Introducing Jay Som and Anak Ko

There is an interesting artist who is getting quite a buzz in the U.S. of A. these days. Her name is Jay Som and she has this sweet voice which sings dreamy pop music that she composes and records in her own bedroom studio. Aside from singing and writing songs, she is also a producer, recording engineer and session musician for other artists.

Jay Som has been in the business for four years now. She started out by uploading her recordings on social media. It was in 2017 when she garnered a lot of attention for her first album release titled Everybody Works. The very warm market acceptance for her music got her the chance to perform in festivals and to join acts like Paramore and Death Cab for Cutie on national tours.  She has recently released her second album of originals and it is titled Anak Ko. 

You read that right, it is Anak Ko, which is Tagalog for My Child. I was logged into the Grammy site when there popped up this bit of news about Jay Som and Anak Ko. Anak Ko? As a news bit from Grammy? It can’t be something spawned by Freddie Aguilar’s Anak! The only time I recall that there was something Tagalog in the American music scene was when apl.de.ap rapped “bebot, bebot” in one of the early albums of the Black Eyed Peas. 

It is Anak Ko indeed and it turns out that Jay Som who is based in Los Angeles was actually born Melinda Duterte in San Francisco. The Grammy article said that she was inspired to title her album Anak Ko because of her mother. As with most Filipino mothers, Jay Som was often called Anak Ko in the sweetest, most endearing way by her mother. So maybe wanting for her album to have the same effect on the listener, she decided to call it Anak Ko.

Although more experimental than Everybody Works, Anak Ko has also been getting positive reaction from listeners. Maybe it is because the main theme is heartbreak and Jay Som has a way of writing lyrics that invite shoe staring or toes staring just in case you happen not to be wearing shoes while wondering what has happened to your love life. She also has vocals with this vulnerable quality that makes one feel like comforting her like she is indeed ang Anak Ko.

Jay Som has released three singles to promote the album.  These are the ‘90s pop influenced Superbike with a really strong repetitive refrain, the intimate and certainly the best of the batch, Tenderness, and Nighttime Drive, which, as the title clearly says, is great for nighttime summer drives with the wind on one’s face and songs like Jay Som’s on the radio. Other titles included are If You Want It, Devotion, Peace Out, Crown, Get Well and Anak Ko.

Like a lot of Pinoys out there, I am very curious about Jay Som.  Just in case you are, too, and just in case you are in the U.S. West area within the next weeks, you can check out Jay Som at The Rebel Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona on Sept. 11; the Irenic in San Diego, California, Sept. 12; and the Echoplex in Los Angeles also in California, Sept. 13. 

And don’t forget, if you get the chance to talk to her please make sure to ask if she is related to the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.

Speaking of the Black Eyed Peas, the news has it that Pinoy member apl.de.ap might be bringing the group over for a reunion performance at the closing show of the Southeast Asian Games. I do not know if reunion means apl.de.ap, will.i.am, Taboo and Fergie or if the female member will be The Voice Philippines finalist Jessica Reynoso, who has been doing shows with the Peas these past months. No matter. It would be great to see Fergie with the group again but it would also be nice to see how a new Pinoy member in Jessica is faring.

Incidentally, it is now almost 10 years to the date for one of pop music’s most memorable moments. That was when the Black Eyed Peas performed its No. 1 selling, I Gotta Feeling for Oprah Winfrey with a flash mob of over 20,000 dancers on Michigan Ave. in Chicago on Sept. 9, 2009.