Why Jose Mari Chan is always in our hearts
‘Many times, when people ask me to sing it, I sing it with all my heart. And when I do concerts here and abroad, even though it’s not Christmas, sometimes they ask for it’
Illustration by Glenzkie Tolo
Like hearing one's favorite Christmas song, it's a delight to listen to Jose Mari Chan talk about his life in music.
Though he's mostly associated with the start of the holiday season in the Philippines, when netizens outdo each other in posting his smiling face and the first lines of his phenomenal song "Christmas in Our Hearts" on social media, Joe — as he's fondly called — has written and recorded dozens of other tunes since 1967.
Recognition as a composer from Filscap represented by Noel Cabangon.
A few weeks ago, Joe — the Iloilo-born son of a Chinese immigrant father and Filipino-Chinese mother — sat down for a Zoom interview with Daily Tribune. Excerpts:
Daily Tribune (DT): Do you remember the time when you caught the music bug?
Jose Mari Chan (JMC): I must have been only seven or eight years old when I would hum along to the music on the radio. We didn't have television yet… I remember my parents bringing me to watch movie musicals. One of the first that I remembered was Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain.
DT: When did you start writing songs?
JMC: I started as early as 15 years old. But you know, most of those songs, if I listened to them now, I would say they were derivatives… You'll say 'Hey, that sounds like this.' Kinopya mo lang, parang ganoon. All composers start that way. Composers cannot avoid but copy certain lines of another song. You know, certain melodic patterns, certain progression of chords. Hindi mo ma-avoid 'yun. I was also guilty of that.
DT: I've always thought of you as the Cliff Richard of the Philippines.
JMC: Some people say Cliff Richard is the Joe Mari Chan of England.
