MANILA, Philippines - Acoustic music is something every Pinoy has come to love through the years. And someone is having a fresh take on it: Moira dela Torre (photo), better known as Moira.
After joining the first season of ABS-CBN’s The Voice of the Philippines, Moira has kept her music career in traction by lending her fetching voice to TV commercials and radio ads for big brands that you had been singing along to without knowing it’s her: Lewis & Pearl’s Sweet Paris, Perla’s Hawak Kamay, Johnson’s Baby’s Signature Of Love, Imodium’s Lonely Is The Night, Surf’s Pinalaki and Ang Bango Ng Perfume, Goldilocks’ Merienda Na and even the soothing tune to McDonald’s Hooray For Today.
Since then, the music production student has been tagging along local musicians like Yeng Constantino, Markki Stroem and Thor to serve as the opening act. It wasn’t long until big shots in the music industry started to notice. With interest in making music armed with songwriting background, a big break was bound to happen. So it did when Moira caught the interest of Ivory Music which led to a recording contract for her self-titled debut album with the label. Now she’s being tagged as “the modern voice of pop.”
After all, there’s no question that Moira’s vocals command attention, what with its unique vibe paired with the effortless strumming of her guitar. It’s modern pop, and the best part of it all is she writes her own material.
The first single off the debut album is Love Me Instead, one of the first songs she had penned. She was only 13 when for the first time she experienced crushing on someone who didn’t like her back, and music proved to be the best thing to help her cope. Hence, the conception of the track.
She’s cutting a duet track titled Wala Nang Kulang Pa with Sam Milby. “He’s a friend of mine and we were under the same management, and he’s one of those who encouraged me to really pursue a career in music.”
The other tracks are Be My Fairytale, Happily Ever After, If You Tell Me You Love Me and After Your Heart.
(Moira is now available in record stores for P200. It is downloadable through iTunes, Spinnr.ph, Spotify and Deezer.)