Matty J wants to officially cover Prince's 'Purple Rain'

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MANILA, Philippines — Filipino singer Matty Juniosa wowed "Britain's Got Talent" with his performance of "Purple Rain" so much so that he wants to do an official cover of Prince's song.

Matty's audition on Series 19 of the long-running talent competition show saw judge Simon Cowell — backed by a cheering crowd — press the Golden Buzzer, guaranteeting the Filipino singer a spot in the semi-final round.

Philstar.com asked Matty, who is currently based in Scotland, his interest in covering "Purple Rain," given that Prince's estate is notoriously strict about licensing the late artist's music.

"I do, I actually want to. And more than that, one of the goals I have in the future is to bring back the 2014-2015 cover era," Matty said. "And I want to call my band the Gays Avenue, because of Boyce Avenue."

The singer shared that he worked on his rendition of "Purple Rain" for weeks, making numerous changes, particularly to fill in portions with music breaks.

"I'm just glad it resonated with people. I mean, why not make a cover of it and profit? Oh you know I need the money!" Matty joked.

He acknowledged being "hilaw" during his earlier foray in competitive singing. Before the pandemic, Matty reached the Top 12 of "Philippine Idol."

Matty then became a partial scholar at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to pursue a Musical Theatre degree, which he recently finished.

His academics were the reason why he only worked as a part-time waiter, as he shared during his "Britain's Got Talent" audition where he introduced himself as Matty J.

"I put every amount of money that I've ever earned back home into that. And then I worked my ass off here in the U.K., working different jobs, whatever came about, and getting help from so many people," Matty shared. "Fellow Filipinos, even Glaswegians have helped me. They let me stay in their houses just to get through the training bit."

The singer owed his improvement to his schooling, which he said wasn't easy to achieve, and doing everything that was asked of him despite initially being stubborn about what kind of artist he wanted to be.

"They really trained me from the base foundation of what performing is. Even down to the breathing, they had training for all of us," Matty said before briefly lamenting the political state of the Philippines. "'Yun yung sinasabi kong isa sa pinaghinayang ko na hindi nakukuha ng mga kapwa kong Filipino is that education."

Matty pointed out to Philstar.com that there were so much talent in the Philippines and all these individuals need is "a little helping hand."

The Filipino singer also aims to bring back what he learned in Scotland and share them with fellow performing Filipinos, maybe even put up a foundation for the youth to study music abroad.

"'Yung growth ko is so evident. Even to me, there were days when I was like, 'I don't even sound like myself anymore because of how they trained me,'" Matty ended, giving a sample of his vocal range and having to meld it with his identity as a performer outside of musical theater. "You just really have to put in the work."

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