Revelation

When I was eleven years old, I heard Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” on AM radio. For the next fifteen years, I would do my best to sing just like Billy Joel—his tone, his inflections, from his ballad tenor to his growling rock and roll voice. My practicing how to sing like him changed my own voice, even changed how I talked.

I was born in the Philippines and came to America when I was almost eight years old, bringing my Filipino attributes, including a very heavy accent, with me. Over the years, I would do my best to sing like Billy Joel and talk like an American, gradually destroying my native accent, as if it were a wrong thing to have.

Today, the latest Journey album, Revelation, came out. Their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, was born in the Philippines. He’s been living in America less than a year. He has a very distinct Filipino accent. And I can sometimes hear it in the songs of the new album.

But his incredible voice makes me forget, or at least forgive, the accent. His near-impossible vocal range overshadows his American-imperfect pronunciations. By the time I’m finished listening to the album, I’ve not only come to accept his accent, I’ve realized that it is NECESSARY. It is as necessary as every other minute detail of his vocal essence. It is what makes him unique, and true.

And then I realized something else. Once the songs of Revelation get played over and over on the radio, little kids will start singing the songs. They will do their best to sing the songs exactly as Arnel sings them. They will sing the songs with a Filipino accent. And it will be totally fine.

Listen and watch Journey with Arnel Pineda sing the classic Journey song, “Faithfully”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aCBB670Kwg&hl=en]