One Man’s Journey to Success
Local Filipino singers have rarely managed to penetrate the entertainment business outside of the Philippines. The only people who I know have tasted the sweet success abroad I could come up with are: Lea Salonga, who won a Tony Award for her stint on the critically acclaimed Broadway musical Miss Saigon; Billy Crawford, who starred in That’s Entertainment here in the Philippines before moving to US at age 11 and then finding moderate success as a singer/dancer in Europe and Asia (and had, apparently, dated Mandy Moore way back when he was 17 and she was 15 . . . plus, he’s friends with Justin Timberlake); and Charice Pempengco, the YouTube phenomenon dubbed as “The Little Girl with the Big Voice.” After those three, Arnel Pineda’s name popped into my head –– a person who I’ve admired not only for his talent, but also for finding success even when fate threw him every disadvantage in the book.
Now, he’s known as American rock group Journey’s lead singer. Before, he was a struggling musician, trying to break into the country’s music scene.
His love for singing was brought about by his mother, who always encouraged him to sing his favorite songs for her. His parents, aware and was proud of his voice, entered him in various singing competitions.
Unfortunately, his mother –– who had rheumatic heart disease –– passed when Pineda was thirteen years old. Their family was in deep debt, and after trying unsuccessfully to make ends meet, Pineda’s father ultimately decided to ask relatives to take care of Pineda’s siblings. Arnel Pineda then dropped out of school and tried to make it on his own in an attempt to take some of the weight off his father’s shoulders.
Pineda spent about two years of his life homeless and living on the streets. He slept at public parks, benches, outside a friend’s house, etc., and earned money by taking newspapers and glass bottles and selling them to recyclers or cleaning docked ships at the pier.
His becoming the lead singer of the Ijos Band marked the start of his singing career. A number of bands (including Amo, Intensity Five, and New Age, a.k.a. “The Rolling Bones,” Most W@nted, The Visitors, and The Zoo) and a solo album –– Arnel Pineda, featuring radio favorite “Sayang” –– later, Pineda was faced with a dream come true.
On 2008, Journey’s Neal Schon stumbled across videos of The Zoo singing covers of songs by 70s/80s bands such as Journey, Air Supply, and Aerosmith on YouTube (posted by Neal Gomez, a friend of Arnel’s). Neal was impressed with Pineda and asked Gomez for Pineda’s contact information. Schon sent Pineda an e-mail, inviting him to audition for the much-coveted spot of Journey’s lead singer. By December 5th of 2007, Arnel Pineda was debuted as Journey’s new lead singer.
His first show as an official member of the band was their performance in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheatre in Chile was met positively.
“[Chile] went crazy, they absolutely went nuts … Arnel’s first show –– talk about a stressful thing –– we had a televised concert for 25 million people … Is the guy a winner? Yeah, he’s a winner. He’s a clutch player.” –– Jonathan Cain, Journey’s keyboardist, on Arnel Pineda’s performance in Chile
Journey’s first album featuring Pineda as lead vocals, entitled Revelation, peaked at No. 5 in the Billboard Top 200 album charts and sold over 336,000 copies in the first few days after its release.
“We feel reborn. I think there’s a lot of chemistry among the five of us. At first we were going to go into the studio and just write 4 songs, but now it’s escalated to a lot of great new and diverse material. The stuff sounds tremendous. Everyone’s so stoked about it. We feel very fortunate to have found Arnel.” –– Neal Schon
The guy, who had spent two years of his life living on the streets, substituting Marie biscuits as meals, is now the front man of one of the world’s most prominent soft rock bands. The guy who used to sing at Shakey’s Taft is now singing in front of adoring fans, belting out classic Journey tunes such as “Faithfully” and “Don’t Stop Believing” (which, on a totally unrelated note, was immortalized by hit US TV series Glee). It’s a classic rags-to-riches, male Cinderella story that will inspire more and more aspiring Filipino musicians to follow their dreams.
Reference:
· Wikipedia. 2011. Arnel Pineda – Wikipedia, the free encycolpedia. [ONLINE] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnel_Pineda. [Accessed 02 June 11].
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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