With her enviable vocal range, Katrina Velarde takes care of her voice but does not follow a strict diet. The discipline that she does, she never restricts herself, like eating chocolates or drinking cold water.
“When I feel that my voice is very tired, I just rest and sleep,” Katrina offered. “I don’t force myself to still sing. At least, I’m still prepared for my other engagements.”
To date, Katrina has become an in-demand performer as well as hit-making recording artist. Admittedly, she is an oido artist.
“I don’t write songs or read notes,” Katrina said. “Although I play instruments, I can also belt out songs.”
When she previously earned the tag, “Suklay Diva,” by using a plastic comb as her microphone, Katrina used to popularly perform Beyonce’s “Dangerously in Love.”
Katrina recently recorded a Vehnee Saturno original, “Lason Mong Halik,” which she lined up for her forthcoming concert, “SiKat Version 3,” on October 11 at the New Frontier Theater.
Her songs that will make it to her set list include “Taksil,” “Kung Naging Tayong Dalawa” and “Tama Na.”
She will dish out a different set list, seriously and carefully thought of with her musical director, Mon Faustino. At the helm is Paolo Valenciano, whom she has known for more than a decade.
Known for her stratospheric voice, Katrina never had any formal training in singing or performing onstage. Hers was achieved just through self-training and through her vocal coaches.
“There are really songs that are difficult to sing,” Katrina admitted. “Like (Leona Lewis’) ‘Bleeding Love.’ I guess you just really have to sing it with a technique. But if it’s really difficult, I don’t push it anymore.”
She finds her set list for “SiKat V3” really challenging. She didn’t have many assignments with her MD, but to study her songs and make them “Katrina-fied,” conform it with her style of singing, especially since all the songs are originally by male artists.
“I’m familiar with the songs, but I never rendered those before,” Katrina explained. “I know the audience will also have expectations. They are waiting for songs that I will belt out, but we’ll see. It depends on the situation. I cannot just belt out every song.
“But I can assure everyone that I will try my best to render the songs. This is really a different idea. When me and director Paolo Valenciano were working on the repertoire, a lot of things entered our minds. We had ideas even with my wardrobe.
“Grabe na ang ideas. This ‘SiKat Version 3’ is less stressful for me, although there’s still pressure. Grabe the research that we did to line up the repertoire. Very challenging to line up the songs.”
Katrina’s effort to do something different is part of her way to reinvent herself and stay relevant after 12 years in the music scene.
“Now, I’m very, very excited because this concert will be so much different from what I previously did onstage,” Katrina said. “I will be singing men’s songs. So this is going to be exciting. We really thought about the repertoire.
“We needed to look up the songs not yet rendered by Filipino singers, international and local artists. Sometimes, when we thought about a certain song but once we searched it, we found out it has been rendered by other artists.
“We really tried that most of the male songs in my repertoire was never rendered yet by any female artist. With the help of my MD, he was the one who worked as my MD in my previous concerts.”
She has been talking to Mon Faustino on how to make the male songs suited for her female diva voice. “It depends on the arrangement that Tito Mon will make, I will follow that,” said Katrina. “I will really try to own the arrangement and follow that.”
If a male artist can render a particular song, a female artist will surely have her version, too. “Me doing the songs became inspiring for me,” Katrina said. “I got inspired by my idols like Ate Reg (Regine Velasquez), Beyonce. They will be the inspirations for my songs.”
With her powerhouse vocal, Katrina rendered strains of the late Willy Garte’s “Bawal na Gamot,” which will be included in her set list. Thankfully, she is familiar with that song already.
“’Yung mother ko, mahilig magpatugtog ng Willy Garte songs that’s why I’m familiar with ‘Bawal na Gamot’,” Katrina shared.
She will even render songs of boy bands. “Mag-isa lang ako, but we included classic songs of boy bands, that’s why I’m excited,” Katrina granted. “There are also new songs from new bands. We mixed the songs.”
