Heaven (Nina Girado Song) - Background and Release

Background and Release

At seventeen, Nina became a vocalist of the XS, The Big Thing, MYMP, Silk and lastly, the Essence. After college, she recorded an amateur demo CD with the help of a friend. It was composed of three tracks, including the Steve Perry song "Foolish Heart", "Breathe Again" and "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", recorded in a home studio with only a guitar for accompaniment. After listening to the demos, Warner Music managing director at that time, Ricky Ilacad wanted to sign her up even without seeing or hearing her in person. Two months after her father died of heart attack in the United States, she signed her first contract with Warner Music. Under the direction of Warner managing head Ilacad, foreign songwriters and arrangers from the United States and Korea, including Shelly Peiken and Brett Laurence, were hired for the production of the album. The album is heavily influenced by jazzy lounge pop-R&B and composed of songs that are reminiscent to the sound of international records at that time.

The song was released in the third quarter of 2002, and proved risky for Warner Music to breakthrough an artist such as Nina who is extremely influenced with R&B. The song was considered to be one of the first R&B-hip-hop inspired tracks in the Philippine music scene, which was rare for Filipino acts at that time. The song was not a commercial hit, but it managed to peak at number seven on the Philippine Singles Chart, exposing Nina's potential in the music scene.