We’ve seen her grow up through the years, from a young girl on Goin’ Bulilit, to episodes of Maalaala Mo Kaya and Luv U, to the release of her first album – now, Alexa Ilacad’s here to show us that she’s not that little kid anymore! Alexa joined Karla on All Out last Monday, November 23 to take us on the musical journey that led to her newest single, Love at First Sight.

The 20-year-old singer-actress admitted that she was quite nervous when the lockdown started, worrying about how she’d work and practice her craft. Soon enough, she took it as an opportunity to pursue other hobbies and passions that she didn’t have enough time for when taping took up the bulk of her schedule. That’s how music came back into the picture! It started with uploading covers to YouTube, something she could have fun with and would help her engage more with her fans. Things progressed into working on new music with the help of her label, Off the Record!

The last time Alexa released music was in 2016 with her album To the Moon and Back. She was only around 16 years old at the time, so with Love at First Sight, Alexa wants her audience to hear that she’s grown up. “I wanted people to hear my maturity. I want that when [people] listen to the song, they’re like, ‘Oh this feels like a new Alexa! This feels like this girl has grown, this girl has matured, this girl has been through a lot, and she’s giving us a new song that will make you feel something different.’” 

And we think she really achieved that! Love at First Sight is a fun dance-pop track that’s feels different from what we’ve heard from her before – major Dua Lipa/Carly Rae Jepsen vibes, too! You’ll have to hear it for yourself:

More than songwriting, Alexa was mainly involved in creating her new sound. “What I focused on was just figuring out the sound that I wanted,” Alexa told Karla. She listened to a lot of new music and took time to fix her playlists to help create the Love at First Sight sound. Will we ever get to hear what she’s written herself? “If ever I release something that’s written by me, I want to make sure that it’s something I would be really proud of.”

Though her career has been more focused on acting over the past few years, music has always played, and always will play, a huge role in Alexa’s life. “Music is something that would be impossible for people to take away from me,” she said. “I sing EVERYWHERE.” She even admitted that as a kid, she would cry when she got a sore throat because it meant she couldn’t sing!

Balancing her two passions is not a problem! “When you love it so much, you really make it work,” Alexa said. She proved this with the shoot of her Love at First Sight music video – did you know that Alexa shot this by herself in one day, in between shoots for a movie and a TV show? That’s incredible! “We had to think of something that I personally could do, ‘cause I only had one rest day in between shooting the movie and the teleserye,” she explained. “I was like, okay I don’t know if this is possible but we have to make it work.” With the help of her Off the Record team, Alexa pulled off the one-woman, one-day shoot and brought the video to life!

“I’m happy that people could see how much fun I had making the video, through the video,” she said. It wasn’t a walk in the park, though. Her disclaimer: she was NOT calm and collected when it happened! “Baka inisip nila, ‘Aw she has it all, she’s so good.’ Thank you, but honestly there were times when just seeing everything that I had to do alone, it would make me so anxious.” Girl, we can only imagine what it’s like to pull that off, and we’re so glad you made it work. Props to you and your team, Alexa!

This girl’s been staying busy with her acting career, too! As she mentioned, the music video came in between taping a new movie and a show, and the process of taping has drastically changed this year. Health and safety protocols are strict with the cast and crew, shooting hours are limited, and mingling with co-stars and crewmates isn’t encouraged. Thankfully, all these measures have paid off, as nobody in their team has tested positive for COVID-19. Great news! We’re looking forward to seeing her bring the role of young Bobbie to life in the upcoming Four Sisters Before the Wedding!

Before the interview ended, Karla just had to ask: Since the song is called Love at First Sight, what is Alexa Ilacad’s love advice? “I am not at all credible to be giving love advice!” she joked. “But I think an important love advice would be to never forget about yourself. Sometimes we can get so lost in love with the other person that we totally forget to care for ourselves […] So I hope people never forget their worth, and that they are reminded every day that they deserve nothing but the best.” We love it! Always know your worth, Monsters!

You can watch the full interview with Alexa Ilacad on the Monster RX93.1 YouTube and Facebook pages: