Double memories: Westlife lead singer belts out NSYNC hit
I stumbled upon this track hours ago. I forgot how, but I think I didn't forget the feeling I experienced: I was immediately blown away. This is an LSS hit, I mentally told myself as I kept hitting the replay button multiple times.
World record-breaking pop vocal group Westlife and its singers were out of my radar for the longest time now. I was surprised to know Shane Filan keeps himself active in the music scene. I believe he has released a number of materials over the year, but fame has already eluded him. Nevertheless, I was just happy there's someone from my glorious generation to keep the flame burning... with an oldie that has not been played by FM stations in the Philippines for the very long time.
Shane Filan (Image from https://www.hotpress.com)
If memory serves me right, Westlife once covered a song from O-Town, who shared the same creator with the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. With Shane Filan covering NSYNC's #1 Billboard Adult Contemporary Hit of 2000, everything's coming back into my mind: the first time I saw the song's video by the original artist, a Westlife VCD given to me by a classmate, O-Town's lack of radio airplay for their second album... and how great the oldies are.
I'm listening to this song as I write this post. I really can't say much. Just listen to this song. This version is more soulful, more touching, and more of a love song than the original version. Don't you agree?
Westlife during the good old days (Image from http://www.independent.ie)
Now I wonder, what if the band is back to cover this song? Will it be a better version? But the question is: will Westlife ever reunite? Only time will tell.
All I want for Christmas is... more songs like this
It was in the Christmas season of 2002 when I first heard the Christmas songs of NSYNC ("Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays") and of Wham! (a dance remix version of "Last Christmas"). A few years later, Mariah Carey's seasonal song would reach my ears and Philippine TV stations would release their annual Christmas theme songs.
They are all good. They are something I look forward to every holiday season because I want good music to brighten up my mood for the holidays. At least they help me forget all the pain and woes that I suffer throughout the other days of the year. I want to enjoy and rejoice even for just one season.
However, I am not immune from memories of sadness and regrets even in this season of joy. When I listen to this song, a memory crept into my mind.
Christmas wasted on unrequited love
When I was still a college student, I failed in the romance department for three consecutive years. That covered three Christmas season as well. You can say that I was a hopeless romantic in the season of joy. Of course, I get to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends. I received gifts, we had our noche buena, etc. But having a girlfriend that time could be an added bonus for me. Do you get what I am saying?
For three years, I courted this classmate of mine. I cannot recall how I developed feelings for her. We weren't even close. We don't even have the same company of friends aside from our classmates. Our attitudes and powers were different. We loved music and movies, though, but we have different tastes. We did share the same favorite superhero character, though.
It didn't help my case that I was preoccupied with other stuff (like watching YouTube and reading newspapers and Wikipedia entries). Seriously, I was timid. I was even careless or foolish with my romantic advances, which embarrassed her so much in front of classmates and schoolmates. For her, I was a funny case or more of an annoyance. I guess I was immature but persistent. I was in love but I didn't know how to properly deal with a girl.
I did let my intentions and feelings known to her. I text messaged her. I passed her notes. I wrote her letters, even sent her a birthday card. It wasn't enough and it was all in vain.
My pursuit for her love covered three Christmas seasons. It was a fruitless pursuit. All I wanted for Christmas was her and what I got was unrequited love.
It was too bad a beautiful Christmas song especially coming from a diva like Mariah Carey would invoke a sad memory and a regretful past. If only I could turn back time...
"All I Want for Christmas is You" single cover (Image from http://www.ultratop.be/)
What I want now this Christmas
I believe I had handled my romanceless holiday seasons very well because I am still breathing. I wouldn't be writing this post if I had not. I wouldn't have graduated on time if I allowed my sadness to get the better of me.
Though I am happy enough that I had survived college without a girlfriend, I always feel that something is lacking in my teenage years or college life. But I am certain of one fact: I can celebrate Christmas even without a sweetheart.
But to celebrate the holiday season alone? That, my friend, is another story. Would you celebrate Halloween alone?
I now have different "wants" since I gave up pursuing ex-classmate. As not to sourgrape, these are far better things than the one I wanted many years ago:
Good health (physical and mental)
Maturity and spiritual growth
Strong will and determination
Fortitude and patience
Career growth
A wallet and a bank account full of bucks
This Christmas I want... Mariah Carey (GIF from www.harpersbazaar.com)
Many years ago, I also want Mariah Carey in my life. If it is not too much, I want to go back in time and live in her life.
Anyways, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you in advance!
I did not plan to create this post but due to the Backstreet Boys getting a residency in Las Vegas, I believe I need to create one, something to celebrate their success, to cherish whatever memories I have of the world's best selling boy band, to relieve the greatness of '90s music. The title of the post is so fitting as it is the banner of their residency run at The AXIS at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino which is scheduled to start next year. So if you are planning to visit the world's gambling capital in 2017, make sure you don't miss out their performance.
It all started in 2001
It was in 2001 when I first learned about the Backstreet Boys, when my brother was humming to "Shape of My Heart". I was a new listener to Westlife then and "If I Let You Go" was my first ever LSS. I remember telling him not to sing that song in the house. I did not listen to the boys from Orlando until a few months later.
At my high school's intramurals, the faction I belonged to field in a dance team to compete for the modern dance competition. Their music: "We've Got It Goin' On" by Backstreet Boys. The other two factions dance to A1 songs.
One second-degree relative lend me her Millennium
cassette tape. I was grateful for her for introducing me to many Backstreet Boys songs. Later she would lend A1's The A List album.
Around the Halloween period, I went with my cousin to his place to pay some relatives a visit. There he played Backstreet Boys music in their Sony bookshelf CD player. It was euphoria.
At Christmas, my mother would gift me a cassette tape of the band's compilation album Greatest Hits – Chapter One. My sister received Westlife's World of Our Own.
That time then, my favorite Backstreet songs were "Larger Than Life", "Get Down", and "Show Me The Meaning of Being Lonely". I used to dislike their hit "I Want It That Way", which is now one of my four most favorite songs from the group.
Next year (2002), an ex-classmate would give me an old music magazine, which featured an interview of the Backstreet Boys on their then upcoming magnum opus Millennium. And in summer of that year, mother returned home with the year's edition of the Guinness World Records, which included the band as record holder of the best-selling boy band album.
From 2002 to 2004 I heard nothing of them. No new material. Then in the summer of 2005, I was surprised to hear them with a new song, titled "Incomplete", but was shocked at their musical shift, gravitating to a more pop rock sound. That song was in the VCD given to me by my former college crush who turned down my offer of love. It was the first of two gifts she gave to me.
One morning in 2007, my sister tuned in to an urban station that played "Inconsolable", a song that highlighted the Backstreet Boys' return to pop. They were minus one member.
In 2009, I stumbled on Channel V the music video to "Straight Through My Heart". It was one of the best songs I heard in my first year in the city.
In 2013, just weeks into my new job, the Backstreet Boys returned as a five-piece band with a new single "In a World Like This". The sun dawned on me, telling me music will return to how it was then.
Forward, Backstreet Boys
I am happy to hear about musicians from the glorious past still playing music to fans who will never forget them. Some bands and soloists have called it quits, but the Backstreet Boys is just one of those who decide to keep playing and defer disbandment or retirement to a far later time. God knows what happen when they disband.
Whatever, my memory of the Backstreet Boys will live on.
By writing this post, I celebrate in advance the 10th anniversary of the release of My Chemical Romance’s third album The Black Parade. The band will be releasing a reissue to mark the occasion. Titled The Black Parade/Living With Ghosts, the compilation album includes 11 demos and live tracks and will hit record stores on September 23, just one month before the 10th year anniversary of the album’s release October 23, 2006).
The Black Parade happens to be the band’s most recognizable record and it was hailed as one of the best albums of 2006 by Rolling Stone, Spin, Wizard, IGN, and Entertainment Weekly. Indeed, it is one of the most important records of 2006 and of the first decade of the 21st century.
It's hard to believe 10 years have passed since the release of My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade. It's hard to believe rock music has become almost non-existent. It's unbelievable that thugs and whores have taken over music.
2006: A most memorable year
The Black Parade is one of the albums that impacted music in 2006, a year that definitely belonged to My Chemical Romance. If memory serves right, it was one of the best years for emo and alternative rock.
I was a college student then when The Black Parade was released. The lead single “Welcome to the Black Parade” was soon played by the urban city station that used to give equal playing time to rock, pop, and hip-hop. In the station’s weekly top 30, the song reached #2. "Welcome to the Black Parade" was my defining track of 2006. Next year, it would be "Famous Last Words", another track off The Black Parade.
2006 was the year when I was overdosed with infatuation. It was a year of unrequited love, a year lost to an obsession. On the domestic side, family and money problems mounted at home and the family almost broke apart. Yes, 2006 was a year of worry and anxiety, a time of pain, a period of depression and devastation.
