Showbiz tsismis: Krista K’s new name

Former Binibining Pilipinas title holder and Miss International 2010 semi-finalist Krista Kleiner will now be known as Krista K. The beauty queen-turned recording artist tells tabloid! why she changed her name, and what her fans can expect from her.

The press statement on your new album, Feels So Good, bears your new name, Krista K. Why make this change?

I want to take my career to a new direction and I felt that people will have a better appreciation for the shift in my career if a change of name goes with it. So my advisors and I decided that I will go by the name Krista K from here onwards. They know me as a beauty queen who dabbles in singing, but now I am taking my singing profession seriously and want to be known as a singer. Hopefully, people will like my new album.

Tell us more about your new album.

The album contains 10 songs and one remix track, plus three bonus Tagalog tracks released exclusively in the Philippines. The songs are basically a fusion of dance, pop and RnB. Each song has an amazing beat and a faster pace than the usual mellow music Pinoys love to listen to. But I recorded these songs because I grew up as a dancer, and can best perform more upbeat songs. It’s a bonus that Pinoys I think also love to dance, so I hope they will appreciate my music.

I wrote all the songs, and drew inspiration from my experiences. One of the songs, Beauty Queen is from my experience in the Miss International beauty contest in 2010. Actually, I wrote that song right before I went to compete in the pageant because a week before we were told that organisers decided to add a talent competition. So, I wrote the song, I sang it there, and that’s the one that won for me the Best in Talent special award.

We heard you will be performing at a high-profile event in Malaysia at end of this month. What is the show about?

Yes, I will be doing a show in Kuala Lumpur’s @Live club. It’s more of a party event rather than a concert but I’m still excited because I will be sharing the stage with some international artists, like Akon and Taboo (of the Black Eyed Peas fame). I will be doing a 20-minute set, so I get to sing some songs from my album and a few covers of popular hit songs.

What are your future plans?

Well, I will be busy promoting my new album; but what I would really like to do is be able to perform with Julio Iglesias. He is the reason why I decided to pursue a career in singing. I had the chance to travel with him during his Starry Night world concert tour. That’s when I told him that I have this dream of becoming a singer-dancer, but I was a bit insecure because I didn’t have the same great voice as other Filipino singers who are really good. So, I felt that I was too late to start trying to sing, and he gave me this great advice saying that it’s not all about how much vocal training you have or how good of a vocalist you are. It’s a lot of injecting your own personality and your character and becoming an artist, and he said that he really believed that I was an artist and a great performer and that is what I needed to be a successful singer. And so I thought I would give it a try. And here I am with my first album; hopefully, it will not be the last.