THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 4 Number 8 | May 2014
ENTERTAINMENT
Maria Paz Barcenas …
FROM PLAYTIMES TO CLASS ACTS
“I was a shy kid who would just sit on the sideline listening to people sing.
ple sing .
s gift
Then, I remember I was given a cassette toy with a microphone as a gift.
I was so fascinated by it and would sing on it all day long.”
IT took a toy cassette and microphone to rouse
this once shy girl to grow into a full-blown performer. Now one of the rising R&B talents to
watch in the community’s entertainment arena, Maria Paz Barcenas can only look back with
amusement at how her singing career probably
started.
“I was a shy kid who would just sit on the
sideline listening to people sing. Then, I remember I was given a cassette toy with a microphone
as a gift. I was so fascinated by it and would sing
on it all day long,” Maria Paz recalls during a recent interview with AK.
“However, if I must highlight the main factors that continually influence me to sing and
perform, they would include the joy, the roller
coaster of emotions and the fulfillment that singing brings to me and to the people that are listening to the music I am making.”
By the time she was in Year 4, Maria Paz
joined a school audition to sing in a local competition. Soon enough she was representing her
school in not a few musical events.
She has never stopped performing since
then. She has become one of familiar faces in
community events whether doing front acts for
visiting artists or singing for charity.
Her genre of songs varies.
“I like learning and challenging myself with
different tunes. But the genre of music that I always come back to would be rhythm and blues,
jazz and ballads,” she says.
“With my performances, I do more than
just singing a song, I like learning the lyrics, deciphering what each song mean, personalising
the characters introduced in the songs, and then
singing the song in context of the setting where
I am performing.”
She sings with a voice that elicits emotions.
Her performances stimulate and leave a lasting
impression on viewers. Audience response has
always been her inspiration.
“I love seeing the genuine emotions that my
performance can bring out from the people who
are listening,” she says.
She counts among her idols Whitney Houston – “as many people do, because she is truly
amazing” – The Carpenters, Michael Jackson,
Etta James, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Beyonce Knowles and Filipino stars
Regine Velasquez, Lani Misalucha, Angeline
Quinto, Jaya, Donna Cruz.
It’s a busy schedule in the coming months for
Maria Paz who has been booked for performances in pageants, weddings, parties and concerts.
Not to mention a debut single in the making.
Indeed she has outgrown her days of toy
mikes and make-believe concerts as a young
girl tickling her folks back in the Philhe
e
ippines.
Now she’s very much in the real
he
h
business. With a real microphone.
ph
hone.
Singing is her joy. And making peong
g
ple happy with a class act is her drivr
ing force.
“ The thought that one single
in
ngle
song