Maria Luisa Ramsey Kagahastian (জয়া), is a Filipino singer, actress, and television personality. Referred to as the country's "Queen of Soul", she is known for her distinctively deep voice and soulful singing style. She was a talent of GMA Network but later transferred to ABS-CBN, where she served as one of the head jury of the Tawag ng Tanghalan segment of the Philippine noontime variety show It's Showtime and performer on ASAP. Jaya is the second Filipino recording artist to chart in the United States (the first being The Rocky Fellers), with her debut single "If You Leave Me Now" peaking at number 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Jaya also ventured into musical theatre, playing the role of Surpanakha in the 1999 Filipino musical Rama at Sita staged at the University of the Philippines Theater.

Maria Luisa Ramsey Kagahastian was born on March 21, 1970. Her mother was Elizabeth Ramsey, a Filipina comedian and singer of Jamaican and Spanish-Filipino descent. Ramsey's father is Reynaldo Kagahastian, a Filipino. Her parents separated when she was young, and her father migrated to the United States. He now resides in Alberta, Canada.

She entered show business at the age of ten as a backup dancer for her mother, and at the age of 12 was a backup singer and front act for some minor and major shows. She began performing solo in 1982, using the name Louise Ramsey.

Ramsey did not finish high school in the Philippines because of her busy lifestyle as a child performer. She nonetheless received high marks and was once elected class president.

Her mother Elizabeth decided to leave for the United States in June 1985, and brought Louise with her. There, she continued her solo singing stints, performing with other overseas Filipino artists like Tillie Moreno, Eddie Mercado, Lerma dela Cruz, and the duo Reycards.

Life in America was difficult for Ramsey and her mother as they moved around different cities in California. She attended John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, which at the time already had a large Filipino-American student population. She ran away from home in 1988 after finishing high school, moving to New York with a friend and landing a job as a backup vocalist for Stevie B's group of musicians.

In 1998, Jaya married musician Andrew Buffington, whom she met in 1995, and filed for divorce after three years. Jaya married her second husband, Gary Gotidoc, in May 2006, and at the age of 36 gave birth to her daughter Sabriya. On June 27, 2009, at 5:28 pm, she gave birth to her son Dylan at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City. In July 2021, Jaya moved to the United States with her family.

In 2023, Jaya became subject to controversy after John Lapus posted a blind item on Twitter, alleging that there was an unnamed singer repeatedly liking anti-transgender Tweets on the platform. It was widely believed that the post alluded to Jaya, after it was revealed that she had been liking Tweets from the account of the far-right anti-LGBT organization Gays Against Groomers. Days later, she clarified that she is not against transgender people, stating that she is just "against children being exploited". Her response received flak from drag queen DeeDee Marie Holliday.