Matteo spreads his wings in a new direction

Lately, Matteo Guidicelli has been spreading his wings in a new direction. If you’ve been following his recent career moves, you’d know that the former racer-turned-triathlete, actor and TV host has now officially added singer, recording artist and concert star to his list of achievements.

Matteo staged a successful solo concert, titled MG1, and also released a single, titled Ipapadama na Lang. Before that, last July, he starred in another concert, Dreamboys, with JC de Vera and Daniel Matsunaga. But Matteo clarifies that his decision to get into all these projects and explore the musical side of him is not necessarily due to the influence of his girlfriend, Sarah Geronimo. 

“She’s always there to support me, but I’ve loved this (music) since before pa. The thing is that it’s only now that doors have been opening to all these opportunities,” he explains. “It only started two years ago, when I guested in Sarah’s concert in America.”

That time, Matteo was with Louie Ocampo, and before they came back to the Philippines, Louie talked to Matteo about the possibility of producing an album for him. “That’s when I said, ‘Oh my God, let’s do it!’ It had actually been my dream since a long time ago.”

It’s true. Matteo has always been interested in music — in fact, he studied musical theater when he was attending college in the US — but he just never had the confidence to explore what he could do with the musical talent he had. If there is one thing he realized, it’s that it is all down to the right timing. “It’s all about timing. You can’t force things to happen when you want. It just happens when it happens. So I guess it’s happening now,” he says with a big, contented smile.

He had a lot of fun preparing for the concert. There was an anxious moment, though, when he lost his voice two weeks before the show. “I didn’t expect it was going to be this hectic and mind boggling and exciting,” relates Matteo. “Because I had a hosting gig, and in hosting you tend to overuse your voice, so the next morning, boom, I woke up with no voice, I panicked, I said, oh no, what am I going to do? Luckily we managed to fix everything.”

The show went off without a hitch, and got good reviews, which made Matteo very happy.

Meanwhile, as far as he and Sarah are concerned, Matteo clarifies they’re fine. Their relationship is founded on mutual respect. They give each other space, especially when it comes to their careers. According to Matteo, “She doesn’t really force me to do anything, she just tells me to follow my heart, and if it’s pangit she tells me, and if it’s not, she tells me also. Same with her, if something she does is pangit, I tell her also, which doesn’t happen often, but ‘yon, we’re very open with each other.”

One thing that both Matteo and Sarah are big on is giving back, since they’ve both been very blessed in terms of their careers. Matteo has his Forza Foundation (forza is an Italian word meaning force or strength; Matteo is half-Filipino and half-Italian. He traces his Pinoy roots to Cebu, where his Fernan relatives on his mother’s side are from). According to Matteo, the Forza Foundation mainly supports athletes. He is also involved with Sun Life Asset Management, which teaches people how to invest. His latest involvement is with Boardwalk’s Share.ph, which he happily says, is “very nice because it doesn’t just give our Filipino kababayan businesses, it teaches us how to sustain the business and how to make our money grow. We have the starter kit, and they go through this 10-month seminar, and they just learn how to keep the money rolling. In other words, we teach them how to ‘get it and use it, not lose it.’”

He just hopes that fate will be kind and continue to give him opportunities to reach out to others. “I’ve just been so blessed, I feel I should bless others in turn,” he says.