Julie Anne San Jose sings Rocket to the Moon main cover

MANILA, Philippines — Netflix Philippines has tapped Kapuso star Julie Anne San Jose to do a song cover for Rocket to the Moon, the lead single of the Netflix animated film Over The Moon. Julie Anne’s version can now be viewed on the platform’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

“When I first heard the news that they wanted to collaborate with me, napatalon talaga ako because I’m such a fan of Netflix (content), and I’m just so happy and glad that they chose me to do a cover of Rocket To The Moon, which is one of the theme songs of the film. I hope viewers would love my version and that I was able to give justice to the song,” she told The STAR in an exclusive interview.

Rocket to the Moon is originally sung by Chinese-Filipina actress Cathy Ang who also lends her voice to the film’s lead character, Fei Fei, a young girl who builds a rocket ship to the moon to prove the existence of the legendary Moon Goddess, Chang’e.

Known for power vocals, The Clash host and All-Out Sundays regular is no stranger to difficult repertoires. However, she admitted that Rocket to the Moon was “challenging” to perform because of the “modulations and shifts from head tone to chest tone”.

Nevertheless, Julie Anne found the song inspiring and very catchy. “When I first listened to it, alam mo yun, para akong lumilipad. It’s a dreamy song. It literally gives you the feeling of going to the moon. And I always have dreams of going to outer space.”

She continued, “The songs I usually sing are R&B, ballads, at times rap, so when I did this cover of Rocket to the Moon, it brought me back to my younger years. Habang ini-imagine ko yung song, ini-imagine ko rin yung sarili ko nung bata ako na ang dami kong gustong gawin, ang dami kong pangarap sa buhay.”

The music video has a magical feel as it features Julie singing amid animation straight from Over The Moon. This animation component made the shoot experience exciting and unique from how the singer filmed her previous music videos. The set used chroma technology while she used her imagination as she had to “interact” with some of the characters in the film.

As for the film Over The Moon, Julie said she liked how it mixed folklore and fantasy genres to explore and deliver lessons about grief, life and love.

“The usual notion is that if it’s an animated film, it’s for kids, but Over The Moon is also for the kids at heart. And as a Filipino, I know this movie is very relatable to us since Filipinos are known to be optimistic, that regardless of the situation we are in, we always find our silver lining.”

While she enjoys doing all sorts of musical genres, it was fun doing something that had a Broadway sound. “I think I’ve done most (genres), but you know, this Rocket to the Moon is a different one because it’s somewhat Broadway, somewhat theatrical, so you really need proper vocalization breathing and warm-up. I really had fun recording the song.”

Julie Anne expressed that she would love to do musical theater one day. “I’m actually considering it! Of course, not at this point in time because hindi pa duon papunta ang path ng genre, but yeah, maybe in the near future. Malay mo, mag-audition ako at sumali ako sa isang musical play. I’m really open to all possibilities, including venturing into theater.”

Over The Moon's songs were written by Christopher Curtis (Chaplin), Marjorie Duffield and Helen Park (KPOP).