This is how Jose Mari Chan wrote his famous Christmas song
Veteran singer-songwriter Jose Mari Chan revealed the story behind Christmas In Our Hearts, one of his famous songs.
Chan is extra famous during the last quarter of the year or the holiday season. Over the years, he has shared his timeless ballads with different generations but his Christmas songs are special.
When the “ber” months come, Filipinos are already anticipating his presence on radio airwaves, malls, and establishments’ sound systems. It is also known to many that as early as August, memes about his more noticeable presence circulate online.
In a recent vlog of seasoned journalist Bernadette Sembrano, she featured that recent conversation that she had with Jose Mari Chan. During their conversation, one of the things that the veteran singer-songwriter shared was about the song Christmas In Our Hearts.
Chan created the melody back in 1988 after a college friend called him for the 25th anniversary of their class. He wrote the poem “Ang Tubig Ay Buhay” as it was their advocacy, highlighting the value of water resources. He put the melody to the poem he wrote. That song was used for the homecoming that year.
Two years later, following the success of her Constant Change album, he was told to create a Christmas album. He put together all the Christmas songs that meant a lot to him but the producer asked for his original Christmas song.
He used the melody from Ang Tubig Ay Buhay to his Christmas song. They were in hurry back then because that was already the month of September but Chan couldn’t finish the lyrics. With this, he said that he really prayed. One Sunday, when he and his family were about to leave the church, someone knocked on his car and give him a card, Rina Cañeza introduced herself as a “budding songwriter.”
Then, he thought of collaborating with her and she went to her house. Chan gave Cañeza a cassette tape of the melody and a few days later, she came up with the title Christmas In Our Hearts with its opening verse.
“So we work back and forth, correction here, correction there,” Jose Mari Chan said. They had a hard time finishing the last verse. When he was in a car and was looking at the sky, that was the time the idea came to him.
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