MANILA, Philippines – “I would love to be able to do some concerts, shows or guestings in the Philippines to thank all the Filipinos showing me support on social media. I hope to be given that chance,” said X Factor UK hopeful Neneth Ortega-Lyons, 37,who resides in Chelmsford, Essex, England, in an exclusive e-mail interview with The STAR.
Neneth is very proud to be a Filipino, and even though she is living in the UK, she has a big circle of Filipino friends living there as well.
“I try to visit my family in the Philippines once a year, and I normally stay for one month at a time... One of my brothers has a band called the Peakles which used to perform in bars and restaurants in Manila. His band is now working on the Thomson Cruise ships in Europe,” she added.
Neneth, whose favorite singers include Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Lani Misalucha, Sarah Geronimo and Gary Valenciano, started singing at the age of seven in the amateur competitions in the Philippines. “At eight years old, I placed third in a contest in San Juan, Metro Manila, and I received P300 and a trophy. I was so happy,” she said, adding that she eventually “won over 300 trophies in the amateur singing contests in the Philippines.”
She recalled being a guest singer at a Freddie Aguilar concert when she was only 10 years old.
The eldest child among the brood of seven of Primo and Daylinda Ortega of Agusan del Sur, she attended New Era High School in Quezon City and was an honor student. After graduating she went to a college, studying accountancy on a four-year scholarship. “I did two years of college, but then I had to drop out as I needed to go overseas to earn money to help support my family.”
At age 18, she left her home and moved to Shenzhen, China where she worked with Taiwanese international singers touring China for about six months. Then she worked in five-star hotels in Zhuhai and Shenzhen from 1997 to 1999, including Windows of the World, Grand Bay View Hotel and Forum Hotel. In 1999, she transferred to Hong Kong and worked at Harbour Plaza Hotel Hung Hom, Kowloon Hotel and Langham Hotel Intercontinental.
Four years after, she moved to Dongguan in mainland China and worked as a singer at Sofitel Royal Lagoon Hotel from 2003 to 2005.
“It was at Royal Lagoon where I met my boyfriend Ross Lyons, now my husband,” she said.
In 2005, Neneth stopped singing full time. “I made the decision to stop singing full time, mainly due to the fact that I was having to work in the evenings till very late, and my husband was working days, and it meant that we didn’t get to spend any quality time together. I missed being on stage and singing, but in China the hotels require the singers to perform six nights a week, and there is no real part-time work, three nights a week for example, unlike what you get in other countries.”
In December 2011, they decided to leave China and move to the UK. After settling in Chelmsford, Essex, the couple decided to have a baby, now a cute two-year-old daughter christened as Elizabeth Alison.
“Now that my daughter is a bit older, it meant I could concentrate on my singing again,” she said. “I wanted to try and get some regular gigs in our area, and thought by joining X Factor, it could help with meeting the right connections to achieve this. If all went well, it could lead to my dream of becoming a recording artist. However, I had no idea of the worldwide following and reaction I’ve received on social media, with over two million views on YouTube of my audition. It was very overwhelming.”
Neneth has always watched X Factor with great interest. The great thing about the show, she said, is that there is no age cap, and the show “has such a huge following that it can take an unknown singer and give him/her the exposure required to become a recording artist overnight.”
During the audition, she was praying that the judges would not cut her off halfway through singing Barbra Streisand song Somewhere, especially as the version “I chose was one which starts slow and builds up to the high notes towards the end. Choosing a song is always a fear of mine. I knew that I would be taking a chance singing an older song, but it was a song that I felt comfortable with, and I believed it could get me through to the next stage.”
Since the broadcast of her audition, she has been fortunate to have such lovely comments from the public and great reviews from the press in the UK.
“It’s still something I am trying to get my head around. It’s amazing. I was also pleased that they aired my group audition at boot camp. While I had been given the nickname/tag line ‘Nervous Neneth’ in my first audition, I thought it was important that the public could see the more confident side of me, without the crying. I hope they liked my performance in Proud Mary in which I wanted to show the fun side and to show that I can still dance and perform just like the younger contestants in the competition, even being a 37-year-old recent mum,” she recounted.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t show my solo audition at bootcamp. I sang Without You, and I believe I did the song justice as I had a great response from the producers and hosts. Olly Murs said to me that out of all the performances he had listened to that day, mine was the one that he didn’t want to end. I really wished the public had a chance to see it.”
She fortunately made it to the six-chairs challenge for over 27 years old and above category. Last Oct. 12, she was interviewed by the New Night Light Plus Classics show with DJ Brad through CyberPinoy Radio (a Filipino website that connects Pinoys from around the world).
Neneth is praying that the public and media will continue to enjoy her performances.
“The end goal is to be able to perform full time and fulfill the dream I had when I was a little girl, but had almost given up on, of becoming a recording artist. I don’t want this incredible journey to end,” said Neneth who will perform on Nov. 8 at Essex’s Genting Casino Southend; Nov. 14 at Norwich’s Humbleyard Village Hall; and Nov. 22 at London’s FM Bar. She will also guest in Gabby Concepcion’s show in London on Dec. 5.