Jaya Age, Bio, Family

After her Platinum Record solo album, “Cool Change, ” Ramsey released her ninth studio album entitled, Real.Love.Stories. All of the songs were presented with new arrangements in various musical genres. Also in that same year, she released her first live album, entitled, Jaya Live at the Araneta. Though, as before, Honesty contains mostly passionate, easy-listening love songs, this time out her approach is more intimate. In 1997, she released her third album In the Raw, (second in the Philippines) the follow-up to her massive-selling 1996 Philippine debut album, Jaya, which sold nine times platinum, (360,000 units; platinum is 40,000 units sold). Her first album under Viva Records hit an all-time high of 9 times platinum.

Studio albums

• Five songs were recorded in the US while the rest were done in the Philippines.
• The album consisted largely of freestyle dance tracks written or co-written by Stevie B, who also provided backup vocals.
• In 2001, Jaya released her sixth Unleashed album where she sang the songs in a relaxed, confident manner, and performed middle-of-the-road songs that mostly have depth and quality.

The first single was “Is It Over?” originally sung by Ronnie Milsap which received a Platinum award in 2009. Another one is Vehnee Saturno, who wrote and produced most of Jaya’s early hits. She approached her last album, 1999’s Honesty, in the refined manner that she furthered on Unleashed.

She released a Christmas album, entitled Kung Kailan Pasko which contained traditional carols alongside original compositions, including a jazz version of The Christmas Song. Jaya’s follow-up single, “One Kiss Per Minute”, was a minor dance khelaghor bd hit, but failed to make the pop chart and the third single from the album failed to chart as did another non-album single in 1993. It was her third cover album, containing classic R&B and jazz songs that she grew up listening to. It contains 14 love songs carefully picked and beautifully revived by the Philippine’s Queen of Soul, such as “Breathe Again” originally sung by Toni Braxton; “Old Friend” by Phyllis Hyman and “Save the Best For Last” by Vanessa Williams.

Her performance as the demon king Ravana’s sister, Soorphanaka, was memorable for her skillful treatment of risque songs and sultry dancing. She doesn’t add many soulful flourishes as before, nor does she allow herself to soar passionately to the heavens, which she often did on her previous albums. Honesty differs greatly from Jaya’s two previous major albums released in the Philippines, 1996’s Jaya and 1997’s In the Raw. A Love Album is exquisitely produced, and Jaya acquits herself well on the album’s upbeat R&B/dance-styled tunes and soulful ballads. In 1992, while touring Japan as a backup singer and keyboardist for American R&B artist Stevie B., Jaya was approached by the Japanese label Toshiba/EMI to make an album for Japanese release. Jaya is noted for being the Philippine music industry’s female record holder of a seven-times platinum album.

In 2007, she released her eighth album Cool Change under her new label, GMA Records, featuring covers of international hit songs including Donna Summer’s “On the Radio” and the Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire”. Jaya released an album under Universal Records entitled All Souled Out, a CD album containing 12 tracks of all revival songs. In 2001, Jaya released her sixth Unleashed album where she sang the songs in a relaxed, confident manner, and performed middle-of-the-road songs that mostly have depth and quality.

New label

The song hit number 14 on Billboard’s Top 40/Dance crossover chart and number 25 on the 12-inch Singles Sales chart. After 18 weeks on the Hot 100, the song was still gaining in both sales and airplay—it ended up peaking at number 44 in February 1990— and remained in the Hot 100 for a total of for 26 weeks, an unusually long chart run for a single peaking outside the top 40. The album’s first single, “If You Leave Me Now”, was a hit in discos and debuted on the U.S. Jaya won Best Female Vocal Performance for the song “Hiding Inside Myself” at 23rd Awit Awards on September 30, 2010, defeating some of the younger local singers of today. The concept album was released initially on a limited edition micro secure digital format and after two weeks, it will be available on physical CDs and digital downloading.

Five songs were recorded in the US while the rest were done in the Philippines. In 1989, she was re-christened “Jaya” and signed a record deal with Stevie B’s label LeFrak-Moelis Records and her eponymous first album, produced by Stevie B, was released in the US. Jaya is the second Filipino recording artist to chart in the United States (the first being The Rocky Fellers), with her debut single “If You Leave Me Now” peaking at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. She sang Save the Best for Last on her Real.Love.Stories album, which was originally sung by Vanessa Williams. In 2023, Jaya became subject to controversy after John Lapus posted a blind item on Twitter, alleging that there was an unnamed singer repeatedly liking anti-transgender Tweets on the platform. She was one of the “Big Four” judges of GMA Network’s new musical variety show Sunday All Stars which began airing on June 30, 2013.

Corrales then asked Jaya if she would like to return to Manila and record an album, to which she agreed. It hit top 10 in several markets and made it to number one at the crossover powerhouse KMEL. The song did well in many markets but at different times, thus diluting its Hot 100 rank. The album consisted largely of freestyle dance tracks written or co-written by Stevie B, who also provided backup vocals. After high school in the U.S., Ramsey became a back-up vocalist to Miami freestyle singer Stevie B. She entered show business at the age of ten as a backup dancer for her mother, and at the age of 12 was a backup singer and front act for some minor and major shows.

Her mother was Elizabeth Ramsey, a Filipina comedian and singer of Jamaican and Spanish-Filipino descent. Jaya also ventured into musical theatre, playing the role of Surpanakha in the 1999 Filipino musical Rama at Sita staged at the University of the Philippines Theater. Referred to as the country’s “Queen of Soul”, she is known for her distinctively deep voice and soulful singing style. Maria Luisa Ramsey Kagahastian (born March 21, 1970), known professionally as Jaya (/ˈdʒaɪə/), is a Filipino singer, actress, and television personality.