Newly-signed Universal Records artists to drop new singles

MANILA, Philippines — A beauty queen, a former athlete and a theater actor will soon drop their respective new singles under Universal Records Philippines. The three just inked a deal with the music label held recently at the Universal Tower in Quezon City.

Following her stint at the Miss Universe Philippines (MUPH) 2023, Clare Inso is looking forward to “having a big platform for expression” that’s why she signed up with Universal Records. It’s a “great opportunity” for her to “explore my creative side” and “exercise my artistic prowess,” she remarked during the signing event.

Clare represented Lapu-Lapu City at the MUPH. She was also a finalist of Eat Bulaga’s Bida Next.

The beauty-queen-turned-music-artist will release her debut single Petty Things this July, a track she collaborated with Cebuano rapper Cookie$ and was produced by Grammy-award winner Jon Ingoldsby. According to Universal Records managing director Kathleen Dy-Go, Jon has produced for popular artists like Madonna, Lana Del Rey, Eminem, Pink, among others.

Clare is into soul and R&B, and her musical inspirations include June Marieezy, Melanie Martinez and Siska.

She plans to incorporate one of her pageant advocacies in making music. “One of the things that I also like to echo is when I joined MUPH, the advocacy that I carried with me and that I highlighted amidst fighting for a lot of things is LGBTQIA+ awareness. And that’s because I really express my true self on social media as a vlogger and a content creator,” she shared.

“I think naturally it will manifest in my music in a lot of ways,” she added.

“At this point, I’m still resting and recuperating, recovering from the pageant because it was the busiest three months so at this point, joining again… maybe I might try another pageant but definitely not anytime soon,” she replied when asked by The STAR if she planned to join a beauty pageant again.

“I just want to take it one career venture at a time. So for this, I will be focusing on music and content creation, which is what I’ve been doing for the past years but mostly music,” she furthered.

Unbreak My Heart actor and ALV Talent Circuit, Inc. talent Mark Rivera aims to compose his own Original Pilipino Music (OPM) songs (mostly pop) for Universal Records. He was also a football player who joined Azkals under-21 National Team in 2013.

Born and raised in Italy to Filipino parents, he grew up listening to Michael Learns to Rock and Westlife because of his dad who was into that kind of music. His passion for music started when he first heard a Christian Bautista song. “That’s when I started (my) passion to follow Filipino artists,” he recalled.

He is excited to “express my own self with music” and composing, he added.

Mark plays Jacob in the historic collaboration of GMA, ABS-CBN and Viu series Unbreak My Heart. It stars Kapamilya actors Jodi Sta. Maria and Joshua Garcia, and Kapuso actors Richard Yap and Gabbi Garcia.

Jacob in the series is a Filipino “trying to look for a brighter future abroad” and one of the people who will help Jodi’s character Rose to find her daughter.

“I can say I’m very lucky to work with them because it’s another opportunity for me to learn and grow as an actor and they really (are) easy to work with,” he told this paper about his co-actors in Unbreak My Heart.

“I really feel comfortable working with them and I really felt the honesty in their work (like) how they express themselves so I got very inspired to work with them. I can say I’ve grown a lot as an actor in this teleserye.”

Another ALV managed talent and also a model, Juan Carlos “JC” Galano didn’t expect that he would cross over from musical theater to mainstream music scene. JC portrayed the lead actor in ZsaZsa Zaturnnah: The Musical.

“Siyempre unang-una ang laki ng weight na binibigay niya kasi, for sure, this is my first lead role on stage,” he said of his role in the musical.

“There’s (a level of) pressure that comes with the role, especially because it’s an iconic music play. Going to that musical, I was a bit half-hearted at first because I’m not classically-trained. I’m not into musical theater. I didn’t grow up in musical theater and mostly I’ve just gotten back into acting on stage since I’ve done it.”

But he was able to do his part well and is doing another show at Cultural Center of the Philippines’ annual Virgin Labfest.

He is thrilled to have the opportunity to “come up and release new songs that the Filipino audience will enjoy” now that he is with Universal Records as one of their artists.

A bit of background, JC is a fan of OPM bands, such as Eraserheads, Rivermaya and Bamboo, as well as foreign act Daniel Caesar. His brand of music is soul, R&B, pop and alternative rock, but he is currently in the “creative process of marrying trap, house and bossa nova” genres.

Although he took up a pre-med degree in college, Occupational Therapy, he was already interested in acting and to be on stage at a young age. He was influenced by his mom whose dream was to be a recording artist and he was able to fulfill it for her.