Dia Maté on her Reina Hispanoamericana prep, new song 'Ganda-Gandahan,' and relationship with Juan Karlos
Dia Maté is pursuing a career in beauty pageants and music alike. While the two disciplines can be demanding and challenging, she’s in it for the long haul to fulfill her goal of helping and inspiring people, especially the youth.
After finishing in the Top 10 of Miss World Philippines, the 22-year-old was hailed Reina Hispanoamericana Filipinas and will represent the country in the beauty pageant in February 2025 in a bid to inherit the crown from Peru’s Maricielo Gamarra.
Dia is set to fly to Bolivia on Jan. 20, and she finds the days leading up to the competition "very exciting."
“Right now, I am doing my pasarela (runway walk) every week with my trainers. I am doing Q&A,” she said in a Zoom interview with PhilSTAR L!fe. “We are planning my national costume, my gown, all the outfits. We're going to film my introduction video, advocacy video, and everything. It's starting to feel very real.”
Apart from her pageant career, Dia is also making waves in the music industry with her latest single, the rather funky and fierce Ganda-Gandahan.
Beauty pageant as advocacy platform
When she competes in pageants, Dia doesn't just see them as a contest—she views them as a platform to share one's advocacies and interests.
“It's where you can present yourself to the whole Philippines and, basically, the whole world,” she said. “We're a sash factor country. All the countries look up to us in bringing the best representatives out onto the international stage.”
Dia recalled becoming a pageant fan in 2010, the time of Miss Universe fourth runner-up Venus Raj, when she was under 10. Since then, she has watched Miss Universe annually, noting how the Philippine delegates stood out.
“It was always so fun to watch these women present themselves unapologetically and share their advocacies. They became my idols, basically,” she said.
In her case, she wants to use the beauty pageant as a platform to share the power of music therapy.
“As a musician, it's important to have that creative outlet,” she said, adding that when the situation is stressful or depressing, she finds it therapeutic to write songs, putting her thoughts on a piece of paper or humming a melody aligned with her feelings at the moment.
“It helps you to process your emotions and let them out in a safe and non-harmful way. You need that outlet,” she said.
Dia is also a frequent visitor of CRIBS Foundation Inc., an Antipolo-based orphanage and rehabilitation center for abandoned babies and abused teenage girls since she was young.
These days, she’s giving singing, piano, and guitar lessons to the girls.
“It’s so amazing because they come out of their shell. They aren't as quiet as they used to be. They've gone through a lot, and they need that outlet,” she said, adding that group singing is her personal favorite because “they all come alive, their eyes are so bright, and they sing with all their heart.”
Early love of music
At the young age of 7, Dia fell in love with music. She began singing and taking up voice and classical piano lessons when she was little. At 13, she taught herself how to play the ukulele and guitar while also trying to compose songs.
Moreover, she credited her love of music to her family, having maternal relatives who play the piano and the guitar.
“My lolo and his siblings can all sing,” she said of Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, the veteran politician who’s now justice secretary. “When we have a family gathering, we all sing together.”
Her parents, though they don’t sing or play instruments, heavily influenced her musical taste.
Her father, a venture capitalist, exposed her to the likes of Dave Matthews. Her mother, an entrepreneur, is an avid listener of Norah Jones, who has become her favorite artist of all time.
It was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that made Dia embrace music more.
“When everybody is at home and were all feeling down, I was like a song factory spitting songs every day and writing so much music,” she said, adding that it was also when she learned music production.
Ganda-Gandahan as pageant anthem, upcoming studio album
Dia’s latest song Ganda-Gandahan, which talks about oozing with self-assurance in a world full of judgmental people, is shaped by her pageant experiences. She co-wrote it with her best friend Dom Guyot, a Cebuano indie singer-songwriter who’s also a pageant fan.
“Going through the pageant stages, it really turned me into someone with a thick skin,” she said. “As a beauty queen, you have to focus on your goal because there [are] a lot of people judging you because you're not pretty or skinny enough.”
