Trina Belamide sings her own song

Today is the time of the singer-songwriter. You know, compose a song and then record it yourself and hope it sells. That is how it works for Adele and Ed Sheeran and the biggest of them all nowadays, Taylor Swift.  It is the same case hereabouts. Adie, Arthur Nery, Moira dela Torre, Zack Tabudlo and others, all write and popularize their own songs.

In the old days, record companies usually maintained a pool of songwriters, who are called in to write songs for the contract artists. Think The Corporation at Motown for Give Love on Christmas Day or Carole King for Mashed Potato for Little Eva and Neil Sedaka, Stupid Cupid for Connie Francis at the Brill Building in New York.

Out here, there were the likes of George Canseco at Vicor writing the hits for Basil Valdez or Willy Cruz at Jem composing for Nonoy Zuñiga. Then, there are also the ”independents” who were often called to pitch their works to artists working on albums like Vehnee Saturno, who had a major breakthrough when his song Be My Lady was tapped for the young newcomer Martin Nievera.

Trina Belamide was one of those. She started writing songs as a hobby during her teenage years. She got deeper into it while in college at the Ateneo, where she also sang with the Ateneo College Glee Club. Encouraged by friends, she started pitching songs to various artists. One of these instances was in 1992 for the popular group The CompanY that had a major debut earlier with Everlasting Love.

Trina pitched a song titled Now That I Have You. The Company loved it, recorded it and it became a huge hit. It was a happy song. The sparkling effervescent rendition totally jibed with the idea of the joy of finding true love. The recording was also just right for the young pop music market of the time that tended to find broken-hearted ballads corny. It is no wonder then that Now That I Have You has become a huge favorite as a wedding song.

Trina had since then attained success as a songwriter, winning in competitions like the Metropop with Shine and bagging commissions for commercial jingles like Maligaya at Maaga ang Pasko for Jollibee.

Among her best-known works are You’ve Made Me Stronger by Regine Velasquez, Shine by Ima Castro, which was also covered by Regine, and Tell the World of His Love, performed by Jeff Arcilla and Racquel Mangaliag and later popularized by Jamie Rivera.

Tell the World of His Love was the winner of a songwriting contest created for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1995 to launch the World Youth Day in the Philippines. Its inspiring message has made it a favorite during religious celebrations including during World Youth Day confabs in other countries.

Now Shine got a new cover by Morissette for the song’s 25th anniversary a year ago. This must be what gave Trina the idea of also coming up with a new cover of Now That I Have You for its 30th anniversary this year and doing it herself. Trina can sing and while she has not done a lot of recordings by herself, she has recorded and often tours with the Ateneo Chamber Singers. With this, she officially joins the ranks of today’s singer-songwriters.

Trina’s version of Now That I Have You including a lovely lyric video is now available on various digital platforms. The arrangement keeps the original joyful mood but is in a toned-down pop style and Trina’s singing is just sweet enough. Not at all sugary. This should bring in a lot of requests from prospective brides and grooms to use the song for their weddings.

Just in case you do not know, Trina is also a much in-demand composer for weddings and that is mostly thanks to the popularity of Now That I Have You. You want to have an original song to remember your wedding day? Call Trina.  She might agree to compose one for you.