To many, Nicole Asensio is the epitome of an “It Girl.”
With a family background that screams old rich and famous — granddaughter of coloratura, librettist and voice professor emeritus Fides Cuyugan-Asensio and theatre artist Celia Diaz Laurel, niece of Cocoy Laurel and the daughter of singer Iwi Laurel — one cannot help but wonder, was it more excruciating to prove that she is worth the family name?
Currently, Asensio’s two singles “Silong” and “Poblacion” are available for mass consumption, that is, on the digital universe. These songs are a product of collaboration with top Filipino artists and sessionists, such as A.M.P. Bigband and Chito Miranda (Parokya Ni Edgar) with a short-film music video starring Cherie Gil.
“‘Silong’ is a song I gave up on many times because it wouldn’t lend me an ending, it is also the only original song in my upcoming album that I did not predominantly write the lyrics for, instead I focused on the melody and being involved in instrumentation ideas with my bandmates,” Asensio said of the song.
“I first wrote the song in English, but somehow the melody wasn’t sitting in the same mind-space. It was reminiscent of classic OPM melodies from the ‘70s… so somehow it was asking for Tagalog lyrics. I asked my mom to give a quick listen and she agreed, it did need Tagalog lyrics,” she carried on.
Asensio wrote five drafts of Tagalog lyrics and was unhappy with all of them. She reached out to a few songwriters for a writing collaboration, and none of the meetings happened. Thus, decided it was time to bury the song.
“‘Silong’ is like a family recipe with my friends in music,” the singer said.
The creation of her second single, “Poblacion,” a homage to a place that used to be her playground and the special people in it, also took the same route to fruition.
With two songs being a product of artistic collaborations and the universe seemingly conspiring with the Muses to put the musical puzzles into place, Asensio stated in conclusion, “Life is short, unpredictable, forever changing in shape, and we are often forced to change with it, whether we’re ready or not. Just because we are suffering now, doesn’t mean our fondest memories have to suffer, too. Our memories and our stories are where the many versions of ourselves can run free, dance with the what-ifs and maybes.”
