Filipino singer-songwriter Jayda is back with her new song, Right Lover, Wrong Time, out now on music streaming platforms. Marking her first release for 2024, Right Lover, Wrong Time is a heartfelt pop ballad that tells the story of a love that got away and reflects on emotions of regret, longing, and an overall mature take on losing the person you swore was for you. The song’s official video is also available on video streaming platforms.
Jayda also released the official live performance of Right Lover, Wrong Time, showing a different take on the song with purely vocals and piano.
“I wrote this song during a time where I was grieving the loss of the one that got away, an ‘almost love’ for a lot of reasons,” Jayda says, opening up about what prompted her to write the song.
The track begins with romantic string instrumentals that quickly morph into Jayda’s painful realization through the lines: ‘Gusto ko na biglang ayaw mo na, nauwi lang tayo sa wala’ (I want it now but you don’t, and we both ended up with nothing).
The emotional rollercoaster of hurt, doubt, and bargaining is evident as the song progresses. Jayda croons about the comfort and familiarity of having her loved one by her side, the feeling of being blindsided by their sudden departure, and the confused mess that it left her in.
The song’s official music video emulates the same mood. Directed by Jonathan Tal Placido of Toothless Studios, Jayda shares that “to tell this story, we wanted to take the ‘simple, but effective’ approach and let the song speak for itself.”
Jayda appears in a deconstructed wedding dress, but the scenes are anything but joyful. Instead, we see her in scenes full of forlorn–an empty house and what seems to be a breakup conversation that ends with her partner leaving, interspersed with artfully-lit shots of Jayda singing about her pain.
“I struggled to come to terms with why this love was taken away from me. I questioned: ‘Bakit kung kelan andun na ako sa punto na handa na ako para sa kanya, dun pa siya nawala? (Why did he leave when I was ready for him?) But now I’d like to think that maybe the very creation of this song was the reason why,” she shares.
Despite being dubbed by her fans as the “Pambansang Sad Girl”, Right Lover, Wrong Time intertwines Jayda’s hurt with acceptance and hope. In the lines ‘Sana maging mabuti sa atin ang tadhana, dinadalangin ko na ikaw ay magbalik sa puso kong nananabik’ (I hope fate is kind to us, I pray that you’ll come back to my eager heart), Jayda makes peace with the unfortunate circumstances of her love.
“There are people we meet for a number of reasons, whether it’s to teach us lessons or to stay,” she summarizes. “But for whatever purpose they serve, it’s only right to honor what they mean to you.”
Turning Hurt Into Art
Taking her hurt and turning it into art is a process that Jayda is no stranger to. After all, she reveals: “I’m pretty vocal about how personal my music is, and this song was inspired by personal experience. With my music, I just want to show that at the end of the day, I’m a human being. Nakakaranas din ako ng heartbreak, iniiwan ako, nakakaranas din ako ng sakit (I also experience heartbreak, I get left behind, and I also experience hurt), and that’s fine. There’s no shame in that.”
“I actually wrote the song in English first,” Jayda explains the process of developing the song. “Initially, I was calling it ‘Right Love, Wrong Time,’ and when I was writing with my co-writer Casey Sullivan, we realized that it’s not really about the love, but it’s about the person that you shared that love with. That’s why the song is now called ‘Right Lover, Wrong Time.’”
Though she credits her recent hurt for the birth of Right Lover, Wrong Time, there is another surprising co-writer for the song: Jayda’s own father, Philippines’ original prince of pop, Dingdong Avanzado.
“When I finished the demo for the English version, my dad heard the song and he told me, ‘Nak, pag Tinagalog mo ‘to (‘Nak, if you translated this in Tagalog), I really think that it could be a really beautiful song.’ So my dad and I worked together, and he’s now also credited as my co-writer for this track.”
Aside from her family of musical legends, Jayda also cites other musicians who influenced her song creation. She looks to Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran for heartfelt songs borne out of personal experience, while she lists her labelmate Zack Tabudlo as one of her local favorites. “I think this is a great time for OPM because there’s not one sound, it’s defined by a lot of different artists. I think just by being a fan of other artists, you tend to be influenced by that.”
Finding the Right Lover
On the topic of ‘Right lover,’ Jayda advises that it’s someone who makes you feel secure and valued. “The reason why I was able to call this person the right lover at the wrong time was because it was the first time that I felt secure and felt things were going our way or going my way. That’s what I thought I had, and then obviously, circumstances happened. But love really goes both ways. If you ever feel like you’re just the one working on the relationship, then there’s something wrong with that. The right kind of love is the secure kind of love where this person doesn’t make you overthink.”
Despite her realizations, she clarifies that she thinks she’s still learning about love and finding her way as a person and a musician. “Kinu-kwento ko lang talaga yung experience ko (I’m really just sharing my experience). It brought me pain, but I’m also able to bring joy or even just empathy to people through this song. I feel like my purpose is to be able to communicate and make people feel things with my music.”
She is quick to share her hopes for her listeners, especially the ones who are hurting just like she was. “I hope this song somehow gives you the peace and closure you need, which is something I never got from that person. But eventually, I found it through the making and release of this track.”
Moving on and Moving Forward
Aside from her healing, it’s also an exciting time for Jayda musically. She teases that people “can expect more [Tagalog songs] for sure. Expect me to try to get out of my comfort zone with my songs and start talking about more of life. I think that’s one of the things that I really like about the position that I’m in now because it feels like a clean state. This is a new chapter. And what I really like about that is that people get to see the more human side of me, so I think they can expect a lot more of that.”