Rowena Cortes on her life, and working with Elton John and Leslie Cheung

South China Morning Post

16-06-2025

ROWENA? I think it's an English name; there's supposed to have been a Queen Rowena in English history. My parents came on a boat from the Philippines in 1947. My mother was five months pregnant at the time, with my second brother. So you can imagine how hard it was for her. My dad was a jazz musician, Avelino Cortes, an alto sax player. He was the musical director at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for many years. He also did studio recordings for Diamond Records. He had a band with four of my brothers – Los Cortesos. I come from a musical family; I have five brothers and three sisters. When I was maybe two or three years old, my mum says I would hold her brush in my hand and just sing my heart out.
Singer Rowena Cortes performing at a celebration for the Philippines' National Day in 1977. Photo: SCMP Archives
WE LIVED in North Point. It was a very Chinese community. That's why my spoken Cantonese is so good. Most of my friends at St Paul's Convent School spoke Cantonese. I can't read or write Chinese. Because I didn't have a Chinese name, they placed me in a French class. So, when I started singing in Cantonese, I had a hard time because I had to do the Cantonese pinyin – I had to write it phonetically and it was hard work, learning pronunciation and the nine tones. My first record was when I was five years old, an EP for EMI. I didn't know what I was singing about; I just memorised the lyrics. It was called 'You Can Have Him'. The record came about because I won the Talent Quest competition organised by The Star newspaper, in 1968. It was held on stage at City Hall. I was in with all these adults and when I won first prize Uncle Ray (DJ and broadcaster Ray Cordeiro) had to lift me onto this box. Anders Nelsson was one of the judges. I won a car, I won this whole Revlon make-up case for my mum and a recording contract with EMI. For the competition I sang 'Goin' Out of My Head'. I did a jazz version!
Undated photo of Rowena Cortes performing with her father Avelino Cortes. Photo: courtesy Rowena Cortes
I THEN STARTED singing on both TVB and RTV (Rediffusion TV, precursor to ATV). I sang at private parties and then when I was 11, in 1975, I signed a contract with TVB to sing on their EYT (Enjoy Yourself Tonight) show. I would sing there once a week and it was like HK$200 per show. Every night there was a live audience. I was given a lot of chances at TVB. They had this popular song contest and I joined it because my brother-in-law (arranger/composer) Andy Bautista wrote a song for me to enter, called 'There's Gotta Be a Way'. I won first prize and this started my career in Japan because I represented Hong Kong with the same song at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo in 1976. It was held at the Budokan Hall and I sang in front of 15,000 people. It was a big deal as I'm pretty shy. When I'm on stage, I'm like a different person. I can express myself. And because I love music so much, I just feel, and I love to make people happy. I signed up with Toshiba EMI and did four albums in Japan. I would go to Japan to perform in my school holidays.
Rowena Cortes in the news for winning The Star newspaper's Talent Quest at the age of five, in 1968. Photo: courtesy Rowena Cortes
WHEN I WAS 13, I signed to House Records, recording in English. At that time in the 1970s, English cover versions were very popular. I had my own variety show, called In the Mood with Louie Castro. We sang and acted and did candid camera. It was quite well received. We did two seasons of it. He was a great partner, Louie, like an older brother. We sang and danced live, and Joseph Koo was our musical director. I was on this television series, My Little Darling, for TVB, the theme song was written by Anders. We were a group of young teenagers, falling in love and this and that.