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By Victoria Barker
FRANCISCO Raquiza is a hair stylist by trade, but has finally made headway into what he calls his "first love" - music - by recording an album.
The hair stylist, who works at Mosche Salon at the Grand Hyatt Singapore, found spare time last year to record and release his first solo effort, Blue Love, a collection of mostly Mandarin numbers with a jazz twist.
"I've wanted to release an album for years. I just never had the time or financial resources," the 52-year-old told my paper in a recent interview.
He finally started recording in 2006, using most of his savings to produce Blue Love, which was released in June this year.
Music runs in his blood. Raquiza is the son of the late Domingo Raquiza, a musical director and producer who once worked for Radio Television Singapore.
And his mother's sister is veteran Singaporean songbird, S.K. Poon, who rose to fame in the 1950s at the age of 12. She is widely known as the Queen of Bass, thanks to her vocal tone and resounding voice.
In fact, one of the turning points of Raquiza's career came when he performed an opening act at the Esplanade for his aunt in 2002.
"Initially, I was nervous. But my aunt was a source of comfort. She told me to pretend I was singing for myself and to just go for it," the bachelor told my paper in a recent interview.
Raquiza has opened for his aunt about five times since then.
He also opened several shows for his friend, local jazz singer Marina Xavier, and sang back-up for her at last year's Mosaic Festival.
Even though he has now put out a CD, he has no plans to leave his 30-year career in hair styling as it is his bread and butter.
He's scheduled to perform with guitarist Mario Lopez and percussionist Rizal Sanip at the Esplanade concourse tonight.
"It's going to be quite a unique, cool show," he said
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