Vogue celebrates H.E.R.’s talent and beauty as February cover girl

H.E.R, who is Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson in real life and was recently a Manila visitor being proud of her Filipino heritage, explained why the honor holds a significant meaning to her.

“The fact that I’m a Black and Filipino woman on the cover of Vogue. You don’t see people like me on magazine covers, so it’s just amazing to see. I’m so grateful,” she said.

Don’t look now but award winning Filipino American singerperformer H.E.R., a native of San Francisco Bay Area, is on the cover of the Vogue Philippines magazine this February.

The 25-year- old Filam, already with an Oscar trophy for her 2021

Best Song win and several Grammy awards, is thankful to the magazine for making her its cover girl. In gracing the cover of Vogue Philippines’ February edition, she said, in Yong Chavez report on TFC, she marked another milestone in her career.

H.E.R. also became the first lac ilipina Disney princess when she was cast in the lead role of the recent ‘Beauty and the Beast’ TV special. She is likewise part of the cast of the upcoming “‘The Color Purple’ musical fil adaptation, according to the TFC report.

The singer-songwriter who loves sinigang admitted that her concept of beauty as a Black-Filipina has changed over the years.

“I think the standards have changed. I feel like the way that I felt about myself has evolved. And I ve gro n ore confident in my skin and who I am. You have to accept yourself and love yourself, and the rest will follow. Being on the cover is the beginning, I think, of a new era and a new acceptance for what a Filipino woman looks like and what a black and Filipino woman looks like. So this is a huge milestone for me, and I think for little girls everywhere.”

Vogue Philippines, according to Yong Chavez on TFC, celebrated H.E.R. with a Hollywood party, a first for the pu lication that launched its Philippine edition last year.

“It really speaks very well of the talents that we have, of the people behind our culture, the creative arts, all the talent that we have all over the world,” Rhoda Campos-Aldanese, COO Publisher of Vogue Philippines, said. “This is such a great opportunity for us to showcase. Vogue speaks a lot about optimism. We speak about bayanihan, how we are heroes for each other, and that is what H.E.R. is for us. She will be inspiring a lot of other people in the Philippines as well. And of course we are also proud that we’re out there in the forefront fish shot in ca ana to one her hometown. So we’re really helping push the whole of Philippines in the international platform.”

For actress Yassi Pressman, having someone with a global audience like H.E.R. representing Filipinos is a great thing.

“It makes me feel so proud and so happy to know that more and more people are being educated about our culture and how beautiful we are, and there’s so any di erent ilipinas or ilipinos,” she said. (TFC)