Ready for love: Tata not forever young

MANILA, Philippines - Aside from being known as Thailand’s singing superstar, Tata Young also has a reputation for championing causes, like her campaigns against global warming and human trafficking.

Now, she’s into a different kind of self-imposed crusade: The return to the days when it was talent, not looks that pushed an artist forward.

“A lot of the artists that come out right now, 80 percent has to do with the looks and 20 percent has to do with the talent,” she observes. “

She’s doing her share in righting this wrong in an industry she loves so much. She came up with a new album that focuses on her voice and singing more than anything else. Save those sizzling moves that put Tata in FHM(Thai Edition)’s 100 “Sexiest Women in the World” list.

Her latest album, Ready for Love (SonyBMG) is all about singing, singing and more singing. It’s longer on talent than any other album she has done so far.

“It’s an improvement from my previous albums, the best I’ve done so far,” she admits.

Tata worked with a vocal coach who “opened doors for me” and made her realize that yes, one can actually do marathon singing for an album and feel that “I’m on top of the world.”

The upbeat feeling is all over the carrier single Ready for Love, a paean to everything joyful and good. Sorry, folks, it’s not a nod to romance, like many people are bound to think.

All it means is that, in choosing the song as carrier single, Tata is ready to give “what I love most” and rediscover the path back to singing again.

“The album encapsulates my life and how everything is,” Tata adds. Not a single song in the album clashes with her personal taste.

“I only sing songs I believe in,” she explains.

In that sense, Tata bares her soul for public scrutiny in Ready for Love. The experience — all that intense rehearsing and recording — drained her, she admits. But there’s nothing like putting your stamp in your work and letting your personality shine through.

“It’s best to be yourself. I think that’s what people like most about me,” she observes.

Thus, Tata is not afraid to state her opinion and make a stand.

She wants Asian artists like her to enjoy the success she’s been enjoying as Asia’s Queen of Pop. That’s why Tata is pinning her hopes on Korea’s Rain as “the next person who would go far internationally.”

The more Asians there are in the international scene, the better for Tata.

And so it is with excitement that she’s anticipating her nth chance to entertain fellow Asians in a show she will hold in the Philippines next month.

“The Filipino audience is very energetic. They dance as they watch the show and are very good at singing,” observes Tata.

Also in her wish list is a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and Will Smith.

Tata dreams of working with the best because she’s ready to give any project her all. That’s what Ready for Love really means. It’s the willingness to do things with a passion, an intensity that can only be associated with love.

Yes, Tata Young is ready for love — not the romantic kind, but the kind that reaches out others through her song and her passion to do things right. And she’s bent on proving this once more, not just to music lovers, but to those who value human life and dignity through her songs and the causes she champions.