Sacrificing their respective individual recording careers a year ago to form the all-female singing group La Diva, Jonalyn Viray, Aicelle Santos and Maricris Garcia, are now slowly reaping the fruits of their hard work starting with – an album!

La Diva recently signed a two-year recording contract with GMA Records and Sony Music Entertainment BMG Philippines. According to them, the deal will have them recording an album per year which they are all excited about.

“We’re very happy about our album. We are also overwhelmed that we would be under two big name recording companies. This is a dream-come-true,” expressed La Diva collectively.

With regards to their album, the group added that their fans would be treated to a lot of vocal stylings, “La Diva blending and harmony” and heartfelt renditions of their songs.

“People will always hear three voices in every song. It would be hard for individuals to sing our songs but it is something new and a new flavor that people will hear on the radio and TV,” quipped Maricris Garcia.

GMA Record’s Rene Salta described La Diva’ upcoming album to contain 14 songs which is a combination of cover as well as original songs. In it too are the TV theme songs that La Diva has sang for the shows “Gaano Kadalas ang Minsan,” “Ikaw Ang Pag-ibig” from “Ang Babaeng Hinugot Sa Aking Tadyang” and the popular song of GMA-7’s newest high-rating primetime show “Rosalinda” entitled “Ay Amor.”

“We never expected La Diva to be this successful,” shared Aicelle Santos. “We were just a segment in ‘SOP’ and there were no plans of becoming a group. But I guess televiewers enjoyed our performances and that’s when management began to turn us into a group.”

According to Senior Vice President for Entertainment Wilma Galvante, La Diva deserves an album as they have shown their strength as singers since their onset.

“We have to thank Danny Tan. Without him there would be no La Diva. He trained them and he was the reason for their introduction in ‘SOP’ Besides, they are all products of ‘Pinoy Pop Superstar’ which we all know has come out with very talented singers in the past,” she explained.

So what will happen to their individual careers?

“Looking back, we know we have gone through a lot especially when we joined ‘Pinoy Pop Superstar.’ Our goal then was to become individual singers. We also know that a lot of singers want to be in our place and we’re just happy we were chosen instead,” Jonalyn Viray replied.

On her part, Aicelle said, “We joined contests to become solo performers, but I guess as La Diva, the reception of the people was just overwhelming. And we’re happier now and in the music industry we are unique and we have to be proud of that!”

As for Maricris, “Since we’re well appreciated and we have a following, why not grab the opportunity? We should make use of this opportunity to make us all better performers!”

Now one year in existence, how did the group gel together?

“We really don’t know. It could be because we’ve always been performing together as a group in ‘SOP.’ We’ve known each other for so long that we already have a connection even before La Diva was formed. Now as a group, we understand each other without talking especially when we are performing…we are also all nice people and amazingly our voices jive well,” La Diva described.

They also stressed that La Diva already has a distinct sound. They know this because of the reactions they get whenever they perform on TV minus a member. Whoever the singer taking over an absent member, fans would always give them feedback that they don’t sound the same when they’re not complete!

Jonalyn, Aicelle and Maricris’ first song project was for the theme song of “SiS.” After that they were launched as a group – La Diva – on “SOP” on May 4, 2008 and has since become a much-awaited portion in the said show.

So are the members of La Diva taken?

“We are all single which is good so we can focus more on our album… we want someone outside of showbiz and someone with the same personalities as ours,” smiled La Diva.