was a VIP thing. The people who cut the ribbon were Baby Fores, Iñigo and Maricris Zobel. And the other partners and a few celebrities were there. But basically it was an opening party, by invitation.
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It was packed?
Packed. Euphoria was the place to go. Ever since the day that we opened, it was an instant success. The existing clubs then were Faces of Bobong Velez, and Giraffe at 6750. But Giraffe was not a club. It was more a bar, like Venezia. No dance floor, but music at club volume.
Did you know the last real club that had a dance floor was Euphoria? When you think about it. I'm a partner of the big clubs today, like Palace. The big venue in Palace is Xylo, which was the old Valkyrie. Before there was a big dance floor, with standup cocktail tables. Because no one actually dances, aside from jumping around and throwing their arms in the air, we decided to just keep the standup tables and maximize on the service. It’s more dancing in place now, at your table, with your drink.
When I had Stargazer, dancing was more the thing to do at the disco. Call up a girl, go on a date, hope that she’d dance with you. That’s why I played slow music, to give couples a chance to get cozy with each other. We were the only ones to play slow music at any club. Stargazer and Louie Y’s.
And then Euphoria. We also tried it there and it seemed to work as well. Just turn off the lights, put on slow music, and you’ll see a stream of people going to the dance floor to cozy up with their dates. It was actually a nice breather from the loud music.
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The club scene has evolved from dancing to basically sitting at a nice table or standing at the bar or at standup tables. This was the case with Venezia, V Bar, Nu Vo, et cetera. Euphoria was the last big place that could accommodate the dance floor and it also had a mezzanine where people could get away from the main action and observe from above.
There was a ledge in front of the DJ, and sometimes you’d have people who were feeling so good that they would just get up on the ledge and dance, without any inhibitions.
I even had guys like Andrew E. up there. Andrew E. came from Olongapo and had a natural party attitude. He was very well-versed in rapping. He started the original Tagalog rap using Western beats and rhythms, like “Humanap ka ng Panget.” Viva boss Vic Del Rosario saw him there and offered him a recording contract.
Ysmael says Euphoria was the last real club that had a dance floor
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You said from the beginning Euphoria was very successful. How did you market the place? How did you get the kind of people you wanted to attract?
Well, number one, we had different events. Like, for example, the Absolut Girl of the Night. I would go to the club every Wednesday and pick out a beautiful girl and ask her if she wanted to be the Absolut girl. She would ask, ‘Oh why, what do I get?’ We gave her a free bottle of Absolut Vodka. And then the four winners—of the four Wednesdays—would compete for Girl of the Month. The prize of Girl of the Month was bigger. You get a trip to Boracay. I got fashion designers to give clothes, you know, and restaurants for gift certificates, a whole bunch of stuff.
You got to pick the winners?
The winners were decided like this: they would invite friends and whoever drank the most Absolut would get votes. Each drink would be a certain number of votes, but a bottle would be a whole lot more. In short, every drink of Absolut would translate into a vote and any other drink would be half a vote. This way, you’d be encouraged to drink Absolut, so you could maximize on votes. It was a great gimmick.
We had a lot of (Absolut) girls that became actresses and celebrities, like Ina Raymundo, Malou Gonzalez, some beauty queens. Faith Amigo. Phoem Baranda. Marami. It was a prestigious title to have.
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Now the monthly girls would compete for Euphoria Girl of the Year. And the Euphoria Girl of the Year would be chosen by judges. So we'd invite the girls and they would present themselves to celebrity judges who would interview them. It was like a pageant, but not like walking around with bathing suits or anything like that. Because they were already pretty in the first place, so there was no need to exhibit any more. The judging was based on 50 percent beauty, 25 percent intelligence, and 25 percent personality.
It was basically a popularity contest with beautiful girls from all over: students, working girls. But you couldn't be popular unless you were pretty. (Laughs). So sometimes a girl would invite so many friends that even if she wasn't as good-looking as her competitors, she would win. Because she was supported by her friends who would continue to buy drinks.
They'd win prizes like a trip to Europe, like Paris or Stockholm, where the Absolut headquarters was. Or the U.S., like L.A or New York. It was a five-day, all-expenses-paid trip, plus shopping money. So you can imagine they’d really go for it. I have a record of my winners somewhere.
A typical night at Euphoria
PHOTO: Louie Ysmael
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Apart from that, what else did you do?
There would be tequila nights. There were nights when foreign guests would visit, like Sergio Mendes, Stevie Wonder, and Sting, to name a few. The famous disco singer Rick Astley also performed there for two nights.
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So, as you can see, we didn't really have to promote it. It was self-promoting. Because you can go to Euphoria any night of the week and be sure there was always something nice happening.
It wasn’t just packed on weekends?
