WOULD you believe Asia’s Timeless Diva Dulce was already a professional singer at age twelve?
And it happened right here in Laguna Province.
No matter how Visayan Dulce is—she is as we all know a Cebuana—the future singing diva was, shall we say, an adopted daughter of San Pedro, Laguna.
The past was rewound when she virtually guested last Wednesday at 11 am (Philippine time) in the online show “Boy V’s Corner” in OpinYon Facebook Live.
“Ganito kasi ‘yon. When I left Cebu at talagang nagpilit akong lumuwas sa Maynila para maging singer, si Manang Etta (Velonza, the pioneer in the invention of whitening initially powder and later cream ahead of Dr. Vicki Bello, Pie and Manny Calayan etc.) ang kumupkop sa akin. Una, sa Laktaw Street sa may Banawe ako tumira, sa bahay ng kapatid ni Manang Etta. Tapos, lumipat ako sa tunay na bahay nina Manang Etta sa Elvinda Village (It’s like this. I tried hard to go to Manila to be a singer Manang—a term of endearment to an older woman by blood or by affinity—Etta (Velonza) took care of me. At first, I stayed in Laktaw Street near Banawe at the house of her sister. Then, I moved in to her house in Elvinda Village).
“Malapit sa riles ng train. Kaya pag dumadaan ‘yong train, umuuga ‘yong buong bahay (Her house was near the rail tracks. If the train passed by, the whole house shook),” Dulce chuckled.
The future singing champion was only twelve years old at the time so she wasn’t admitted at the TV amateur singing contest “Tawag ng Tanghalan” at the time so she moved to San Pedro.
“Para naman may kita ako at pangkain, pumasok akong singer sa isang supper club, hindi super club, ha, d’yan sa may Canlalay, Magic Touch ang pangalan ng place (In order that I could earn a little and I had food to eat, I worked as a singer in one supper club, not super club in Canlalay—near the boundary of San Pedro and Binan),” Dulce recalled.
Then she helped and tagged along with Etta in buying ingredients for her whitening powder in Quiapo.
“Pawis na pawis pareho kami ni Manang Etta noon (We were bathing in sweat at the time),” she recollected.
And the rest, they say, is history after Dulce emerged as champion in many international singing contests including Asian Singing Competition in Hong Kong.