But it was not a year ‘wasted’. It was a year well spent and well lived in the other departs of my school life, my young adult life.
Memory of a former classmate
Imagine how one song helped me remember two persons from my past: A former object of my infatuation and a former classmate.
While writing this post, I began to remember one classmate, who helped me get through the hard times of the half of 2006. He offered no financial help but companionship, advice, and other forms of non-financial support. He gave me reading materials that only collected dust at his home. He gave me lemonsito (Philippine lime) so I can make juice to cure my coughs. Back then, I was a mobile phone-less lad, so he let me use his without charging me.
Too bad my classmate left before Christmas. He had to return to his girlfriend (his future wife) so he can start building his family with her. One time she sent him a picture of hers, and he showed it to me. She’s a pretty woman of Filipino-Chinese stock. I don’t know why my classmate fell for a woman who’s a bit older than him. But God bless him and his family wherever they are now.
To my classmate, thank you very much!
10 years later
In 2007, Kanye West and 50 Cent competed against each other in the battle of the best-selling hip-hop album. In 2008, the global recession occurred. In 2009, the King of Pop Michael Jackson passed away and Wonder Girls sparked the Korean Wave with their hit “Nobody”. In 2010, Kobe Bryant won his second NBA Championship without former teammate Shaquille O’Neal.
In 2011, Lady Gaga released her controversial single “Judas”. In 2012, the London Olympics took place and Barack Obama won a second term as U.S. president. In 2013, the Backstreet Boys returned as a five-piece band and typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) wreaked havoc in the Philippines.
In 2014, Germany won the World Cup, defeating Argentina in the process. In 2015, idol Rena Matsui of SKE48 and Nogizaka46 graduated and AlDub became an Internet sensation and social media darling. In 2016, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie called it quits after 11 years, thus ending ‘Brangelina’.
As of this writing, the video for “Welcome to the Black Parade” on the band’s official YouTube clocked 57,054,244 views after being uploaded in September 28, 2006. In contrast, Kanye West got 59,015,375 views for Bound 2, one of the worst music videos I have ever seen.
Karen Bordador posing for FHM calendar (image from www.clubsnap.com)
(Note: Too bad Karen Bordador's "Saturday" is nowhere to be found on YouTube, so here's just a sexy picture of her.)
Karen Bordador: The beauty and the memory
I really don't like to pry into other people's private lives. And I assure you that by writing this posting, I am not making bad light out of people who are going through an ordeal. I do not intend to mock them. On the contrary, I feel sorry for them. The subject of this post is a certain celebrity by the name of Karen Bordador, who is a radio DJ and one of the former vixens of a popular condom brand.
Memory is a ghost that returns to remind me about a few things. With Miss Karen, memories from the year Rebecca Black was slaying the Internet with her viral hit “Friday”. Memories come from the year I started exposing myself to Jpop, particularly AKB48 and fripSide. Memories from a battlefield – a culture war, the exact term.
It has yet to establish whether Bordador is into drugs. Hope she was into a different kind of drugs - coffee. (image from www.imgrum.net)
I would also like to admit that because she was an ace of a condom brand, I used to Google her pictures on the Internet. She was bootylicious, that’s all. I don’t know if she is still bootylicious until the time of her arrest. I admit that I looked at her pictures again after I learned of her arrest. I want to know if she has recent pictures of her beauty, but I cannot seem to find any. The only recent picture I can find is her mug shot - and she did not look good in it.
Bordador with her fellow vixens (image from http://intimatemanila.com/)
Miss Karen was one of the original vixens of the condom brand, but she was not the queen. She was slimmer that the queen, but the queen was fairer and more bootylicious. I don’t know what happen to them after their run as condom vixens, but one of them figured in a sex scandal with a basketball executive and in a number of memes that resulted from it.
I think I should start praying for the former condom vixens, Miss Karen included.
What's that song?
I did YouTube her ‘Saturday” song. It was torture. It was one of the worst songs I have ever heard. The accompanying music video was one of the worst too. No point going back over that. It was a lame attempt to ride on with the popularity of the original. Conan O’Brien did better with his “Thursday”.
Should you listen to "Saturday"?
No. Because the song is already non-existent. Believe me, I tried my best to find the music video to the song, but it has already been lost. Don't know if her radio station still keep a audio of the song but it is not worth my time asking them. But if you are curious, let me check.
Right now please pray that you favorite celebrity keeps away from drugs or any other illegal activities.
