2015 breakout year for Janella

Young actress-singer Janella Salvador had a very good year in 2015.

In fact, one could say it was her breakout year. She got to star in Oh My G!, a daytime series put together by the same team that did the top-rating Be Careful With My Heart, where she was first introduced. After Oh My G! ended, it was announced that she had been chosen for the female lead role in Dreamscape Entertainment’s Born For You, where she will star opposite new Kapamilya Elmo Magalona, who formally signed a contract with ABS-CBN.

And as if that weren’t enough, she released an album, began shooting her Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) movie Haunted Mansion where she played a pivotal role, and also in 2015, was chosen to sing Hong Kong Disneyland’s 10th anniversary song, Happily Ever After!

Her show Oh My G! ended last July not because it wasn’t rating, but because she needed time to promote her album. “Matagal ko nang na-record ang album ko, but di ko siya ma-promote because of the schedule. So right after it ended, I started promoting and shooting for the MMFF movie.”

Now she is busy with Born For You. She is excited to work with both Dreamscape Entertainment and her new leading man for the first time.

On working with Elmo, she says they’re still in the process of getting to know each other. “We haven’t really had long conversations, but he seems very nice, and very friendly and warm, di naman nagsasarili.”

All of this success has yet to sink in, in the same way that she still has to get used to hearing people refer to her as the OPM Pop Sweetheart. Janella says she’s not used to the title yet: “Actually hanggang ngayon, di pa nag-si-sink in, di pa napupunta sa utak ko. It’s cute, and at the same time a big honor to have a title, because not everyone has a title. Like usually they’ll call you by your name, but now they introduce me as the OPM pop sweetheart, and I feel…it’s just that so many big blessings have been coming, and I don’t know if I deserve them.”

She can’t believe what’s happening because when Be Careful With My Heart began, she didn’t even think her role would be that big. But with the success of the show which ran for two years, everything turned out differently for her. Up to now, Janella can’t believe her good fortune. Sometimes she finds herself wondering if she deserves all these wonderful blessings. “They gave me my own show, lead role agad, after that album, there were so many blessings,” she says. “I honestly don’t know what I did, all I do is really enjoy.”

When she gets tired, she just thinks of how much she enjoys what she’s doing. In the meantime, she has learned to ignore the bashers and critics who seek to bring her down. They aren’t as many as other celebrities have, but there are some. “Honestly, I haven’t gotten as many bashers as some people out there. I have bashers, but from my experience naman, I just pray for them. I don’t mind them,” says Janella. “Parang to me, if that’s their opinion, they should just keep it to themselves. I’m not affected honestly, if they call me stuff, ‘cause if you know what you’re doing is really right, you shouldn’t be affected.”

In the meantime, says Janella, she’s just happy to be here, doing what she loves. It’s exactly what she hopes to  do this year.