ONLY ON OMG! - Marie Digby considers Filipinos her ideal audience
Other people may know her more as Sam Milby’s ex-girlfriend and James Yap’s rumored flame, but little is known about Marie (pronounced Mar-yey) Digby’s battle to please the Filipino audience.
A year before she went to the Philippines for her first concert in 2009, Marie was already “begging and bugging” her American record producer to include the Philippines in her Southeast Asian tour to promote her first album.
“My record producer said it (bringing her to the Philippines) is complicated. It cost money to promote my album here. So I went to Singapore and Malaysia instead.”
It didn’t take long before Marie proved herself right and her producer wrong.
Strong fan base
Hollywood Records, which released a studio recording of Marie’s cover of “Umbrella,” did a study about her fan base and was surprised at what they saw.
“Makati was number one; Los Angeles number two; San Francisco number three and New York, number four,” said Manolo Rosales, one of Marie’s managers.
And Marie can’t help but tell the guys at Hollywood Records, “That’s what I’ve been telling you!”
Comments from Filipino fans pointed to one direction: they wanted Marie to come over.
Marie attributes it to two reasons:
“Filipinos are really connected to the Internet, so when YouTube was taking off, a lot of people were watching. And Filipinos love music. Everyone sings around here.”
Marie, half-Irish and half-Japanese though she may be, has found her ideal audience in appreciative Pinoys, inside and outside the country. So Marie herself chose the songs in her third MCA Music album, “Your Love,” because she believes these are the ones that will make her Filipino fans happy.
“I sat down and thought about what fans would like to hear from me,” says Marie.
What fans expect
Judging from feedback, Marie concluded her Pinoy fans “expect sweet songs from me; songs that make them happy.”
So she’s particularly partial to the track “I Do,” which Marie did with her friend Quest.
You guessed it. “I Do” is a love song. But more than that, it shows how conservative Marie is when it comes to matters of the heart.
“I’m more conservative than the average Filipina,” admits Marie.
This trait shows in how she co-created “I Do.”
“Quest and I were talking about how disappointed we were at how lightly people were taking love these days. Even if they make a vow, couples are not faithful to each other. They don’t honor the true meaning of love,” relates Marie.
So they wrote “I Do,” a song about “a promise to always be faithful.”
“I Do” is just one of the 100 or so songs in Marie’s collection of compositions.
The others are autobiographical.
Feel-good song
Marie wrote “Your Love,” the title track of her album, last year to cope with the pain of seeing her grandmother suffering in the hospital (she passed away this year).
All Marie wanted then, was to feel better. So she wrote a feel-good song.
“Your Love” is not Marie’s first attempt to use music in dealing with grief.
“Most of my songs are sad,” she reveals. “It’s music that heals me. Without music, I’d already be in rehab. I would have been a drug addict.”
Yes, behind that ready smile is a smoldering cauldron of dark moments Marie doesn’t even want her family to know about.
Chopin, she says, is especially uplifting in its beauty. She comes away healed and refreshed after closeting herself with it.
That’s how Marie manages to look at the bright side, even in the gloomiest situation.
When she looks out the window of the condo she is staying in, and sees squatter families doing laundry and chasing chickens around, Marie doesn’t dwell on the poverty staring at her in the face.
She sees hope amidst squalor; happiness amidst want.
“I find it beautiful,” she gushes. “I don’t see this kind of scene in Los Angeles (where she lives). It’s fascinating to see happy people in areas you think people have no reason to be happy in. They’re even happier than those with all the money in the world!”
Sacrifice
Marie has the same sunny attitude when it comes to high-profile guys she’s been linked to.
“When you decide to be in the public eye,” she points out, “people will talk about private things you’re not comfortable about.”
But instead of letting it bring her down, Marie looks at it as a challenge. She has learned to accept it “as the price I have to pay for music.”
And if being talked about for the guys she is and is not dating is the key that will let people appreciate her music more, so be it.
“Hopefully, in time, I’ll be known for my music more.”
That music, she goes on, is “pop with substance.” It’s the type this natural musician who plays the piano and guitar by ear, loves to share over and over.
“I want to feel a connection between my fans and me,” Marie relates.
In sharing her music, Marie is giving the best gift she can ever give: herself.
Interview by Maridol Rañoa-Bismark, photos by Jerome Ascano, NPPA Images
