Filipino 'American Idol' alum Francisco Martin says Miss U PH 2022 may be the biggest crowd he'll sing for
Tomorrow, April 30, is going to be a big day not just for pageant fans, but for American Idol alum Francisco Martin as well. The 21-year-old will be singing for an audience of thousands - his biggest crowd yet, according to him - during the coronation night of the Miss Universe Philippines 2022 pageant.
“That's the biggest I've ever played ever. Idol really taught me how to perform, but performing live really freaks me out,” he explained. “But I know that I love to do this and I love to perform live and I love to share my music and change's people's perspective on music.”
In a sit-down with members of the press a few days before the coronation night, Francisco talked about how he managed to get the Miss Universe Philippines gig, the two songs he's going to sing, and what it was like growing up in a musical Filipino family.
Before he was catapulted to fame by the 18th season of American Idol, Francisco - Frank for short - was already surrounded by music, with a father who was a musician and a mother who was a pianist. As he recalls it, his parents and brother had him listening to a wide range of music genres early on.
“I grew up listening to a lot of rock and singer-songwriter stuff. My dad would play the older rock stuff while my mom would play Norah Jones. My brother started playing R&B music and I fell in love with R&B music,” he recalled. “When I started listening to my own type of music, I got inspired by a lot of musicians like John Mayer, Maggie Rogers, and was really in love with their songwriting and their ability to play instruments.”
Frank would then go on to play drums for his father's band, begin to start singing at the age of 13, and then enter American Idol at the age of 18 and then end up in the Top 5, an experience that he says he will always be grateful for.
“I appreciate the platform it's given me. Without American Idol I would not be sitting right here. I would be a random college kid in NorCal,” he said. “It's mind-boggling for me to have that experience. It's given me the connections. I got signed after it. It gave me uplift for my career.”
That uplift has finally taken him to the Philippines, the country of his parents, for the first time in his life. But it was something that wasn't a sure thing until recently.
“It was part me being excited and happy but also my manager being 'We don't know if it's going to happen yet because we have to get the details in and plan them,'” he recalled. “I was excited throughout the whole thing and then two weeks later I started thinking if it's still going to happen. And then my manager told me that it's going to happen.”
Since his arrival, Frank has played a gig at a local mall and is now set to play two songs during the Miss Universe Philippines 2022 coronation night - “Stay” and “Kissing on a Balcony” - one of which were made specifically for the pageant.
“The song I'm going to sing for the evening gown competition, 'Stay,' we wrote that in under a day. That took like four hours to write. I produced it in a day. That didn't take that long,” he shared. “The second song is another single that's releasing this Friday, 'Kissing on a Balcony,' I made it five months ago now.”
After his stint at the Miss Universe Philippines coronation night, Frank is staying in the country until the eighth of May, and he's looking forward to bringing all of these experiences into new music.
“I'm very fortunate to be able to go to another country and have a new experience and write about that. We've been writing more about traveling and touring and having experiences here and there. It's a lot to write about.”
Fans looking forward to watch Frank's performance can tune in to GMA on May 1, at 9:00 a.m., as the network provides the pageant's first national broadcast.
Meanwhile, check out the 32 Miss Universe Philippines contestants Frank will be crooning at in the gallery below.