Music in our souls
Music is ingrained in the Filipino soul. We just love music, whether it’s listening to it, composing it, dancing to it, or singing along. Where you find a Filipino festive gathering, you will find music. It may be a humble guitarist strumming with his friends over peanuts and beer, or a full band lending songs to party guests. Before there was American Idol, we’ve had our own version for years we called “Bagong Kampeon” (New Champion) where the promise of stardom attracted many wishful aspirants. In fact, some of our famous celebrities like Regine Velasquez were recognized through that prestigious contest.
We especially love to sing along, and all the more if it’s Karaoke-style! We love it that we can choose any song from a list of thousands, follow along a lyrics with music set to one’s own voice range, and belt it out. Well, for Karaoke lovers all around the world, the Filipinos have good news for you – we have the magic mic! It’s an amazing technology that stores over twelve thousand English AND Tagalog songs into computer chips inside a microphone. Plug it into your TV and viola – sing your heart out! I’m not advertising the mic or the website, but I’ve been wanting to have one forever and still can’t afford it.(arrgh-arrgh!) (Hint, hint hubby-love) Honestly, I don’t know how to sing. My voice is somewhere lost between an irregular alto and bass, but I figured with enough practice on it, I’ll be crooning in no time! LOL!
(Well, Grace, no tears now.) Tonight, my pinoy church will host a fundraising – Karaoke Night ala-American Idol. With a red carpet, guests dressed to the nines, cocktails and total entertainment. I shall be there! And I’ll come back on Monday to tell you what great fun we had.
2 Comments
We love to sing, sing so bad that sometimes it’s actually bad! Only in the Philippines you get killed for singing My Way! But seriously we have a lot of great singers here! Go Pinoys!
[...] 2. Get involved with your fellowmen. Be it with a civic organization, student-led groups, the Filipino basketball leagues (yes, there’s plenty in the US!), or a church, you’ll find other Filipino-Americans eager to welcome you. I go to one great church that’s 90% Filipinos, and they helped me survive the transition and adjustments the first few years. I never had to speak American-accented English around them (because honestly, in the first few years, it was taxing to speak English all day long!). I get to join the fiestas, participate in a folk dance, sing Karaoke with gusto, wear barong tagalog or other folk costumes too. I get to eat all the great Filipino regional dishes like pinakbet, sisig, arroz valanciana, sweet spaghetti. [...]