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I am a big fan of boybands. As in. During my teenage years (when the term boyband wasn’t really that popular, if I remember it right), I was into boybands just like a lot of my female and gay classmates. I was a fan of a lot of them: Backstreet Boys, N’SYNC, Boyzone, 98 Degrees, Code Red, Plus One, O Town, 3T, Human Nature, 5ive, The Moffats, Hanson, All 4 One, Take That, BBMak, Westlife – just to name some. I bought their cassette tapes/CDs, tuned in to MTV and Channel [V] to watch and even record their music videos, bought magazines featuring them, and watched their concerts here. I think I was into them a little more than most of my peers. This was because I wanted a career in music. As in I wanted to be part of a boyband. I wasn’t just a fan of these cute and talented singers; I wanted to be like them, too. And so I found myself listening to and learning all their songs, released or not. I studied the structure of their songs, the delegation of part...

I loved singing and performing for relatives and guests at home when I was young. One time, when I was about four years old, my mother asked me to sing Tomorrow for our relatives who were visiting. I instantly burst into song. However, after singing the first line with so much passion, I decided to stop and asked to be excused. I went inside my room, did a proper entrance, and then whipped out my milk bottle, which I used as a microphone. I sang “The sun will come out tomorrow” again and finished the song. No doubt about it: even when I was just a kid, I already knew I wanted to sing and perform for others. Fast forward to my high school years. One day, I read in the papers that Ryan Cayabyab was forming an all-male version of Smokey Mountain. Of course, I just had to try out. I didn’t tell my parents about it. My friends and I decided to try our luck. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Smokey Mountain was a vocal group composed ...