By Roy Mabasa
A Filipino-American member of the United States Navy’s premier contemporary entertainment ensemble called “The Cruisers” is creating an indelible mark as one of the band’s talented lead vocalists.
Musician 1st Class Danlie Cuenca (UNITED STATES NAVY BAND WEBSITE / MANILA BULLETIN)
Born in Lipa City, Batangas in 1995, US Navy Musician First Class Danlie Cuenca started learning how to sing at the age of three under the tutelage of her own mother who cultivated her voice and taught her how to belt out the powerful ballads of Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey.
“As soon as I was able to sing my ‘ABCs,’ she was like, “okay, I’m hearing my child, and I feel like she’s got something going on with her voice,’ and that’s when it started,” Cuenca told the Fanfare Magazine, the US Navy Band’s bi-annual magazine issue published on Dec. 4, 2019.
According to her bio, Cuenca migrated to the US in 2003 to join her father and spent her elementary years singing in the choir, winning in singing competitions and actively participating in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). She also took up playing the trombone and joined the Norfolk Public Schools All-City Jazz Ensemble.
Discovered
“I was a proud band geek all through high school. I didn’t join the choir until my junior year, but throughout that time I would still be singing songs to myself all the time,” she said in the interview.
It was during Cuenca’s senior high school year when retired US Navy Master Chief Musician Rick Jasper heard her sing during a talent show in her school and encouraged her to audition for the Navy Music Program. Cuenca eventually opted to join the Navy after her graduation from high school in Norfolk, Virginia in 2013.
After completing recruit training, the Fil-Am native of Batangas attended the Naval School of Music in Virginia and following completion, she reported to her first command duty, the Navy Band Great Lakes where she had the opportunity to play side by side with the late legendary jazz guitarist Larry Coryell.
In 2018, she was named the Navy Band Great Lakes’ Blue Jacket of the Year by the Naval Service Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois.
“As someone who started my Navy career in a fleet band watching these guys perform from a distance, whether it was on YouTube or Facebook, and then suddenly finding myself not only sharing a stage with them but being a featured vocalist… well, it’s hard to put into words. It’s been surreal,” Cuenca told the Fanfare Magazine about her experience with the Cruisers.
Last week, Cuenca, together with the US Navy Band, performed to a huge crowd in the annual holiday concert at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
“Danlie’s success path is highly unusual – and a testament to her exceptional talent. We saw her bring the house down last night,” said retired US Marine Corps Chas Henry who watched the holiday concert together with his Filipino wife Rosemary.
Reminiscing
Despite being away from her native country for almost 16 years, Cuenca said she feels privileged to have known another life living in the Philippines as she vividly recalls the first seven years of her life as a child growing up in Batangas.
“My backyard was a mango forest, and maybe a mile from my house there was also a mountain range. My neighbors were my cousins and everybody knew everybody in the village. Part of me misses it because all of my mom’s family is still there, but at the same time I love being here in the states and I still have so much to discover around the country,” she said.
In the Philippines, she said, “family is really a big thing.” “You don’t even have to be related. If you grew up with somebody then they’re like family. They would drop in every day. ‘Hey, have you had dinner? What are you guys cooking? Can I have some? Nobody would bat an eye. ‘Yeah, sure, come join us for dinner.’ I really miss that closeness and sense of community.”
