The Voice and the Journey
Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey once shared in the 1990s how their voices would drop “an octave or two” during their monthly periods. At the time, this revelation was surprising. However, it turns out that vocal changes linked to hormonal fluctuations and bodily changes are quite common among female singers.
Jessica Sanchez knows this all too well. While competing on "America’s Got Talent" (AGT) season 20 nine months pregnant, she thought her Filipino heritage would be enough to carry her through. But during rehearsals for "Ordinary"—one of her contest pieces—her voice "completely went out."
Her hormones were in chaos, and her baby bump was so large that it pushed her diaphragm up, making it hard for her to breathe, let alone sing. “It was scary, and I had to relearn how to sing again,” she said at a press conference ahead of her homecoming concert, “Jessica Sanchez: Live in Manila,” this Saturday, May 16, at the Araneta Coliseum.
Trusting God’s Plans
At one point, she couldn’t imagine how she would continue performing. All she could do was throw caution to the wind and put her faith in God’s plan. And what a plan it was. Nineteen years after she first joined AGT as a spunky, 11-year-old hopeful, she finally won the title—the first contestant of Filipino descent to do so—in what could only be described as a full-circle moment.
“He told me to trust in Him, that He had me, and that everything was going to be fine,” she says. “I left everything in the Lord’s hands, and He delivered more than I could ever ask for. He turned one of the most stressful times in my life into one of the most beautiful experiences.”
The win, Sanchez adds, is not only a testament to Filipino talent but also to the strength and resilience of women. “I think it only shows how strong we can be in those situations, and just how much we can push through and overcome.”
A Newfound Role
Truth be told, Sanchez still has to deal with such bodily changes six months after giving birth to her baby girl, Eliana Mae. This prompted her to start taking better care of her instrument.
“I realized that my voice is a gift, so I have to find healthy ways to protect it amid hormonal shifts, aging, and all the changes happening in my body,” says the 30-year-old singer, whose mother’s side hails from Bataan.
That means humidifiers, nebulizers, and hiring a vocal coach—something she had never done before—to help her identify any improper singing habits she may have developed over the years. But more than this renewed drive to retool and strengthen her voice, she’s inspired, more than anything else, by her newfound role as a mother.
All her life, her identity was tied to music, she says. But not anymore. “It’s such a beautiful thing because I have had the chance to shift who I am from just being a singer to also being a mother, a wife, a sister, and a friend,” she says. “Now, I truly understand who I am, and I have become more confident as a woman.”
Brushing Up on Her Tagalog
And who she is now is a woman who knows what she wants in her career.
She’s “all for the challenge” of one day getting into theater. She’s working on her songwriting skills. In preparation for her planned Tagalog EP, Sanchez—who understands the language but can’t speak it fluently—is brushing up on it with her daughter, flashcards and all. Of course, she hopes to collaborate with other Filipino talents and continue representing the country on the world stage.
But for now, she’s focused on her upcoming pop-R&B album, “SZN,” her first full-length record since her debut album “Me You & the Music” in 2013—a year after she finished runner-up on “American Idol” season 11. And in many ways, it feels like her season has come.
While many people have seen her compete and grow in public, not many know about all the rejections she faced and all the people behind the scenes who told her she wouldn’t make it. So many steps forward, and so many more steps back. So many times she wanted to give up. She couldn’t have been more grateful that she didn’t.
“Now, I feel like this is my time,” she says.
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