Sam Cruz wants to make her own mark, rather than just being known as the daughter of celebrities Sunshine Cruz and Cesar Montano..
The 16-year-old, who signed an exclusive contract with ABS-CBN’s talent agency Star Magic in March, has recently released her debut pop single Train Of Thought under Universal Records Philippines. The song narrates how having feelings for someone can make you lose yourself.
“What I love about it most is it doesn’t have to be like ‘yung crush mo or kininilig ka,” Sam talked about her fresh track in a virtual interview with STAR’s Latestchika.com.
She added, “It could be something as simple as food or Nutella, something that you love that just makes you lose yourself. Or anyone like, even crushes. I think it’s normal for a lot of people, especially now that I’m now a teenager, to have crushes and lose your train of thought and get inspiration from that.”
After entering the world of showbiz, Sam related how it feels like going into her famous parents’ line of work, not to mention her singer-titas Sheryl Cruz, Geneva Cruz and Donna Cruz.
“Nakaka-overwhelm po na I’m finally following in the footsteps of my parents because they are both very talented artists,” said Sam.
“They have their own things like my mom, kumakanta po siya and my dad as well actually, and especially on the Cruz side po. Lahat sila kumakanta and they’re all like in showbiz — Tita Donna, Tita Geneva,” she added.
Coming from one of the most famous showbiz clans, Sam admitted that there’s always the pressure of living up to expectations, but that pushes her to strive to be better in her craft.
“Nakaka-pressure po talaga pero it motivates me to do even better in singing or acting and give myself a name one day, not just as ‘ito yung anak ni Sunshine Cruz, ito yung anak ni Cesar Montano’.”
“One day, I wanna work as hard as my parents, and my titas and give myself a name,” she said.
One thing that her mom Sunshine taught her upon entering showbiz is knowing how to balance her career and studies, stressing how her mom greatly values education.
“Palagi niya po sinasabi sa akin na always be humble, be easy to work with, always be on time. Marami po siyang advice na she gave me. And I feel like all of those I really take to heart and I really try to do my best when it comes to work, and balancing my studies as well.
Sam continued, “At palagi din po siyang may sinasabi na always focus on studies muna, academics first, kasi sobrang important po sa kanya ‘yung schoolwork po and my education for her po. Studies comes first but I always have to learn how to balance both work and studies.”
Aside from her singing talent, one can also notice that Sam has the physical attributes of a future beauty queen. Does she want to give pageantry a try?
“I’m not sure po, maybe soon someday. I’m super interested po kasi I would always watch beauty pageants,” said Sam who’s 5’6″ tall and has been urged to join pageants.
Sam is currently a member of Star Magic’s Squad Plus, the expanded version of Gold Squad which was originally composed of Kadenang Gintos stars Andrea Brillantes, Seth Fedelin, Francine Diaz and Kyle Echarri.