Jacques "Chin" Alcantara, former Claretian, founded the band back in late 1996. It was Chin's elder brother, Julius, who gave the band its name --- a tribute to their departed mother. Chin's mother, Dr. Stella Lopez-Alcantara (a cardiologist), had died of complications from breast cancer when he was 17.

Back when it was originally formed, Make Your Momma Proud was a four-man rock band, whose arsenal included Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and, as Alcantara adds, a little Mr. Big. He was still a student at Miriam College then, taking up Communication Arts, major in Advertising. “My mom played the piano but she didn’t get to see me play professionally—she did get to see me start out,” Alcantara said. In the year after his mother died, Alcantara took up the guitar and, in his words, “really got obsessed with it and that’s when I knew what I wanted to be, a musician.” Alcantara was enjoined by his father (an investment and a private development banker) to attend classical guitar tutoring, but stopped after a month. Alcantara taught himself how to play.

The peak of MYMP's amateur days was when it won the 1996 national championship of the San Miguel Beer Battle of (rock) Bands. Before that, the group had won the NCR championship, best vocalist and best lead-guitarist awards.

As a college band, MYMP appeared in college fairs and shows, but as they became more earnest in their intent to pursue music as a career, they encountered difficulty in lining up gigs due to their "disciplined rock" repertoire. MYMP added a keyboardist and began working on a more pop sound, completing the transformation with the addition of a female vocalist in 2000, Marifil Niña Girado, known then as the R&B singer [and later as Nina--the Soul Siren}] after leaving the band to go solo. MYMP then industriously performed in bars, clubs and shows for years, building an identity.

In 2001, Alcantara handed an audition for a new female lead, and the group found Julie Iris "Juris" Fernandez. Originally from Davao, Fernandez explains she didn’t grow up exposed to music on a regular basis. Like Alcantara, Fernandez did not study music formally for long, eschewing the training to learn on her own. After graduating from Miriam, Fernandez was studying at the Ateneo, working towards completing her pre-med requirements when she decided that, like Alcantara, she wanted to immerse herself in music. After singing with Jimmy Bondoc, she fatefully auditioned for MYMP.

It was the trio of Alcantara, Fernandez and percussionist Mike Manahan that established the beachhead for MYMP’s frontal assault on the sales and radio charts.

Their recording career started when Raymond Ryan, the station manager of iFM watched their gig. Ryan met with a producer to produce their debut album, Soulful Acoustic. Ivory Records then became their recording company. MYMP's debut album was released on Ivory Music and Video's 20th anniversary. MYMP became famous with their original hit song "A Little Bit" which bagged the People's Choice "Favorite Song" Award in Awit Awards last 2004; "their own version of The Police's "Every Little Thing"; "Waiting in Vain", which was originally sung by Bob Marley;

The trio did click but MYMP became a duo when one of their members decided to leave the group. Manahan left the band in 2003 due to what Alcantara called “professional differences” as well as fallout from Manahan’s breakup with Fernandez; the two were in a relationship for a while. Yet, this did not stop MYMP's Juris & Chin from sharing their music.

The duo set-up did great and as they enjoy their ride in the Philippine music scene, a new and improved MYMP had emerged, as two more albums were released in a year. Beyond Acoustic and Versions, both 12-track albums, were declared Certified Gold Record after less than a month or more than 15,000 copies sold.

Their original hit song "Get Me" and covers "Tell Me Where It Hurts", "Kailan", "Especially For You", "Eternal Flame", were later used as theme songs for TV series and commercial ads.

Due to the overwhelming success of their Two-Disc 2nd album, which received a total of 7 platinum awards or more than 210,000 copies sold, the band held two concerts at the Araneta Coliseum on November 18, 2005, and its repeat on February 3, 2006. Both concerts were sold-out, with each concert having more than 10,000 audience capacity.

After releasing a DVD of their concert at the Music Museum in 2006, MYMP embarked on an ambitious summer tour of the US West and East coasts, a development that was immensely described by Alcantara and Fernandez as “A dream we were thinking of fulfilling maybe five years from now.”

In 2008, MYMP ended their contract with Ivory Music and signed a deal with Star Records. MYMP released their last album of Ivory Music, Now.

Juliet Bahala was introduced on January 24, 2010 as the new vocalist of MYMP on ASAP. Juliet, an 18-year old regional singing champ, hails from Davao where Juris also came from. She sang in MYMP's album "The Unreleased Acoustic Collection" which was released last May 2011. During the promotion of the album, Juliet suffered severe vocal fatigue, laryngitis, and vocal nodules which eventually forced her to rest indefinitely. She is now back in her Davao hometown pursuing her classical roots.


The other members of MYMP are: Hannche Bobis (keyboardist); Ibey Haber (bassist) and Joel Tolentino (drummer) under the management of Maria Teresa Tinio.

MYMP is currently recording their next album under Galaxy-Polyeast Records with their new members. Tentative release date is August 2013. MYMP continues to do gigs around the Philippines and abroad. Contrary to popular notion, MYMP is not just an acoustic duo. MYMP is a five-piece band.

SOURCE

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