Meet Kelsey Adams, the next pop princess

CEBU, Philippines - You’d have to first hear her album to believe that  this pretty Cebuana will be the country’s Pop Princess and next teen singing sensation. Here’s an artist who’s finally singing songs that befit her age. And you don‘t even have to be in her age bracket to enjoy her tunes.

All of 14, Kelsey Adams’ voice impressed two international songwriters who wrote and produced her debut album, “Definition of Cool”, and got a major label to back her up. The result: a refreshing, all-original album that is smart, foreign-sounding and successfully captures the sentiments of today’s female teens.

She is the latest and youngest contract artist signed up by PolyEast Records, the same record label that has in its stable established talents such as Martin Nievera, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Agot Isidro, Kyla, Karylle, Nikki Gil, Bamboo, Sandwich, Hale and Sugarfree.

When our music industry seems to thrive in endless renditions of old and new songs, it will be a gamble to deviate from the status quo of churning out revivals given its assured appeal and marketability. Producing music is still, after all, a business and as one up-and-coming singer and manager associated with another record label told The FREEMAN in a recent interview, “…unless you’re Sarah Geronimo or Regine Velasquez, it is hard to sell an original album if you’re still establishing yourself as an artist.”

Thus, PolyEast’s brave effort to produce an album composed of all-original materials for a relative newcomer is proof of the company’s faith in the teener’s musicality and potential to go big-time, perhaps even internationally.

"Iba talaga yung voice and pitch niya. Iba talaga eh. Nag-complement sa songs na ginawa ng producers,” says PolyEast operations manager Jesmon Chua in a recent presscon at Bigby’s SM. “And with everyone doing covers, we wanted to develop our own from scratch, since most of our artists are already established.”  

Her name may not sound Filipino but Kelsey is a proud product of Cebu, first gaining local attention when she won first runner-up and the Texter’s Choice Award in ABS-CBN’s “Little Big Star-Cebu” a few years back. She had been singing since five and had since taken part in concerts here and in Manila.

Over lunch before her recent mall show at the SM Entertainment Center, Kelsey shared that she idolizes the likes of Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Regine Velasquez. Born in Hawaii to American father Richard Charles Adams and Cebuana Jasmine Racoma Adams, her half-breed looks had helped her bag nine beauty queen titles such as “Little Miss Sinulog,” “Little Miss Sky Cable,” and “Little Miss Cupid.”

How did she cross paths with her album producers?

When Kelsey was 11 years old, she answered a casting call for "Deep Gold", an international action-thriller (yes, she's into acting too) that stars veteran actor Joel Torre, produced by the film division of Bigfoot Entertainment, New Cebu Films. She sang in the audition (she landed the part of the female lead's young version) and the film's soundtrack writers, Ben Patton and Jaye Muller, discovered gold in Kelsey's voice. They then began the project of writing an album for her.

“She’s got the vocal range of Christina Aguilera and the innocence of Highschool Musical,” Patton wrote in his blog, confirming that Kelsey is in a totally different league. Muller is of German background while Patton is from New York. They both describe their music in their site as "theatrical rock, melodious pop." 

The 10-track album's content has a strong foreign flavor, owing to its writers, but will still connect to a Filipino audience. The upbeat opening cut, "Welcome To Me" is Kelsey's energetic introduction of herself and her world, quirks and all. Carrier single “Cut That Out” has the potential to be a female tween's anthem on first crushes.

While "What If", "What's It Like" and "Song About the Simple Things" delve on concerns of teens, other tracks like "It Dosn't Matter Now", "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "Plenty Of Time" are love songs that even adults can relate and shamelessly sing to.  

Kelsey goes a bit sexy and edgy, with a hint of a younger Britney Spears, in the danceable "Not Polite To Stare" (I'm just groovin/Tryin to keep it cool/It wasn't my intention to make anybody drool).

On YouTube, where her "Cut That Out" video can be seen, viewers have nothing but rave reviews for Kelsey.

"Must say she sings good. Her use of English makes her stand out among all the other singers of Cebu. Those singers tend to mispronounce certain English words when singing. I guess this is because of the fact that she was born in Hawaii and got exposed to American culture," one online user wrote.

"In the video, she sings and dances with feeling. By comparison, the local singers here in Cebu tend to over-act and think they can fool people watching them. So far, Adams has potential. I've seen many local community entertainers who blatantly describe themselves as 'world class' even though they never achieved anything on the global level. Adams still has a way to go to achieve something on the global level but when compared to those other local entertainers, she has a very big edge over them," said another online fan.

Presently, school duties have put on hold the full-blast promotion of her album, but the coming summer vacation will see Kelsey doing the rounds in Manila. Give her the needed exposure and presence in ASAP or Party Pilipinas as well as sufficient radio airplay, and Kelsey would undoubtedly be the music industry's newest "it" girl.