A Poet's Path: Peniel Roxas' Wishcovery Originals Journey

26 January 2022

There may have been many twists and turns along the way. Still, these didn't make Peniel Roxas, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter from Davao, reach her dreams of being discovered as she became the grand champion in the recently concluded Wishcovery Originals competition.

Discovering her prowess in music

Peniel learned about her talents in singing and songwriting when she was still very young since, at an early age, she became very much active in performing and singing. At that time, young as she was, she became very much hooked into Camp Rock and the famous High School Musical. She was very fond of copying the routines from these musical shows and realized that she enjoyed them back then. She also joined various talent contests in her school in which she received a lot of compliments that became the reason for her to continue doing what she loves.

On the other hand, her songwriting part only started when she turned around 14 years old and slowly became a teenager. This is an important part of her life as this gives her more chance to think and realize things. This is when she gets more inclined to folk and alternative genre kinds of music and becomes a singer-songwriter as she likes to write songs that will easily match her soundtracks.

Getting and constructing her artistic progress

Getting inspiration and motivation to write a song is not that easy. Some even require to have a profound emotion or feeling to come up with an artistic composition.

In Peniel's case, she usually tries to look for situations first that she can write about and then narrow it down. With this inducement, she ventures in catechizing and probing herself with questions like how someone can get into that situation. She also tries to assess the situation by empathizing with what a person might feel and think about it.

Having said that, in the context of music, she usually finds the tune first then adds some melody into it by getting some random instrument and playing a random chord. Of course, it might not make sense at first, but as long as she feels that it sounds right, she uses that chord.

She begins with using two chords at first before filling it up with lyrics until it feels complete and story-like.

Facing the challenges

Her path in becoming the grand winner is not like a work in the park because, like everyone else, she also experienced a lot of challenges.

She said that her intrapersonal relationship is the most challenging aspect of becoming a singer-songwriter. When it comes to singing and composing, there is a lot of skepticism and mistrust- which is true as there are a lot of pressures to convey a scenario in the best possible way. She relayed how she was constantly wondering at the back of her mind if it is the exact portrayal of what someone is going through or if she made it too shallow compared to what the person is really feeling and sentiments. For her, this is the most difficult part because it's not that easy to know what someone is going through unless you yourself experienced it, too.

Pursuing music and not letting go of her dreams

Despite the complicated path that she is traversing as a singer-songwriter, Peniel still continues pursuing her love for music.

Music is her motivation to chase her dreams. She also said that she is a terrible talker, and she's highly thankful that music becomes her only medium through which she can communicate her true thoughts and feelings. Music, in her opinion, has the power to communicate feelings and stories more effectively than anything else.

A chance that became her big break

This is where her Wishcovery Originals journey started, allowing her to share her talents and skills with everyone and reach a greater audience through this platform.

During the weekly eliminations, Peniel performed "Stories," which is about, to a large extent, the global problems that most people aren't even aware of. As a matter of fact, she revealed in an interview that in the beginning, the song was about human trafficking, but later on, she realized that the theme might be about something else entirely. She also shared that this song that she wrote is one of her favorites.

For the duration of the monthly finals, concurrently, she sang the "Prayer," which was inspired by a situation she encountered from her high school. It is about the LGBTQ+ community and the struggles they face—closeted or not. It gives the listeners a good understanding of how they feel and the discrimination that they experience in the community.

Finally, on November 7 last year, Peniel was able to bag the top prize of the Wish 107.5 produced contest, Wishcovery Originals. During the finale, Peniel performed her winning piece entitled, "Poet's Path," a creative and meaningful song that showcased the Davaoeña songsmith's profound confidence in pursuing the profession of music-making.

The Poet's Path in her brand new home

Peniel's great and keen sense of empathy was able to forge her to compose works that deal with some heavy issues and pave her way in owning her musical path. Now, as she became the grand champion of the Wishcovery Originals, she can now start a new level on her singing-songwriting career as she received a Php 1 million recording contract with KDR Music House, a brand new car from GAC Motors Philippines, Php 1 million in cash, and a brand new Aimee house and lot from Lumina Homes. This is one of the best-seller rowhouses of Lumina Homes that has a 22 sqm floor area in a 36 sqm lot.

Lumina Homes fully supports the songwriting contest's goal of promoting OPM music while also helping composers, vocalists, and other music artists impacted by the pandemic. With its long history of supporting television and music competitions, Lumina has been able to give away the ultimate Filipino dream: a safe and secure place to call home.