If sincerity of heart can turboprop one to success, then Markki Stroem is assured of a beautiful future.
This early, the young Filipino-Norwegian singer is displaying acts of altruism as he is set to go up the stage of the Music Museum on Feb. 4 to do a Valentine concert for the benefit of Bosom Buddies, an organization that helps patients with breast cancer. As all artists must be paid for their craft, here comes Markki giving away his talent for free for a night to save lives.
“We are all blessed with our own brand of talent. We share it with people. We even sacrifice for them so they can be helped,” says Markki, his creamy, alabaster complexion gleaming all the more with the kindness in his tone. He calls his singing style as alternative soul.
Markki has known kindness from home. “I had a happy childhood. I was taken care of by the best parents a son could have. And I grew up with two of the best brothers in the world,” says Markki, a regular on the ABS-CBN variety show ASAP.
Markki says with fondness that his Norwegian father, Rune Stroem, who was posted in the Philippines as a financial specialist for the ADB in the mid-‘80s; and his mother from Antipolo City, Lea Ledesma Stroem, the former head of Fitness International in Makati, met in a running race in Manila. “They fell in love and they had me!” he proudly says. Because of the nature of his father’s job, they had to live in Germany for three years (when he was nine years old) and in Switzerland for almost four years (when he was 18 years old). Markki, for several years, also experienced living with his nun aunt in a convent in Portugal. (Markki’s parents now live in Antipolo. His father is still with the ADB while his mother is now a full-time homemaker.)
At home, his father taught him to dream big because “by dreaming big, you will reach the stars.” His moral mooring is further intensified by his mother who taught Markki and his brothers that “lying is the devil’s way out.”
Markki was born in Antipolo City. Up until he was six, he lived with his grandparents before he moved to his parents’ house in Pasig. When he was nine, his parents brought him to Germany where his father was assigned. He considers his “Luls,” his term of endearment for his Lola Millie Aragon Ledesma, as his hero.
“Luls was the one who brought me up. I called her “Mama” when I was a kid. Whenever I have problems, she is the first one I call. She survived seven children and gave up one because her sister-in-law could not conceive babies. My grandmother is the most caring, loving and generous lady one could ever meet,” Markki says.
Though show business has its many a lucrative promise, Markki’s heart is still yearning to go back to school. “I want to pursue my MBA, potentially at the Harvard.”
He finished college at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland with a double degree in Marketing and Hotel and Restaurant Management. Before graduation, he won the coveted EHMA or the European Hotel Managers Award that earned him the passport to work as a direct apprentice of any of the respected hotel general managers of the top 18 hotels in Europe. But as fate would have it, he chose music and stayed in the Philippines to pursue a career in the entertainment industry.
He credits his Ilonggo yaya (nanny) for his love for music. “My yaya was my first music teacher. She taught me a Visayan song titled ‘Ili-ili’ when I was three years old,” he smiles. His dream for now is to have an album.
His gift of music was further brought to the fore when he joined Pilipinas Got Talent, an ABS-CBN reality talent search, where Markki made quite an impression that landed him a spot in the finals. Somehow — after he was discovered by his manager Erickson Raymundo at a Bench underwear fashion show two years ago — the talent search was his launching pad to the showbiz landia. In the celluloid world, however, Markki does not only strut in the showbiz firmament with just his beautiful and soulful voice, he also displays his musical talent by playing all kinds of saxophone. He can be very mean, too, when he strikes the piano keys.
“I’m making good in my chosen profession now because of my ultimate dream of going back to school,” Markki says. Because of his resolute will for higher learning, the handsome singer moonlights as a marketing staffer of a big chemical laboratory in the Philippines. He puts in a kitty, so to speak, whatever he earns because, he repeats, “I want to go back to school.” He even tutors Koreans to speak conversational English when he gets home at night to his condominium unit, which he shares with his two chow-chows.
“I even take the tricycle to ABS-CBN, which is near my condo, when my car is ‘color-coding’,” he says.
A humble heart is what rules the personal constitution of Markki. With his music, he exposes his soul, which, if gauged by the virtue of his selflessness and sincerity, is as handsome and irresistible as his looks.
(Markki Stroem’s Valentine show titled “Make Me Sweat” will be staged on Feb. 4, Saturday, 8 p.m. at the Music Museum for the benefit of Bosom Buddies. He will be joined on stage by G-Force, the country’s premier dance troupe. For ticket reservation, please call Ticketworld at 891-9999.)
(For your new beginnings, e-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com or follow me on Twitter @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)