Not easy being Jamie Rivera
‘It’s okay to not feel good, because this is how you become strong. It also means you’re still human.’
It’s not easy being Jamie Rivera, the Inspirational Diva behind the popular songs Tell the World of His Love, Heal Our Land, Tanging
Yaman, We Are All God’s Children and others. “It takes effort,” she admits at the presscon of All About Love, her Valentine dinner show at the Grand Ballroom of Hotel Sofitel on Monday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.
The singer-songwriter is just being selfeffacing. Away from the spotlight, Jamie is what an inspirational diva should be: Gentle, patient, compassionate. She has her own charities, and her manager Ming Tinana won’t run out of stories about how Jamie has helped her in sickness and in health.
But Jamie would be the first to junk her “saintly” image. The devoted mom admits seeing red when her only child, Reine, makes a mistake.
“You can’t always be gentle with your child. He or she tends to go overboard when you’re too soft. You have to have tough love,” Jamie goes on.
Jamie’s tough love has kept the 21-yearold Reine on the straight and narrow path as a student in a prestigious university abroad for some time now.
Her daughter’s overseas stay has made Jamie an empty nester for a few years now. Besides visiting Reine (“my biggest inspiration”) every now and then, Jamie fights loneliness by keeping herself busy.
She wants to do her share in bringing new songs into a revival-ridden music industry by writing original music for her and local singers to interpret (Jamie wrote We Are All
God’s Children for the 2015 visit of Pope Francis to the country, among many others).
This time, her target isn’t so much the churchgoers who go for inspirational songs, but the many millennials who love pop music. This way, Jamie not only reaches out to the younger ones, she can also break away from the inspirational mold that has boxed her in for years. For starters, Jamie singled out the South
Pacific song Some Enchanted Evening (who knows she might sing it in her concert?) as a good reminder for millennials.
“Most of them are in a hurry to find love,” Jamie notes. ”They get frustrated just because they can’t find a boyfriend or girlfriend. That’s not how love goes. Love comes in different ways, and at the right time.”
Jamie advises millennials to take their time because “the right person will come at the right time.”
For all you know, she adds, Mr. or Miss Right is just next door, in the adjacent room, or at the dinner table eating and laughing with you.
Jamie herself walks the talk. She admits that she began looking for a husband after she returned from Miss Saigon, where she played Kim in the West End production of the popular musical.
“I gave birth after. Since my priority changed, I wrote songs about the family,” recalls Jamie.
Then, she decided it was payback time. Jamie offered to write a song for Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines in 2015. The result was the stirring We Are All God’s Children.
This year, Jamie is celebrating her 30th year in the business, and she rightfully feels blessed. Many of her contemporaries, failing to reinvent themselves the way she did, are no longer in the industry.
“I tell myself to count my blessings. I tell myself to ignore anxieties and insecurities because they don’t come from the Lord. It comes from someone who wants to pull you down,” says Jamie.
Still, Jamie knows human frailty can strike any time. So she doesn’t fault people for feeling down and out. It is at these times, she points out, that people can develop strength of character.
“It’s okay to not feel good, because this is how you become strong. It also means you’re still human,” Jamie states.
What matters most is that you dream big, and you know where your talents come from the way Jamie does.
“Everything comes from God, so everything should go back to the Lord. I won’t be around anymore if He didn’t give me the voice, the songwriting talent and the physique as instruments to reinvent myself,” she points out.
This spirit of gratitude has sustained Jamie, not only in her 30 years as singer-songwriter, but in her role as wife and mother. It will continue to sustain her, as she goes on aiming for the best in everything she pours her heart and soul into.