ROCK music lover Jigs Arquiza interviews the queen of sexy house music and realizes he still believes in happily ever after.
“I fell in love with performing when I was 4 years old. I would watch Shirley Temple and sing her songs on a coffee table for my Mom and Dad,” recounts the queen of sexy house music, Bonnie Bailey. Defining the moment when she realized she wanted to be a star, Bonnie reminisces fondly, “I performed the leading role as Rosie Alverez in a school play called “Bye, Bye, Birdie” when I was in the seventh grade. It was such a success…Everyone was talking about it, and I loved feeling the energy from the audience. I knew the stage, and singing, would be a great part of my life at that moment.”
Bonnie got her break when at the age of seventeen, she met Ric Wake, a Grammy award-winning music producer. Impressed with Bonnie’s “guts and unique-sounding voice”, Wake met with Bonnie’s parents and sent her to Manhattan, in the United States, to take songwriting classes. Eventually cutting a recording deal with dance label Hed Kandi, Bonnie appeared on the UK dance scene with her first smash hit, “Everywhere”, with the single placing highly on the various dance charts all over the world, most notably hitting the Billboard Top 20 in no less than ten countries.
According to Bonnie, “It was a dream come true to see my song actually make Top 40 on the Billboard charts. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and felt a great deal of pride and joy, calling my Mom up while jumping up and down, screaming, giving her the news.”
Experience and inspiration play a major role in most songwriters’ lives, and it’s definitely no different in Bonnie’s. She explains, “I usually write about true experiences, honest emotions, and love seems to be a big theme.
I am a hopeless romantic, hence, I still believe in ever after with you,” alluding to her hit song “Ever After”, a Beach House anthem very popular with house music fans. As to her inspiration, she declares, “My fans inspire me to perform.
Their love and beautiful stories of what my songs mean to them inspires me to keep singing, writing and getting back up on that stage.”
Bonnie describes her way of writing songs: “I take detailed situations and write about them…In my song “Safe”, I was inspired bya first date I went on with a very sweet guy.
He waited for me holding a beautiful bouquet of Baby’s Breath flowers with a long-stemmed yellow rose and a few peacock feathers. I never forgot that image; it was the epitome of romance, so I wrote about it: “Always the boy with the yellow rose, peacock feathers and Baby’s Breath.”
Having already visited Manila and Boracay, Bonnie acknowledges that the Philippines is one of her favorite places in the world. She’s certainly looking forward to performing tonight at the Mariner’s Court Convention Hall at the port area, saying “I am so excited to perform in Cebu. I feel blessed to come over and sing the songs the Cebuanos hold so dear to their hearts.
It means the world to me.”
Bonnie promises, “Cebuanos can expect a fun, unforgettable night full of beautiful energy. I will be performing a 10-song set including all the Hed Kandi classics they love and two new songs off of my new album “Twisted Sunshine”. They can expect a night to remember as I will be giving it my all.”