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Angelito "Hajji" Toledo Alejandro (; December 26, 1954 – April 21, 2025) was a Filipino singer and actor who was a major pop star in the 1970s and 1980s.
One of the first original Pilipino music (OPM) icons, Alejandro's singing career started from being a member of the Circus Band within almost three years, along with Basil Valdez who had discovered him, before going solo in 1976. At that time, he was dubbed the original "Kilabot ng mga Kolehiyala"
Alejandro interpreted the song "Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika", which eventually won grand prizes at the first editions of the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival and the International Seoul Song Festival in South Korea in 1978. He was also best known for songs, "Tag-Araw, Tag-ulan" and "Panakip-butas" (both adaptations of foreign songs), as well as "May Minamahal" and "Nakapagtataka."
Alejandro took a management course at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he was discovered. However, he left college after his second year to concentrate on his music career.
Alejandro once recalled that Valdez, an Ateneo alumni, "discovered" him and recruited him to join the band following his performance at the university with his classmates from San Beda.
He had been singing professionally since June 1973, at the time he was an Ateneo freshman, when he was paid to sing "If You Don't Know Me By Now" by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with the band at the Wells Fargo nightclub on Roxas Boulevard. Every night, he received the sum of Philippine peso35 for his acts. During almost three years with the group, Alejandro recorded at least four albums with them.
After the breakup of the Circus Band, Alejandro, Valdez and Moreno formed a band for a while, named Lovelife.
Among his first hit singles were "Panakip-butas," an adaptation of the 5th Dimension's "Worst That Could Happen"; and "Tag-araw, Tag-ulan," that of the Bee Gees' "Charade". In 2018, Alejandro shared in a concert that "May Minamahal" was the first song he recorded and became a hit.
In 1977, his first album, Hajji, was released. To promote this, he did a nationwide campus tour which subsequently earned him the moniker, the original "Kilabot ng mga Kolehiyala."
Alejandro was later introduced by Cruz to (now National Artist for Music) Ryan Cayabyab, also from the same recording label. He interpreted "Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika", composed by Cayabyab, for the inaugural Metro Manila Popular Music Festival (Metropop) in 1978—his first time to join a singing competition—winning the grand prize. Later that year, Alejandro and Cayabyab represented the country in the first International Music Festival in Seoul, South Korea, where they took the Grand Prix for the song, and Alejandro the Best Singer. That Filipino song became the first to win the highest award in an international song competition.
Alejandro went on hiatus since the late 1980s as he went to the United States for a non-showbiz venture. The hiatus ended prior to the end of his business in early 1990s, as he had his first weekend concert with his daughter Rachel Alejandro at the Music Museum.
In his later years, he performed particularly for Filipinos abroad, with Rachel in their shows; as well as with the group collectively known as The OPM Hitmakers—also composed of Rey Valera, Marco Sison, Nonoy Zuñiga and Rico J. Puno.
He was also involved in musical theater plays.
The second was beauty queen and actress Rio Diaz; they were likewise separated after Diaz went back to the Philippines from the United States around 1990. They had a son, Delara drummer Ali. Diaz died of colorectal cancer in October 2004.
Alejandro was in a long-term relationship with former New Minstrels (another 1970s music group) singer Alynna Velasquez from 1998. In March 2025, Velasquez revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer. He died from the disease on April 21, at the age of 70. His cremation remains were later Interment at the Heritage Park after a one-day private Funeral which was held two days later.
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