In his upcoming performance — his first as a headliner — Nanaimo singer Raymond Salgado plans to pay tribute to the power of love and acceptance.
Salgado says it’s also a full-circle moment for him, as the show is at St. Andrew’s United Church where he started out in competitions as a pre-teen singer.
He’s come a long way from those days — last spring he was a finalist on the second season of Canada’s Got Talent, and on Jan. 18 he flew to Toronto to sing both the American and Canadian national anthems at an NBA game between the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls.
Five years ago, at the age of 19, Salgado auditioned for the CTV reality show The Launch, during which judge Boy George said he had the kind of voice “that could sing anything.”
But it’s the support from hometown fans that Salgado wants to honour on Feb.10 with his The Power of Love performance, which also features guest veteran vocalist Jona Kristinsson and singer-songwriter Jonah O’Connor, who got his start busking on the streets of Vancouver.
“With everything that’s been happening in the last year, there’s just been a lack of love and equality,” says Salgado. “Music is such a powerful thing, and it reaches a lot of people. And my whole thing is that I love creating a space for people where they feel safe, they feel loved and they feel like they can be themselves.”
Salgado didn’t always have that himself, and growing up in Nanaimo as a queer teen and a child of Filipino immigrants was difficult at times, he says.
“I was trying to figure out my sexuality, so there was that. And then because there wasn’t a lot of Filipino Asian representation in the school too, I found it really hard to show pride in who I was. Most of the time when I was in high school, I just wanted to blend in with the rest of the crowd,” he recalls.
“For a time in my life, I did feel ashamed and I thought there was something wrong with me, and I didn’t feel worthy of existing. And a lot of people made me feel that way.
“Now I’m able to really see myself clearly and give myself a lot more love than where I was as a preteen. I wish I could tell myself, ‘The way that you are is beautiful. You don’t have to change for anyone.’”
It was his vocal teacher Andrea Bertram’s insistence early on that Salgado had a gift and could pursue music as a career that helped provide a beacon of hope.
“That stuck with me as a child, because I was trying to figure out my worth. I was trying to fit into society and feel like I was worth something,” he says.
Bertram, who coached Salgado for approximately 10 years, first heard him sing while adjudicating a teen vocal competition.
“Out walked this shy little boy who could barely look at the audience and I thought, ‘How cute. How charming,’ and went back to doodling on my page, and then he started singing. I dropped my pencil, and was fascinated. I heard the voice in there,” says Bertram.
“It was obvious to me, even that young, that he had an exceptional instrument and an exceptional passion.”
Matt Dunae, a Nanaimo-based hip-hop artist who goes by the name Sirreal, can also remember the day he first heard Salgado sing, at a local high school where he was teaching a suicide prevention workshop.
“He was singing to his classmate beside him and I was like, ‘What was that?’” says Dunae, who now works as Salgado’s manager. “He has so much talent that he could just do music full time, and it’s really inspiring for me to see that because I think he could go a long way.”
Dunae says that when he accompanies Salgado on gigs or performances trips, it’s less about business and more so he can ensure he’s comfortable and not feeling too anxious before his performance.
“I try to help him ground himself, because he’s a perfectionist so he’ll get real anxious about things. I’m like, ‘Bro — if you were sick with bronchitis and you opened your mouth, you would still sing better than 70 per cent of the people out there,’” he says with a laugh. “He has the best natural talent of any singer I’ve ever seen in real life.”
After a recent trip to sing at a wedding in Cleveland, Ohio, Salgado was casually asked to sing by the manager of the hotel he was staying at, and literally knocked her out of her seat in a hilarious video he later posted to TikTok.
“Baby, what!” the manager yelled after pulling herself back into the chair, as Dunae and Salgado laughed. “You just stand up here with that voice, like that ain’t amazing? Why are you just standing there like you didn’t just knock the socks off somebody?”
It’s a common reaction to Salgado’s goosebump-inducing vocal range.
“Beautiful,” commented artist Demi Lovato, in her reaction to his cover of her song “Sober”, while renowned vocal coach Cheryl Porter has described his voice as “magical.”
“Your articulation is so good, baby. Man, I can hear that classical training all day,” she said during his rendition of “I’m Not The Only One” by Sam Smith. “Your diction is impeccable. You don’t hear diction like that, unfortunately, a lot of times in contemporary singers. You are killing it, Ray Ray. High-level singing.”
“Raymond is good because he works very, very hard,” says Bertram. “He has a natural ability but he never stops working at it. Even with a natural ability, it’s so obvious that he has put the time in to anybody who understands vocals. I mean, [as a teen] he won senior provincials, as a classical singer, with a classical repertoire. He actually has the whole package, and could sing in any genre he wanted to.”
Though currently employed in healthcare, Salgado says he spends many hours every day outside of work practicing, writing songs and updating his social media presence — a necessity in today’s music industry — and hopes that one day he can make music his full-time career.
“I think, stepping into my artistry, I’ve been able to acknowledge that I do have a gift. And I am grateful for it, but it will never be to the point where I’m like, ‘Look at me,’” Salgado says with a laugh.
The Power of Love is presented by Got Pop? concerts and takes place Feb. 10, 7 p.m. at St. Andrews United Church, 315 Fitzwilliam St. Tickets are $25.
