Esang de Torres
For child singers, puberty can be a tricky phase to navigate.
While some emerge from that stage with their voices relatively intact, others have to deal with more drastic changes: The vocal range shrinks; the tone deepens and thickens; and before long, they learn that they can now barely eke out songs that they used to sing with ease.
That’s the exact predicament “The Voice Kids PH” season 2 second runner-up Esang de Torres found herself in two years ago amid the pandemic. And it sent her into a panic.
“What if my voice becomes even lower than it already is? There was pressure because there are some songs that I can no longer sing without sounding thin or having to resort to falsetto,” she told the Inquirer in a virtual interview arranged by her new record label PolyEast Records.
Passion still remains
Surely, such changes can be worrying for someone who became known for singing Broadway pieces, and who was once dubbed as a “mini-me” of her “The Voice PH” coach Lea Salonga.
“I would get overly conscious. Because my voice changed, I was worried that people wouldn’t like the way I sing some songs now compared to how I did them when I was a child,” the precocious 15-year-old singer said.
But instead of letting “self-doubt” get to her, the young singer did some self-reflection: “I have to adapt,” she told herself.
“Right now, I’m starting to address the changes by undergoing more vocal training. I’m trying new vocalization routines and new techniques. More importantly, I have stopped pressuring and forcing myself to sing songs or reach notes that I can no longer hit. Sometimes, I lower a song’s key, or find another song that better suits my current vocal range,” she said.
“There will be ups and downs. But I think that’s completely normal. Sometimes, you need to experience these challenges in life to motivate you to improve your craft and become a better version of yourself,” she said.
Besides, only the vocal quality changed—the desire to use it to entertain and move people remains. “My voice may have become a lot deeper, but the passion is still there. That’s the one thing that will never change. The joy that singing gave me when I was kid… I still feel that today,” she said.
Esang de Torres
After her stint on “The Voice Kids PH” in 2015, Esang went on to hold concerts and make various television appearances. The following year, she made her theater debut after producer Cameron Mackintosh cast her as Little Cosette in a Manila production of “Les Misérables.” In 2017, she played the lead role in the Manila run of “Matilda the Musical.”
Being touted as a Lea Salonga mini-me was an honor, she said. But now, she hopes to forge her own name on the music scene. “When I was young, some people called me a mini-Lea. It was such a blessing because Coach Lea is an amazing musician. But I also want to establish my own identity through my own music,” she said.
And one way Esang hopes to do that is by writing her own material. Last year, she released three singles, including the self-penned “Praising Hours,” a song about getting to know someone beyond surface level.
“I’m into poetry and digging into metaphors, because I find it fascinating when writers describe something figuratively,” she said, adding that having the ability and confidence to write her own songs may serve her well in the future.
Piece of advice
“It’s important to be able to interpret other people’s compositions and deliver them the way the writer envisioned them. But I also want to write my own songs because it allows me to express my feelings and experiences… While some are into diaries or journals, I try to put my thoughts into songwriting,” she said.
Esang has a pretty diverse taste in music. She loves Taylor Swift, Lana del Rey and Olivia Rodrigo as much as she loves The Beatles, Queen, Elvis Presley and the Arctic Monkeys. Given the opportunity, she said she would try other genres and step out of her pop and Broadway comfort zone.
But whatever genre she ends up pursuing in the future, Esang said she will make sure to give it her all… “What I learned from Coach Lea is that you should be able to deliver a song as if you’re the character in it…so you can make the audience feel the depth and the core of the music,” she said. “You have to sing from your heart—that’s one piece of advice I will always cherish.” INQ