How Reneé Dominique scored duet with Jason Mraz

MANILA, Philippines — It was a fangirl moment to remember — and even better.

Homegrown singer and YouTube star Reneé Dominique recorded a song with her music idol Jason Mraz and performed it live twice with the American folk-pop star in both his Manila and Singapore concerts this week. She is the first-ever Filipino artist to collaborate with the 41-year-old hitmaker behind such songs as I’m Yours, Lucky, I Won’t Give Up and The Remedy.  

Titled Could I Love You Anymore, the tender love song set for global release end of May is about the “miracle” of finding that special someone out of the seven billion people in the world.

For the 20-year-old Star Magic artist, it did feel like a miracle to find someone like Jason who took a chance on a young, local talent like her.

“This has been a dream of mine for so long. I can’t believe this is happening!” said Reneé right before her duet with Jason at the Manila stop of his Good Vibes tour held at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena last Wednesday. “I just want to encourage all of you that if you have a dream, hold on to it and it will all come true eventually. Thank you Jason, out of seven billion people in the world, it’s a miracle to find you.”

To which, he quipped: “It is!”

For Jason, how did he find Reneé out of the billions of people in the world? “Reneé and I met on a new device called the Internet (laughs). In the Internet, we’re so close and we’re so far away,” he told the audience.

In a separate interview prior to the concert, Reneé shared with The STAR that the process of making and completing the song was done online. “It’s been an amazing journey. We’ve been working on our single the same time everyone has been preparing for the concert, so the whole process of finishing the song already served as my preparation for the time we both sing it live.”

She added, “All I know is I’m excited and I will try my best to not freak out, for Jason has been someone I’ve been listening to ever since I was a kid.”

Reneé hardly freaked out, confidently delivering her parts in the flawless number, that it was hard to believe that they had never met and rehearsed together until the day of the concert.

“When you sit down and write a song, you never really know how it’s going to end, and sometimes you don’t even know how it’s going to start,” Jason said during his latest concert in the country. “We just have to have a conversation to figure out the love between you, where the real admiration is.”

Earlier, Jason expressed his unbridled admiration for Reneé, describing her as a “brilliant new artist” in a pre-show video wherein he also invited people to check out her cover of Kean’s Somewhere Only We Know on YouTube to “get a sense of her brilliant, pure vocals.”

It was that cover that led Jason’s team to Reneé. It was first used for a Samsung commercial. Jason and his team heard Reneé’s voice through the commercial and then reached out to her from across the world through e-mail to tell her they want to work with her. Of course, who would say no? It was both a humbling and surreal experience for Reneé to be considered deserving of a duet with Jason.

Apart from the Jason collab, the same cover also led to other exciting possibilities, including being signed up by Universal Music Germany and further lending her voice to commercials for top global brands. So now, here she is, on the cusp of more amazing things to come. “It’s all just the beginning of a new season for me and I feel blessed and will be forever grateful.”

A Theater Arts major at UP Diliman, Reneé (real name: Reneé Dominique Halili Pionso), who is a daughter of a musician father, and vocal teacher mother, started getting noticed for her YouTube covers of classics on her ukulele. When she was younger, she had also enrolled in workshops at ABS-CBN and was discovered by Star Magic boss Johnny Manahan. But she has always wanted to be a singer, recalling that she would pen songs as a kid.

Today, Reneé is looking forward to putting out more of her music. “I am in the process of writing more music that I can potentially release soon through Universal Music Germany,” she said.

“I draw a lot of creative inspiration from international artists like Norah Jones, Jason Mraz himself, John Mayer, Lana Del Rey and Lorde. These artists inspire me to focus on what makes my music different the same way they have embraced their uniqueness.”

She also wants to act. “Besides music and my YouTube channel, I am hoping to have acting projects, too, for it’s also my passion next to music.”

With this collaboration with Jason, which is expected to open up more doors for her, what can aspiring artists learn from her story?

Reneé said, “Everything is possible. For the past years I’ve been doing music, there was a season that I was so discouraged and started to doubt if this was really for me. But there is no dream too big for you to achieve as long as you continue creating, focusing on your own growth, and keeping your faith in God for He has a plan for you.”