Rachel Alejandro sings a different tune

Since Day One, Rachel Alejandro has marched to the beat of a different drummer. Growing up in a dysfunctional family (her mom, separated from dad Hajji Alejandro, has remarried), she never thought of men as her all-around protectors.

Today, at 28, she’s in love with Lee Robin Salazar, but admits she won’t plunge into marriage just because her biological clock is ticking. The moralists can rant and rave all they want. Rachel is simply not the maternal type, thank you.

She can be the doting aunt, and she’d love to be one, family-centered as she is. But motherhood? She’s scared as hell.

"It’s a good thing Lee already as a daughter (by a former non-showbiz girl). At least he’s okay in that department," smiles Rachel.

Translation: She’s not ready to give him a baby.

The non-maternal feeling hearkens back to something as basic as genes. Yes, genes. Physical pain, it turns out, is something Rachel has such a low threshold of, just like Hajji.

"My dad is afraid of needles. When we were small, he’d ask the doctor if we really need to take shots," recalls Rachel. This aversion of pain rubbed off on Rachel, and has stayed to this days.

"That’s why childbirth won’t work for me," she surmises. Figures too, why Rachel, a grade of 950 in her eyes notwithstanding, refuses to listen to friend’s well-meaning advice to undergo laser treatment.

"I’ve never had a broken bone, nor a single tooth pulled in my entire life," she adds.

The attitude also has a physiological basis. After Rachel had to take a high dosage of anesthesia on her foot, it turned out that the drugs didn’t work. She still felt something in that part of her body.

Can’t blame Rachel then, for avoiding childbirth and all kinds of physical pain like the proverbial plague. Let her colleagues go through body piercing, body sculpting and all kinds of physical enhancements money can buy. All Rachel will agree to are two little tattoos – one, an Egyptian eye for good luck, on her back, and another, an eight ball, on one thigh.

Besides, like dear old dad, Rachel would rather invest her hard-earned money on more sounder investment: real estate. She has a one-bedroom place in uppity Eastwood, Quezon City, right next to Hajji’s three-bedroom investment.

Rachel describes herself as money-savvy, a trait she inherited from Hajji.

"Did you know that in the ’70s, all my Dad had was money from car insurance? He was down and out, and his car had just been stolen," relates Rachel with a hint of admiration in her voice.

How he was able to bounce back, and keep those youthful, no-care-in-the-world looks in downright amazing. Need you wonder now where Rachel got all that never-say-die spunk?

The father-daughter likeness ends in how they spend the rest of the money, though. Hajji, says Rachel, will save and save. She, on the other hand, will savor the fruits of her labor, while making sure "money does not pose a problem."

But the unmistakable Hajji stamp is there in everything else about Rachel. Because her dad was the matinee idol of the ’70s, Rachel grew up listening to the music of the discos, the bell-bottoms, the flared pants, on the radio.

"That was the musical foundation he laid out for me," states Rachel.

In high school, her musical tastes shifted to the sound of ’80s icons Madonna and Tears for Fears, her favorites to this day.

Thanks to this rich background in retro music, Rachel will blend well with Route 70, who will play the sounds of yesteryears as her guest in Love Spell at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel on Feb. 14. As in past Valentine shows, hotel management will transform the Lobby Lounge, the concert venue, into a mini-garden for that extra romantic fillip.

It will be a dinner-concert to boot. So prepare to remember the good old days over the best the house can offer.

After her Valentine show, a yearly tradition she enjoys doing, Rachel goes on a cruise in exotic destinations like Singapore, Malaysia, and Phuket. It will be a working vacation with her long-time manager Girlie Rodis, who will go with Rachel for the event.

As her favorite song, Another Day (from the acclaimed musical Rent) urges, Rachel makes it a point to "seize the moment, because life is so short."

While waiting for her green card, she’s not letting the grass grow under her feet. She’ll co-produce her new album – a long-awaited one, coming as it does two years after her last one – with cousin Nino Alejandro.

"I like to have more control of the contents this time," she explains, a ring of confidence in her voice.

That’s vintage Rachel for you. So in charge, you wouldn’t imagine she’s a normal human being who turns into a bundle of nerves when faces with things that shatter her sense of security to smithereens.