SCORING GOAL AFTER GOAL Be it on the field or the music charts, hockey player and self-made musician, Geraldine Ho, or Ger, has a knack for achieving the impossible. Singapore’s own Ger is exactly the kind of singer-song-writer that the world needs more of these days. Asked if she has some photos of herself for use with the column, she hands over five or six shots hesitantly. “Actually I’d prefer if… is it ok if you don’t use a picture?” she says, in a shy, halting voice. “I’d rather people judge me by my music than what I look like.” That’s why only a fuzzy shot of half her face appears on the cover of her album, On My Own, and perhaps why she reduced her full name Geraldine Ho to a single syllable. After some discussion, she remembers having the picture of herself in a profile which you see reproduced here. The 30-ear-old also makes music the only way the best music is made, from the heart – not with the aim of going on some obviously-staged TV talent show in hopes it will make her rich and famous. She wrote her first song while a student at St Theresa’s Convent School. “I kind of stumbled upon songwriting because I wanted to use it as a gift for a friend,” she says. “I didn’t want to buy something because buying something is easy. I wanted something that is unforgettable.” Drawing in the oldies from the 1970s she had sung with a favourite Uncle Rayney, she found melodies spinning out of her head along with the lyrics. By the time she was 16, she had written My Special Angel in honour of the death of her school principal and late grandfather. While spending a year studying in Perth, Australia, she got the urge to record that song. “I felt that I needed to hear the song, with instrumentation and all,” she says. She flipped through the Yellow Pages and found a listing for a production studio called he Upper Room. She spent $1200 to hire a producer named Ainslie and musicians to record it and two other songs, Fallin’ and A Chance With You. When she returned, she took her demo to Mr. Jimmy Wee at Poly Canyon who thought it good enough for his Dazed And Confused compilation, and helped her to do the impossible. He managed to get it played on radio station more noted for insisting that Singapore artistes are not good enough for it – Perfect 10. To no one’s surprise, - except, no doubt, the station’s savvy programmers – My Special Angel knocked Toni Braxton from the top of its chart and spent two weeks at No. 1 in early 1997, and ranked No.7 on its year-end Top 100. Despite that, Ger, who admits to being “a little shy”, avoided the limelight although it has managed to find her again far field. A member of the women’s national hockey team which won a goal medal in the 1993 SEA Games, she scored the only goal in that team’s shock win over Malaysia at the 1997 SEA Games. Last year, she finally put enough money from her work as a hockey coach and personal trainer – she also supports he parents and two younger sisters – to put My Special Angel and 12 other songs on her first album. She released On My Own on her own late last year. Once again Perfect 10 played another track from it, A Chance With You. The beautifully-written and realized song, with its catchy 1960s sensibility, shot to No. 7 on its chart. Now she is sending out her album to as many record labels, producers and pop stars as she can. She called distributors and managed to get Tower Records to put it on the shelves, a promise from HMV to follow suit, but got the cold shoulder from Borders. “I don’t want to leave any stone unturned,” she says, about her quest to get her music heard. She says Stefanie Sun expressed an interest in buying the rights to sing her ballad, Missing You, but she felt it wasn’t right for her. She feels it is more suited for the voice of Chang Hui-mei, better known as A*mei. She called her label here, Warner, but the person gave her the impression her cd had been “chucked in the dustbin”. Still, she remains optimistic and enthusiastic. “It’s not about the money for me,” she says. “It’s to see how far I can go. Hopefully someone picks it up and does a version in mandarin and really puts money in the production. That would make me really happy. “ There are also other rewards. “Recently this man came up to me in the streets, thanking me for writing the song, My Special Angel, for his mother, my late principal, Mrs. Joseph,” she says. “I was so touched and surprised by his gesture.” “Writing songs is my way of remembering people who are part of my life. Never did I expect my songs to be as personal to others as they are to me.” You can buy Ger’s On My Own at Tower, Roxy Records, and HMV. Her website is at www.g-e-r.org
G-e-r.org | Official Site of Ger's Debut Album
On My Own |
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