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Castiglione reinvents herself

In an interview with City Times the actress-cum-model reveals what she has lately been up to

NANCY CASTIGLIONE is positively beaming these days, she seems excited about something, but was reluctant to spill the beans.

“I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s something big. I’ve been working on it for almost a year,” she said. In an interview with City Times Nancy was convinced to tell us what the big secret was. After some prodding, she agreed to share the source of her excitement.

“It’s an album for regional release,” she said. Yes, the actress, model and commercial endorser has reinvented herself into a recording artist-and not just any recording artist, mind you, but one in the mold of Bonnie Bailey (of Ever After fame) and Kylie Minogue. In short, if plans do not miscarry, Nancy Castiglione might just become the Asian region’s next dance diva.

The album, which will be released under the Warner Music Philippines label, is titled Nancy Jane (they decided to drop Nancy’s Italian surname to facilitate regional promotions when the album is launched in other Asian countries-“People might have a hard time pronouncing and remembering my last name,” says Nancy) contains 12 tracks, possibly including one remix and the carrier single, Love Song which recently premiered on the MYX music video channel.

It will also be tied-up with the launch of two online games, RAN Online and O2 Jam. The plan is for the album to be released regionally, in the same way that Christian Bautista’s album was. Christian is now a big star in Indonesia, Malaysia and other nearby countries after his song, The Way You Look At Me, became a hit there.

According to Nancy, the idea of recording a dance album actually started as a lark. One day, her road manager asked if she would be willing to record a song for his friend, DJ Brian Cua, “just for fun”. The song was When You Play Around.

“Then one day, Nancy’s road manager was playing the song in the office. There were some record-company executives there, and when they heard the song, they flashed each other curious looks and asked, “Who’s that?”

“They thought it was some foreign singer!” laughed Nancy. But word got around, and in August last year, Nancy was signed up to a recording deal by Warner Music Philippines. They brought in people like Rico Blanco, formerly of rock band Rivermaya, and Bimbo Yance of True Faith, to help write songs for the album.

Nancy realises that the idea of her as a singer may seem strange to those who know her as an actress and model. “What people don’t know is that my history (in Canada) is in theatre, particularly musical theatre. I’ve been training (in singing) since I was eight years old,” she said. “It’s just that when I came here, I was picked up as a model, did some commercials, and from there, went into acting. Because I was young, I wanted to take advantage of all the opportunities coming my way.”

About a year ago (and after starring in a Love Spell episode for ABS-CBN), Nancy decided to put her acting career on the back burner to prioritize her modelling. She appeared on six magazine covers in the span of one year until the opportunity to record an album presented itself.

Launching an album does not mean that she will turn her back on her acting career, said Nancy. “Of course not,” protested the singer-actress. “I would never turn my back on anything that helps make people happy.”

She has been asked by both major networks, ABS-CBN and GMA-7, to do soaps, but Nancy turned down the offers because she wanted to focus on recording the album. Now that it’s done, she is excited to share with the world this new development in her career.