No, we were open every day, man. We were open on Sundays. Actually, anybody who felt like going out on a Sunday would eventually end up at Euphoria.
The Absolut Girl Wednesdays was such a hit that even the Absolut people in Sweden wrote me a personal note and published it in their Gazette, congratulating me for such a successful marketing night for Absolut. They said this was a unique promotion that they felt would do well anywhere in the world.
People were lining up from our entrance all the way around the hotel and even up to SM (ShoeMart). There really wasn’t any competition for our Wednesdays at the time. Basically, we ruled the nightlife for so many years.
Euphoria had a lot of promotions and gimmicks that attracted the crowds pretty much nonstop
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Describe a typical evening for you at Euphoria.
Well, I’d show up after dinner. Or sometimes I'd have dinner at the hotel, either in a room that I had there, or one of the restaurants. Or I’d eat at home. I lived in Forbes Park at that time, with my folks. It was just around the corner, and after that, derecho na Euphoria.
I’d hold court in the Summer Room, behind the DJ. We had rooms: Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn. They were like separate cubicles but big, seating about 30 people each. My room was Summer, right behind the Johnnie Walker sign. On the walls were bottles with the names of the people. Syempre, buy me a bottle. Those rooms were prestigious. I have a lot of pictures in front of the club.
And then how would the night go?
Oh boy, I’d slowly get inebriated. (Laughs). But you know, I used to control myself. I wouldn't like crawl out of there. I don't remember anytime ever having to be carried up. I always managed to make it on my own. You got to listen to your body, your brain, especially if you're driving.
And there was a point that I was already living in Pasig. Euphoria was open for 12 years. I was in Forbes at the beginning and then I moved here (in Pasig). I'd have a driver also but sometimes I’d drive my driver home. Sabi ko, ako na lang muna, kasi paglabas ko, tulog na tulog na. Antok na antok na. Sabi ko, sa sobrang antok, baka may mangyari pa. So ako na lang. Pagdating sa bahay gising na gising na siya. (Laughs). Takot na takot sa driving ko.
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Louie Ysmael with Johnny Litton
Of course, you were the owner. What sort of things would happen at the club during the night?
Iba-ibang gulo minsan. Sometimes, people would bother other tables. Guys would come up to girls and cause fights. But I had very good security. Lots of fights, but nothing really serious.
There was one fatal shooting out in the parking lot in front, from an unruly customer who bothered this foreigner. He actually bothered the female partner of the foreigner.
It happened on a Sunday. The two drunk guys walked in; one of them was Boy Garcia, who was the bodyguard of a Euphoria VIP. He was on his day off. He was a problematic person as he was always drunk to the point of annoyance. They went there obviously to look for action, and since there was nobody else in the club—it was 4 a.m on a Sunday—they decided to pick on this Filipina who was with a foreigner. They kept bothering her and the foreigner just kept his cool. My security told the foreigner, ‘Sir I think you better leave because this person is trouble.’ And he said, ‘Yeah I think I will.’
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The security tried to send the two troublemakers out, but they had to be careful because they were able to sneak a pistol in. I don’t know how he got that gun in, but I was so annoyed when I found out. When the foreigner left, he got into a taxi, but Boy Garcia decided to go after him, and as the taxi was about to pull away, he stuck his gun at the passenger window where the two were seated. The foreigner, without blinking an eye, got his wrist and twisted Boy’s hand. Boy happened to pull the trigger on himself. He blew his fucking brains out. His brains were all over the ground. The foreigner then left right away then sought shelter in his embassy.
I was in Davao and got a call from Boy Garcia’s boss who told me what happened. He asked if I could do something about it. But I was already briefed by my security about what had happened. The foreigner happened to be the chief security of the King of Saudi Arabia who was on holiday here, and a famous professional soccer player there. He was whisked out of the country the next day and left the situation to be settled by the embassy and the Makati police authorities diplomatically.
That was the worst. The others were just like small fisticuffs and gulo. The usual away ng mga lasing because our security, 99 percent of the time, had the situation under control.
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What was the drugs situation in Euphoria?
We, of course, did not allow drugs inside. Because we knew that there were a lot of people who didn't know how to control their drugs. So, if guests wanted to do drugs, they would most likely do it before coming in. But those who brought it in knew that it was not allowed, and we would confiscate quite a few, mostly pills and cocaine, and marijuana. But that was the thing back then. You couldn’t avoid it, and you couldn’t pretend that nothing happened. But it was not tolerated. If the security would see a “bugoy” and wasak na sya, we would send them home.
But any club or bar, any happening party place in Manila at the time, merontalaga. But we weren't famous for that. We were known for a good time, good clean fun. With good-looking people. The music was good. The service was excellent, and it was a great location. All the ingredients for a successful club.
