Rasmin Diaz: ‘Singing is a therapeutic passion… An antidote for loneliness…’

After being cleverly introduced, she elegantly sashayed her way on to the stage as the spotlights fully revealed her anonymity from behind the velvet curtain. Simple but tastefully garbed in a body-hugging silk taffeta floor-length evening gown that revealed her fleshy limbs courtesy of a generous slit, she repositioned herself after breathing gently upon the sound of the instrumental intro.
Thunderous applause in deafening magnitude filled the venue the moment she started to sing. Her vocal tone seemed to haunt every inch of her audience’s soul that was once void of such melodic resonance… as if it was the only lullaby they have ever heard… for she delivered it poignantly with her heart…with her whole heart!
Certain that she was approaching her final lines, her conscientious spectators readily instituted an appreciative gesture via a roaring round of applause that literally drowned her closing notes. The persisting collective ovation hardly died down to quietude as soon as the sultry singer gracefully took her exit while a dominant voiceover identified the songstress as Rasmin Diaz.
A fresh name in the local entertainment scene with barely a year of residency (she migrated to the US in June of 2015), Rasmin Diaz has lucratively established her singing career in the east coast, particularly in almost every watering hole and eatery in the Queens area, with a growing fan base. Popularly known for her amazingly powerful vocal range and innately distinctive technique in singing jazz, or even interpreting familiar contemporary styles and genre, Rasmin assiduously tries to explore blues music and related influences while injecting her own technical ingenuity and stylish creativity.
A first-born among a brood of two girls and a boy to Myra (a Tupperware networking agent) and Ronnie Diaz (an employee of the Department of Public Works and Highways) of Cagayan De Oro City, Rasmin optimistically believes that she was born to sing…that she is a quintessential proponent of a true Gemini baby (born June 9): creative, sociable, instinctive, articulate, easy to get along with and could adjust to any given situation. She tries to find opinion or seek advice but completely disregards everything in favor of her own decision.
Rasmin already knew what she wanted to be even at a young age: “I loved to be a recording artist like my idol Sharon Cuneta. I mastered her every song and watched all her movies…that’s how fanatic I was,” she enthused giggling like an avid teener. “I became also an ardent follower of Lea Salonga… and loved her Broadway songs.”
Rasmin, at 13, performed solo during high school and experienced her initial taste of “stardom” via Sharon Cuneta’s “Sana’y Wala Nang Wakas.” That vigorously kindled the main wick of her torch towards a promising singing career.
A rare chance of a lifetime came to her when she was chosen to be among the top 3 out of the 150 applicants that auditioned for a Warner Brothers musical project in Mindanao. Her song entry, “I’d Give My Life For You” from the Broadway hit Miss Saigon, gave her that much-needed boost to seriously concentrate on a career she won’t regret and lament later.
Later, prominent singers inevitably influenced Rasmin. There were Whitney Houston, Angela Bofill, Diane Reeves, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Patti Austin, and many more. She just couldn’t afford not to embrace and include current prominent artists’ songs in her repertoire.
“Competition in this business is tough. You cannot just rely on your own preference. It’s got to be what is in and who is on top…and that makes your repertoire broadly diverse and spiced with excitement,” she elucidates with brevity.
Like some famous personalities born on the same day such as composer-songwriter Cole Porter, actress-producer Natalie Portman, and actors Michael J. Fox and Johnny Depp, Rasmin is charismatic and determined. Innately sensitive with a prolific imagination, she could easily stir her senses to ably absorb and comprehend new ideas and drive her creative juices to full capability. With lot of concrete schemes crowding her mind, Rasmin values communicating with friends with whom she could share thoughts.
Profoundly gifted with the virtue of patience and perseverance, the singer-on-the-rise is impressively strong-willed and undeniably resolute. Despite being academically armed with an AB in International Studies, Rasmin abandoned her course sans regrets as she intensely empowered her endurance in waiting for her star to shine in the entertainment firmament.
Rasmin was a regular fixture in almost every amateur singing competition during fiestas way back in her hometown. It was her passion in singing that really mattered, unmindful of the attractive prize at stake. There was always some sort of fulfillment every time she perfectly delivered a well-applauded performance no amount of monetary reward could match. Her being a perennial second placer only challenged her more to strive for the better and get into the toughest encounter to reach the top.
The current toast of the local entertainment arena has actually gone a long way from the time she started as a singer-performer in hotels, bars, and cocktail lounges in Cagayan De Oro City. A former soloist of Switch Band, Rasmin, just like any other, dreamed of the big time…of performing before a huge crowd…of seeing her name in giant billboards and theater marquees… and of being highly paid while enjoying the fruits of what she has painstakingly toiled for.
In September of 2006, she found Canada to be a better place to improve her quality of life and an assuring destination for the future of her family. Already married with two children (now ages 12 & 14), Rasmin resigned from her well-paying job as a newly promoted Traffic Operator Supervisor of Philcom Center where she initially landed as a Call Center Agent. In Canada, she regularly sang in casinos, bands, and Filipino restaurants.
“It wasn’t easy to leave your family behind and struggle on your own in an unfamiliar ground,” Rasmin vividly recalled the lingering pain that pinned her down to misery. “I missed my children every single day but it was work and keeping myself busy that momentarily eased the agony of longing. Singing was really something that gave me a fleeting escape from the harsh reality of being separated from them.”
But permanence was never enduring…never at all! After almost nine years in Canada, Rasmin felt a need for change…for a new environment and since her mom has been a baby nurse in the US for more than 21 years, her option was obvious.
With a healthcare-related job and a newly embarked singing engagement to beat Rasmin easily finds Queens, New York a home away from home. Her talent was instantly ascertained, promoted, and supported…and in just a matter of months, her name became a foremost byword among entertainment and concert aficionados. There is never a weekend that Rasmin is without a gig. Consistently in demand and always a feature singer in almost every concert, she was a curtain raiser in Aiza Seguerra’s show at Sheraton Flushing, in Ai-Ai Delas Alas’ “Ai’m Back” show at Sheraton La Guardia Hotel, at Regine Velasquez’s “Timeless” concert in Bergen PAC, NJ, and soon at Jay-R & Kris Lawrence’s “Original Music Only” concert at Sheraton La Guardia Hotel in Flushing, Queens.
Rasmin considers her loyal followers as part of her biggest achievements with a handful of setbacks that frustrate her as a singer. “Not for anything else, but I feel we are modestly compensated as tantamount to what we deliver. Although sometimes there wasn’t enough number of guests where our talent fees are principally generated…but I don’t complain, as long as I have fully booked shows in my calendar.”
If there’s but one magnificent obsession she has, that would be as a well-known lounge singer in a reputable hostelry or bar. “With the advent of fresh and talented singers, competition becomes even keener. I have to admit, at my age, I feel like losing my bid for stardom. It’s not only enough to have a great talent but the right connection and timing, as well.”
But isn’t it that misery invites `company? Common promiscuity could be categorically survival traits of lonely and lost souls. Oftentimes the feeling of being alone and lonely seemed unbearable that tend to throw one into an abysmal depth that could lead to depression.
How does the jazz singer deal with such emotional state?
“I have my own technique to parry such licentious attack. Although others get over from it by being alone or writing down what they feel… me, I find solace in the company of my friends… and my strongest dose of antidote to scrap it off is singing. Yes, singing and performing for me is therapeutic….it kills my pain of longing and tames down every nostalgic craving. For loneliness could be an evil that weakens one’s spirit until you succumb to temptation. Thank, God, I was a born singer and singing is an effectual defense mechanism,” Rasmin lengthily divulges in all candidness.
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