Eva de los Santos wears Yvonne Quisumbing:Her160° turn around the new wardrobe

And why everything’s oh so crazy now hear the sound of a woman running in sky-high heels.

“Are you Clint?” Eva de los Santos throws her arms to give me a big hug—the same warmth every time I come across a Filipino in a foreign country—appearing from the backstage of Newport Performing Arts at Resorts World Manila in Pasay. Already dolled up in a sequined mini dress and stilettos, she is in a hurry for her turn in a video teaser for her competition this Sunday on The Voice of The Philippines. She takes a few minutes to deal with all her commitments.

After two weeks of phoning each other, we’ve finally met. She’s petite with long hair—and like any Cebuano you see elsewhere—she has a big smile ready for a kababayan. Technically, we both are strangers in the place. Plus, we both have to learn to speak Tagalog, enunciating each word properly.

“Do you like my look today?” she begins, turning around as if wearing a princess gown. I agree, but tells her I like her style better when she appeared on her first battle round. It was a nude long-sleeved cocktail dress (now owned by her daughter Monique) that matched her long, curly hair, the type that prettily reminds me of my fashion icon Franca Sozzani.

“I didn’t like it. For me, it was too ‘high fashion’,” she refutes. By high fashion, she means fashionable, fad statements you would never find in her closet. While onstage (I can see her from the big screen), I further probe on it and I discover from Monique that Eva has never been brand conscious. As long as it fits so well, she’s good.

But she approved of the look she carried on her next battle (crooning So Far Away): White gown and hair all swept on her left shoulder. “It really reflected my style. I like classic pieces with elegant styling,” she goes on. “Johnny Manahan (program director) instructed me to sweep it on one side, so it wouldn’t cover my face. It really fits my fashion sense, that is, if I have one.”

What piece of clothing wouldn’t fit her? She weighs 85 pounds—and gets anxious when she reaches 95. “I’m doing it for myself and for the show. I need to be health conscious. No sweet, no ice cream,” she shares. “Backstage, I’d just tell my stylist to do whatever he wants to do. I want to experiment with my looks. But after my first appearance, I have already told him that I am not comfortable with long curly hair. They said, dear, I looked liked Steve Tyler that night.”

“But to be very generic about it, I love my new looks on the show. It gives a new image, which I am loving and embracing now. It’s a discovery,” the 51-year-old singer muses. “But it’s a crazy, crazy life I have here, crazy in a fantastic way. I mean, I feel too old for this, but here I am continuing my dreams, representing Cebu. This isn’t an amateur contest. All of us here believe we are good singers, and I believe I’m competing with the best singers in the country. It’s crazy—why now? It’s weird also because all of them have become my friends, and we’re competing with each other.”

On Sunday, it’ll be another elegant dress, she promises, performing Lani Misalucha’s Ikaw Lang Ang Mamahalin.

“Oh my god, Mommy Eva—ang sexy nyo, po,” cried the show’s host Toni Gonzaga backstage.

Oh, yes, that 19-inch waistline once again.