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“May songwriting competition sa school,” the 22-year-old musician reveals. “‘Yung mga classmate ko, pinipilit ako, ‘Sali ka! Sali ka!’ Like, what? Hindi naman ako nagsusulat, kanta lang. Ako naman, uto-uto, sumali.” Together with a rapper classmate, they joined and won. “Parang Buwan ng Wika ‘yung theme. ‘Ako’y Pilipino…’ ganun pa ‘yung lyrics. Very patriotic,” she quips, recalling the lyrics of technically the first song she’s ever written.
As far as her flashback ability could take her, Jikamarie’s earliest memory of music consisted of singing along to gospel songs on the radio—or whatever her parents would play. Eventually, her music taste started to develop. Like all of us, a Directioner phase propped her pre-teen history, with One Direction’s “Up All Night” being her first physical album.