MANILA, Philippines — Hitmaker Moira Dela Torre, whose heartrending songs have earned her the moniker “Hugot Queen,” celebrates her 10th year in the music industry with her first fashion magazine solo cover feature on Metro.Style.
It has been 10 years since her “The Voice Philippines” stint in 2013. She did not win back then, but she ended up recording and releasing her first single titled “Love Me Instead” through her debut EP album "Moira," which was released by Ivory Music.
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Her time to shine came in 2017, when she performed in the finals of the songwriting and music video competition Himig Handog. She interpreted Libertine Amistoso’s song “Titibo-tibo,” which became the grand winner of the competition and Moira’s performance of the song for the competition became the most viewed performance for that year’s edition.
From there, there was no stopping the soulful singer from staging sold-out concerts, releasing certified Platinum albums and hit singles, amd topping music charts.
In 2019, she married her boyfriend Jason Hernandez, who performed with her in some of her songs, most notably their wedding song titled “Ikaw at Ako.” They continued to write songs together, but the couple separated in 2022. Dela Torre sang about the pain but never really talked about it.
Speaking for the first time
In her Metro.Style magazine cover feature, Dela Torre bares her emotions in a conversation about self-love, finding herself again, and starting anew. After braving through many storms, she finally speaks in public for the first time.
“There was something about this past year that just changed and I thought the change was going to look different but it was actually a change that wasn’t so bad,” she opened up during her one-on-one interview.
Dela Torre had just come from her first world tour, kicking it off in Manila, hitting several areas in the United States, and breezing through the borders of the world with it. Always the reserved type, she shed off her shyness in the process.
“I’ve always been shy, even now. I’ve always been an introvert and I think my confidence never really came out until this tour,” Moira revealed.
With almost 5 million active monthly listeners and more or less 10 million followers on Spotify and hits like “Tagpuan,” “Paubaya” and “Ikaw at Ako” under her belt, Moira is undoubtedly making an impact as an artist. Her heartbreaking tunes heeded the people’s collective pain, and in turn, she was tagged as the “Hugot Queen” of today’s time.
When asked what she feels about the moniker, she said, “It was never my goal to be ‘Hugot Queen’ so I’m not very affected by it. I just want to write. I just want to express. I just want to make music.”
RELATED: Jason Hernandez says marriage with Moira Dela Torre not yet over