One of the hottest teenaged artists in Hollywood today is Filipino-Mexican-American Jasmine Villegas. Better known as Jasmine V by her fans, pop music lovers around the world also know her as the dark-haired beauty who catches Justin Bieber’s eye in his blockbuster Baby video.
A singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and model, seventeen-year-old Jasmine V is one of Sony Epic’s newest recording artist. A few weeks ago, she premiered her new mixtape S(HE) BE(LIE)VE(D) which she is busy promoting. She’s also busy cooking up edgy, urban-pop songs for her debut album, which will soon be released by Epic Records.
The daughter of Mexican and US-born Robert Villegas and Filipino and US-raised Bernadette Vales, Jasmine has been entertaining people since the tender age of four when she discovered her talent for singing and would perform at all family functions.
At age 7, the San Jose, California native won a singing contest sponsored by Hawaiian Tropic, and by age 10 had booked her first acting job in a commercial for the 1988 animated feature film The Land Before Time, produced by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
Jasmine’s mother’s, Bernadette Vales, was born in Kawit, Cavite, Philippines and came to the United States when she was 8 years old. Bernadette’s father, Philip Vales, had a band and plays piano, drums, and saxophone, and her mother, Jasmine’s grandmother, sings with her sisters in church.
Robert Villegas, Jasmine’s father, also had a band, together with her uncles and aunt. His parents were amazing singers.
Coming from a very musical family, it is no wonder that Jasmine turned out to be an outstanding singer. “My grandmother always had music on when we were kids, and we’d always sing along,” says Jasmine. “To this day, I can’t be in the car without having music playing.”
When Jasmine was 11, she was walking down the street singing when a passerby overheard her. He happened to be a record company intern, and, knocked out by the power of her voice, asked Jasmine’s mother if he could make a videotape of her singing to send to a friend. The clip wound up in the hands of Jasmine’s current music manager, Gabriella Mosci, who was then working for music producer Damon Dash. Gabriella saw something extremely special in Jasmine and decided to manage her career.
It wasn’t before long that this San Jose native was landing her first professional singing gig at age eleven when she performed the National Anthem for the Los Angeles Clippers, which led to her appearing at scores of top-tier professional sporting events.
Jasmine has sung the National Anthem for a bevy of top tier professional sporting events featuring: Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, Sacramento Kings, Anaheim Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Kings, Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Falcons, World’s Figure Skating Championship 09, Los Angeles Galaxy, PGA Tour, Winky Wright vs. Jermain Taylor boxing fight, Paul Williams vs. Antonio Margarito boxing fight, Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Marquez boxing fight, Manny Pacquiao vs. David Diaz boxing fight, Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito boxing fight; Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton fight in Las Vegas; and the recent Floyd Mayweather vs Victor Ortiz fight.
From the time she hit the recording studio, Jasmine has recorded originals like Hot Like Fire, I’ll Be Around, Think Big and Anything’s Possible. In addition to being featured in Justin Bieber’s Baby video, she has also appeared in his video for Eenie Meenie with Sean Kingston, as well as music videos for Kanye West (Jesus Walks) and Frankie J (How To Deal).
Thanks to her exotic beautiful looks, Jasmine has been featured in print advertisements for Target, Mary Kate and Ashley, American Girl, Levi’s, Hilary Duff, Macy’s, Hewlett Packard, Kohls, Home Depot, and Levi’s, and has starred in commercials for such blue-chip brands as Chevrolet, Kellogg’s, Marshalls, and McDonald’s.
Over the past few years, she has also shown a flair for acting and has guest-starred on such shows as Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven, and Touchstone Pictures’ My Wife and Kids. She was cast as a series regular in the Disney pilot sitcom House Broken, a spin-off of Disney’s The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. She also had recurring roles on such shows as ABC’s short lived but critically acclaimed series The Nine.
In 2008, Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao discovered Jasmine performing on YouTube and asked her to sing the National Anthem before his bout with Juan Manuel Marquez. She impressed Manny Pacquiao who decided to manage her career in the Philippines. She has spent several months in the Philippines performing for the television network, GMA7.
Although she wasn’t able to see much of the Philippines because of work, Jasmine did manage to visit her mother’s family in Kawit, Cavite. “I would like the chance to see Boracay though,” says Jasmine.
Jasmine admitted to Asian Journal that having been born and raised in California, she can only speak very little Tagalog. “But I can understand Tagalog words, like ‘mahal kita,’” she said with a smile.
After she starred in Justin Bieber’s Baby video, Jasmine supported Justin’s tour in 2010. There have been rumors of the two dating but Justin denied the reports, saying in an interview: “She’s not my girlfriend.” Jasmine has also repeatedly said they’re just friends.
Her visibility has led to millions of fans (who call themselves “The Jasminators”) visiting her social-networking sites on the Internet. Jasmine’s videos have racked up more than 53 million views on her YouTube Channel, and she has more than 765,000 followers on Twitter.
When Jasmine isn’t working, she enjoys playing Sims, bowling, and hanging out with her friends making YouTube videos. She also enjoys being with her family and her pets which include her cat, Snuggles, her dog, Chase, and her fish named Mistake. Her favorite Filipino food are pancit, lumpia, sinigang, and adobo.
Jasmine has devoted much of her time to giving back to the community, performing for educational school assembly programs and working with the non-profit after-school program L.A’s Best. She also works closely with other children’s non-profit organizations such as the Geffen Playhouse, Big Brother Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Club of America, and The Special Olympics.
“I want to be a positive role model to kids my age,” Jasmine says. “That’s basically what keeps me going, just making people happy. The kids I’ve met while touring often don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. They’re living in the moment, they want to have fun, and that’s what I’ve tried to capture in my music.”
“I write about things that have happened in my life and the lives of people around me,” Jasmine says. “The music definitely reflects me as a person. I’m fun and outgoing and I like to have a good time, but it also shows my sensitive, thoughtful side.”
“My songs encourage children to follow their dreams,” says Jasmine who has certainly taken this to heart and followed her dreams to stardom.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Midweek Oct 26-28, 2011 MDWK pg. 2)
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