“With Ganda-Gandahan, just be unapologetically yourself, be your most confident and most beautiful self without a care what everybody else thinks,” she added.
For its choreography, she collaborated with the Ballroom Community of the Philippines, which takes inspiration from the Ballroom scene, a Black and Latino underground LGBTQ+ subculture in the ‘80s New York City prominently featured in the award-winning 1990 documentary film Paris is Burning.
“I want to be bringing this new confident, upbeat energy. I want to show the world that are unapologetically Filipino. We're not afraid of who we want to be,” she said.
Dia is set to drop her debut studio album in 2025. There’s no specific date yet, but she’s hoping for its release by February.
Without mentioning or hinting at the album’s title, she said the songs “will focus on owning who you are.” She said the sound takes inspiration from Charli XCX, Ariana Grande, and Tate McRae.
“I will be collaborating with my friends as well. I can't say who for now, but we're cooking up something,” she said.
Beauty pageant upon mother’s insistence, bootcamp experience
Since being a musician is her true love, Dia's passion for pageantry developed over time. She said it was her mother who convinced her to try it out, mainly because of her 5'7" height.
“She was like, 'Dia, why don't you try beauty pageants? Sayang naman,’” Dia recalled her mother saying. “I really put a thought to it. It's like the Olympics. It's a lot of training and hardwork.”
In 2023, she screened for Aces & Queens, a San Juan-based beauty pageant bootcamp whose notable alumnae include Raj, Miss Universe 2011 first runner-up Gwen Ruais, Miss Universe 2011 third runner-up Shamcey Supsup, Miss Universe 2012 first runner-up Janine Tugonon, Miss Universe 2013 third runner-up Arielle Arida, Miss World 2013 Megan Young, Binibining Pilipinas Globe 2015 Ann Collis, and Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach.
“I got to meet all these girls that are training to be beauty queens,” Dia said. “It was a new experience, and I fell in love with it. The bootcamp really pushed me.”
On dating her best friend and former labelmate Juan Karlos
Earlier in the year, OPM artist Juan Karlos Labajo hard-launched his relationship with Dia on Valentine's Day. Since then, the two have shared rare glimpses into their love lives.
“We're in a very healthy and happy relationship,” she said of her musician boyfriend, who’s also a television and movie actor. “He's busy, I'm busy, both of us are busy but we make it work.”
Juan Karlos, who’s celebrating a decade in the music industry since joining The Voice Kids in 2014, will hold his first major concert, Juan Karlos LIVE, at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Nov. 29. Dia shared that he’s been greatly preparing for it.
“I'm so excited for that. I hope everybody is watching,” she said, even as she stressed the need to be present during that big night.
Recalling their love story, she said they met through Island Records as labelmates who became good friends first.
“He was helping me write and produce my own music,” she said, particularly Ocean of Emotion.
With music as their common ground, she and Juan Karlos have had mutual respect since the beginning. She recalled him attending one of her gigs, and their interactions afterward seemingly never ended.
As to what makes their relationship airtight, Dia said it’s because they started as friends.
“When you go straight to dating, sometimes, you kind of have this idea of a person. You don't really know who they are,” she said. “But if you're friends first, you'd know what you're getting into and it just makes for a better, happier relationship. I also love to say that Juan Karlos is my best friend.”
Dia also emphasized the need for proper, constant communication.
“I love to talk to him. Always, when there's a problem, we resolve it right away so there's no tension and fighting,” she said.
Collaborating with her beau on Ocean of Emotion is a treasured and "most beloved" experience for Dia.
“What just changed is that he's my boyfriend now,” she said laughing. “He's such an amazing person. He's so grounded, kind, and humble. It's so fun working with him, it doesn't feel like work. We made something beautiful out of it. He really understood who I am.”
Asked if they’d have a duet soon, Dia only said, "Sana!”
“We're still very young and we're both in our 20s,” she said. “We have a lot of life ahead of us. I hope we get to release our songs soon or perform together.”
“I'm just happy to have him as my partner and best friend,” Dia added. “Whatever happens happens.”
