‘Performing for OFWs is always special’

“An artist should always be like that. You always have to keep thinking of ways to improve yourself,” says Rachelle Ann on the eve of her departure for her Dubai show.

Rachelle Ann, dubbed the Ultimate Champion, is one Filipino performer who is regularly tapped to perform for fellow Pinoys abroad.

Sometimes, she goes with her fellow Champions Sarah Geronimo, Mark Bautista, Erik Santos and exboyfriend Christian Bautista but this time, she came to town alone. Rachelle Ann says she’s always eager to perform for kababayans abroad.

The Dubai show was actually Rachelle Ann’s second time to perform in the UAE. She did a concert in Dubai in 2007. “I always look forward to these trips, because you get to combine work and play. I get to go to different places and meet different people, which is fun,” she says, adding that performing for OFWs is always something special “because you get the feeling that they’re always eager to watch artists from home (the Philippines) since they don’t get to do it that often”.

When Rachelle Ann launched her career after winning Search for the Star For A Night competition in 2004, comparisons to Sarah, who had just won a year before she did, were inevitable. They were practically the same age, and sang the same type of music. Even now, as co-hosts on this years’ ASAP, the two of them are constantly compared. Is this why she decided to veer away from doing ballads to doing the grittier, rock-flavoured tunes in her latest album?

Rachelle Ann explains that she didn’t do it because of that. “Actually, if you’ll notice, as early as Obsession (her last album, which she released in 2007), I was already starting to explore different types of music. Some of the songs in that album already had an edgier feel to them. Even then, I was already starting to explore that side of me. It’s part of my growth as an artist.”

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