“Labo Mo” is the new (and catchy) hit by young Filipino African American recording star #ZeyonceBrown. Her first single was produced by Viva Records and she is also represented by Viva Artists in the Philippines.
A cool name like Zeyonce’s certainly has a good story behind it. Yes! Her real name is “Zeyonce”. She narrates the story of how three days after she was born, she still didn’t have a name so her sister suggested to name her after #Beyoncé (at a time when Destiny’s Child was famous). All her siblings’ names start with the letter “Z” so it was just fitting for her to be named after a famous singer minus the “B”.
Zeyonce recalls that she started singing when she was 6 years old and have been training with various voice coaches until now that she’s 18. For her, it was always a question of whether or not she really wanted to make a career out of singing. But since Covid-19 occurred, she realized that now is the time to make things happen and live in the moment. She says singing is definitely what she wants to do and she sees herself pursuing this career.
Zeyonce says she thinks what makes her stand out from a lot of other young artists is her voice. She has a low octave like Alicia Keys but also maintaining power when she sings. She believes that this is the best moment for her to step up in her career as she is also seeing a lot of African Americans doing the same.
“Being [half] Filipino just adds a little more spice to it” – Zeyonce
Stars aligned for Zeyonce when she was discovered by one of the promoters of Viva Records, Joan Julian, after attending a concert in the Bay Area, San Francisco. She narrates how she was asked to perform and shortly after that she was introduced to Boss Vic who is Viva’s Chairman and Founder. Viva has a lot of plans for her career in the Philippines but due to the pandemic she’s been busy doing live online guestings where she performs and participates in Q&As. After the pandemic is over she will be heading to the Philippines for a while.
She grew up in the US, so Executive Producer/Host Jannelle So was curious about what “Labo Mo” means to the young artist. She explained with a sweet grin that, “It means.. You’re being indecisive,” and adds that her family and voice coaches taught her the right pronunciation of Tagalog lyrics to this song.
Zeyonce is thankful that all of her family members have been very supportive of her career and most especially her mother, Erlinda Brown. Jannelle notes that it was Linda who reached out to us to feature her daughter and we were just as excited to meet her!
Mom Linda says she used to whistle songs to Zeyonce when she was only 5 years old and Zeyonce would whistle back. This was when she decided to get her daughter voice lessons. According to her, they never thought Zeyonce would become a professional singer because at a young age she was very shy. To combat her shyness, Linda says she also enrolled her child into modeling lessons.
Zeyonce says it helped her not only gained confidence in herself; but also how to do her own makeup, walk the runway and act.
In closing, Zeyonce shares a message to the younger generation in the Philippines who might not get the same support from their parents – “Do whatever makes them happy because at the end of the day it is for yourself!”