With hardly any competition, Euphoria was packed nearly every night
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In terms of the drinks and the food, were there any standouts and highlights that you remember?
There was the Flaming Blowjob. They’d light it up and you suck it up through a straw before the straw melted. I don't even know what the mix was. Food—they liked our pizza. We just had little pizzas. Salpicao. Chorizo. Pica-pica food. Stuff like that. Nothing complicated. Like Venezia. Ganun din.
When it was packed, how many people were there?
Maybe 500 to 600. That was a regular night. At one time we had about 700. And then we had long lines to get in. Of course, there was always the risk of a fire. Pero wala namang untoward incident. No major earthquake. The only thing I remember was the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. When people left the club, the ash was thick on the roof of the cars. Nobody knew what was going on.
Was Euphoria profitable as a business?
It was. We got our return on investment after our second year. Sales were wow. Quite a lot. We also gave out the VIP cards so that people wouldn’t pay the entrance, to people we knew would spend. Or who were good-looking. Pampa-puno.
The VIP cards of Euphoria were handed out to select clientele
PHOTO: Louie Ysmael
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For regular people, there was a cover charge. How much was it?
It was a minimum consumable. I think P500, two drinks.
Euphoria overlapped with your other bars?
We opened Venezia in ‘97. So I had Venezia and Euphoria for two years together. It was fun. We would go back and forth.
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Euphoria lasted until 1999?
It was called Euphoria until 1999, until it opened as Where Else, which lasted for another year.
Why did you decide to sell?
We had an offer that we felt was okay. And we thought, what the hell. Let’s not push it. Kumita na tayo. Plus, most of my partners in Euphoria were also my partners in Venezia. So we decided, concentrate na lang tayo sa Venezia. Ganun lang ka-simple.
When the new owners took over, they changed it agad to Where Else?
Yeah, they changed right away to Where Else again. They even used the old logo of Where Else. This was around September 1999.
Ysmael and his partners sold their interest in Euphoria to a group led by businessman Mark Jimenez in 1999
So after you divested from Euphoria, you focused on Venezia. How long was Venezia around?
Venezia we had for six years, and then another three years with V Bar. Venezia became V Bar. We refurbished and changed the look. But it was the same thing. And then after V Bar, I had Nu Vo.
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Since Intercon has been torn down and there's a new development there, I just wanted to ask if you had any reaction when they announced it. You obviously had many pleasant memories there.
Not really. I mean, because memories are up here (points to his head). And, of course, when the building was torn down a few years ago, it wasn’t really a sad event because we had already left over 20 years ago, so there wasn’t much of an attachment. The only attachment we had was of the memories.
When you look back at those Euphoria years, what goes through your head?
I look back at Euphoria as a time when clubbing was at its peak. With that generation. Not sure what that generation is; the club was around for 12 years. And the ‘90s was a very significant year for club music; one of the best. The ‘80s and ‘90s were the best for club music. Then the 2000s came around and there was hip-hop and techno. I’m more of an old-school house music kind of guy.
It was a time when I was much younger. And like I said, clubbing was at its best. People actually more or less knew each other. Right? Whereas now, it’s a hodgepodge of everything. Even just music-wise, the way people dress. I would say Euphoria was really just about classic clubbing.
"It was a club for all ages and a pioneer in the larger club industry."
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What was so special about Euphoria?
Aside from covering a very critical period (1987-1999) in the clubbing industry composed basically of Baby Boomers and Gen X, Euphoria attracted a generation that easily mixed with the pre-Baby Boomers, which is an indication of how people in their 50s and even 60s were able to mix with the younger generation. It was a club for all ages and a pioneer in the larger club industry. It was also one of the longest-lasting, if not the the longest-lasting dance club in the Philippines (12 years).
You've had a lot of discos and clubs over the years. Where would you rank Euphoria?
One of the top. There was Stargazer. Louie Y’s. Kuya Pare. Euphoria. Venezia. V Bar. Nu Vo. And then I joined these younger guys now with 71 Gramercy. Privé. Opus. Revel. Valkyrie. The Palace. So you can see the progression, but I can't deny that Stargazer was the club that launched my so-called career in clubbing, and Louie Y’s. They were the so-called disco years.
And then after that, they were already termed “clubs,” not na “disco.” Starting with Euphoria. And then from clubbing it morphed to bars. Like Reserve and maybe Versus. Those are the present Venezias. Again, the Euphorias of today are Xylo. And Revel.
So you can see the evolution and the way things are. But thank God after this pandemic the old nightlife is coming back na. And even small clubs in Poblacion are the trend now. It’s either a big, noisy crazy place like Xylo, or Revel, or quiet bars.
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So far, I see Manila’s nghtlife is still thriving and lasting for many more years to come.
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