Mau Marcelo - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Marcelo's father is an American citizen from Puerto Rico while her mother is Filipina. Her father left the family when she was four months old, while her mother died when she was 14. She has a half-sister from her mother and two half-brothers and another half-sister from her father.

It was Marcelo's mother who taught her how to sing when she was 7 years old, wherein she first learned to sing "Somewhere Out There". She first performed publicly in a singing contest during her school's foundation day when she was first grade. It was also the first time that she won. She eventually joined different local singing contests around her native Quezon Province when she was 8, winning most of the time thus giving her a boost of self-esteem. She also learned to accept herself and her looks.

A year after her mother's death, Marcelo's father came into her life once more when he returned to the Philippines. It was the first time she met her American father. Since then, they had constant communication even though her father lives in Atlanta with his own family. She eventually graduated in Quezon National High School and attended college in Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation, both in Lucena City.

By her 20s, Marcelo became a veteran of singing competitions. She joined her first national singing competition through Star for a Night, which was shown on IBC-13. She reached the grand finals, but was lost to Sarah Geronimo. Losing to the competition did not dampen her spirits. She eventually joined a band called "Chemical Syndrome" and toured around Lucena City and surrounding areas. She has also joined other televised singing competitions such as Star Quest at ABS-CBN's Magandang Tanghali Bayan and ABC-5's Sing Galing.

In 2004, Marcelo went to Singapore to gain foreign exposure in singing with the help of her stepsister's husband. Using her screen name "Samantha Brown", she performed in various bars and has become popular with the city-state's Filipino community.

By the time Marcelo was about to audition for Philippine Idol, she won in over 200 amateur singing competitions. She even joked in an interview that she had so many trophies in her house that she donated some of them to gay beauty pageants.