Kakie forges her own path

We’ve grown to admire Frankie “Kakie” Pangilinan’s spunk and indomitability ever since we read her outspoken views on different issues on social media, some of them in direct response to trolls and her dad Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s political adversaries.

To defend her parents, she once posted one particularly vivid message last December that, without being overly emotional or disrespectful, went straight for the jugular.

The 19-year-old singer, who’s currently studying in New York, wrote, “Imagine making yourself dinner in your tiny apartment and tucking yourself into bed with a warm blanket, only to get a notification informing you your parents are arguing daw. It’s not either of your parents, it’s not your sister, not the dog … it’s Rodi.” Need we spell out who Kakie’s referring to?

And her combative blitz got even braver in succeeding posts. She is truly her father’s daughter.

Even when she talks about love, infidelity and heartbreak in her music, you know Kakie’s neither a pushover nor a crybaby. Take “Battlescars,” the follow-up to her Ely Buendia-produced debut single “tyl (true young lovers),” released by Curve Entertainment.

She may have grown up influenced and honed by her Megastar mom’s (Sharon Cuneta) taste and musicality, but Kakie’s self-penned sophomore single allows the teenage singer-songwriter to forge her own musical path anchored on a style that is uniquely all her own.

Nope, she doesn’t have the saccharine ring of her half-sister KC Concepcion’s singing voice. (Stream “Magandang Umaga,” “Doo Be Doo,” “Ngiti Lang” and her heartfelt cover of “Smile” to listen to three of KC’s most satisfying songs and reacquaint yourself with Sharon’s lovely firstborn.)

But Kakie’s voice is just as soothing as it rides on the strength of what sounds like a lived-in alto, as well as a “once bitten, twice shy” quality that plays well to the heartbreak that she so woefully sings about: We’ve been here before/ Wins and losses, keeping score/ Some things fix fast, some painfully slow.

If “tyl” sounds like a sendup of her mother’s very low registers, “Battlescars” finds Kakie sounding more comfortable in her unraveling performing strengths. She is an easy fit for the deceptively insouciant musical patter that plays well to her millennial concerns—and it doesn’t hurt that it hardly puts a strain on her appealing voice.

But what convinced Curve Entertainment’s big boss Narciso Chan to rally behind Kakie, the recording artist?

“Kakie has a distinct voice,” Chan told us. “Her sound is a mixture of modern and classic—a true reflection of her feeling and being. She is pure talent—she writes her own songs, both lyrics and music—and is aware of how she wants her music to sound. She knows where her songs will take her listeners to and is unapologetically genuine, always true to herself. Curve Entertainment is privileged to have Kakie as part of its music roster. We would like to thank Mother Sharon for entrusting Kakie to us.”

But we’ve heard some of Curve’s singers and musicians—and we think Kakie’s just as lucky to have the company backing her up.

With the release of “Battlescars,” which was produced by Brian Lotho and Chrisanthony Vinzons, Kakie may have written something she has yet to experience. But how well her song comes off only reflects her depth and sensitivity as a person.