A NEGRENSE who was blessed by God with a golden voice uses her talent to inspire others.
Maxine Joanne Alositain, a native of La Carlota City, Negros Occidental works as a registered nurse of a privately-run hospital in the Visayas.
Her in-born talent was singing as she came from a family of singers like her dad, Garry Alositain, a government employee and her mom Bellie Mar C. Alositain, a public school teacher.
Maxine Joanne is the eldest of the two daughters of Garry and Bellie Mar. Her youngest sister Marielle Anne, who just graduated from her B.S. Psychology at West Negros University in Bacolod City also sings well.
Music runs in their blood.
Joanne started to sing at the age of 3. She got her interest in singing from her father who is a great singer too. Her dad once competed and won various singing contests in the province and had a chance to land as among the winners in the formerly popular televised singing contest in Manila - the “Bagong Kampeon” hosted then by Asia’s Queen of Songs Pilita Corrales and comedian Bert “Tawa” Marcelo.
Maxine Joanne shared that when she was in elementary she actually liked to dance and even joined folk dancing competitions in school until grade 6.
While she enjoyed dancing, she continued to hone her singing by joining competitions first on Kundiman, (Filipino love songs).
In her high school years, her mom encouraged her to focus on singing because it was her natural talent.
“I tried (singing competitions) but unluckily, I would land on 3rd place up the point of even losing in a competition. Then I decided to stop joining competitions. Until such time that Congressman Jeffrey P. Ferrer helped my family, all the four of them to undergo audition in FAM JAM, a competition open for a family of singers which was produced by Kitchie Benedicto-Paulino and Bert de Leon and directed by Al Quinn.
“We were exposed to singing on camera and trainings from experts,” she said.
They landed 3rd place on a national competition.
After the competition, she was trained by Annie Quinto of the Company where she was introduced to big names in the entertainment industry like Director Bert de Leon of Eat Bulaga.
She was trained to join the world championship of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, California, but she was under-aged and was not qualified to compete for the adult category.
With that, she returned and focused on her education.
Then came college, she was reluctant to join singing contests in school, knowing that there are other great singers and she still fears losing in a competition.
“But my classmates and my instructor pushed me to just go for audition for the school intramurals. I was in first year college and I represented our batch. I was the last contestant and there was a typhoon during the competition. While I was reaching the highlight of my song, it suddenly got brownout. And everything stopped and turned quite dark. But, I never stopped singing until I finished it. The judges were satisfied with my performance because of the way I handled the situation.
She added, “I was also representing my school that time for the Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports Cultural Educational Association (Nopsscea) competition.
All schools in Bacolod competed.
“I landed on 3rd place. Then tried on my 2nd year in college still competing for NOPSSCEA for vocal solo where I won as champion and 2nd place on vocal duet,” she said.
Then she represented Negros Occidental in the Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa) competition for Western Visayas. The competition was held in Antique where she won as champion. Then she represented Negros Occidental in the national competition held at Naga but unluckily, she lost in the competition.
Her experiences helped her a lot in honing her talent, in availing scholarships and in meeting people who were experts in the entertainment industry which truly helped and inspired her to value her talent.
“Financially, singing helped me a lot. I also joined competitions in the barangay as long as I could enhance and use my talent. There was a time that the cash prizes ranged from P50; 250 to P1,500. But those competitions helped me financially which I used for my school projects and other expenses,” she narrated.
Maxine Joanne also joined the OPM competition by Philippine Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) where she consistently landed among the top 12 contestants for three consecutive years. “I won P5,000 in each competition, which again is a big help for me,” she shared.
In her college studies, struggle was real. But singing was a big help in all the angles of her life.
“I was able to entertain and inspire so many people including my patients. There were so many instances that I sang to my patients and put smiles on their faces,” she said.
She added that she cannot predict God’s plan for her in her profession as a nurse and as a singer. But, she promises to never stop doing what is best for God insofar as her profession and her talent is concern. “These are my source of happiness. Life is beautiful despite the odds,” she said.