Moira dela Torre has seen a celebrity, but she was taken aback when her most recent hit song, “Paubaya,” achieved worldwide recognition.
After the commotion has subsided, Moira muses on the song, her songwriting inspirations, and the collective, frequently harrowing experiences that have shaped her as an artist. She didn’t anticipate it would touch her audience in the way it did.
Toni Gonzaga-Soriano, a Kapamilya friend of Moira’s, invited her for a private interview on Toni Talks, a program on Toni’s YouTube channel that features famous guests and candid discussions with them.
In this episode of Toni Talks, Moira dela Torre is the featured guest. Toni questions the award-winning singer about why her songs always hit the emotional soft spot and how owning her depression, traumatic experiences, and unwavering hope for better things has been the most beneficial in her professional, personal, and spiritual life.
“At the time, I was going through something. My depression was horrible, so he didn’t want me to be alone.”
Sam Milby was one of Moira’s closest friends when she was a budding artist just breaking into the entertainment industry. He let 16-year-old Moira live with him for a while because she genuinely had nowhere else to turn, supporting her in her career. She and he became one another’s family because neither of them had family in Manila at the time, and they forged a connection that Moira still thinks fondly about 11 years later.
“For a long time before that, Nothing’s going on in my career. I just, felt like this could be it. It was harrowing when I didn’t make it, but also, it made sense. Because I remembered that the reason why I started writing my songs anyway was that I couldn’t sing other people’s songs.”
“Being in a broken family… My mom and my dad separated when I was four. My mom remarried when I was seven. I didn’t see my dad again until I was 16. It was 12 years of not having my dad.”
She discusses the impact of an unstable household on her, particularly during her teens. When she was 12, she struggled with anorexia and bulimia; by the time she was 18, she had developed suicidal thoughts. She created some of her most cherished songs during her darkest hours, and her passion for songwriting was gradually replacing the emptiness she was experiencing. Her desire is for her audience to view her songs as friends—the consoling presence she wishes she had when she was alone and most emotionally isolated—now that she is a successful musician and has spoken freely about having seen a therapist help her heal.
“Hope… My greatest achievement is knowing that my music has become a friend to so many people. That kind of comfort is something that I didn’t have.”
For as long as they have her music with them, Moira wants listeners always to feel and own hope.
“I wanted to write an album that will help balance it out… To promote forgiveness, to promote humanity. I remember that we are dealing with human beings far from perfect. To promote compassion. Compassion and kindness matter.”
Moira’s most recent album of songs was to encourage everyone to consider their words before speaking and to demonstrate to her listeners how similar they are to one another rather than how different they are. Her album is a small response to the “cancel culture” she lives in, where bashing is typical, and expressing one’s opinions can too quickly turn offensive and hurtful. Perhaps if more people realized that everyone suffers and feels pain and that we all share these everyday experiences and emotions, kindness rather than hate would prevail.
“I get to create the kind of friend I want through my music.”
Her trials have taught her that everyone’s experiences are valid if there is anything else. Everyone deserves to be heard, and no grief is too minor to be noticed. And every time Moira creates a new song, she considers how her lyrics may comfort listeners as if they were friends.
