(SPOT.ph) "Whenever I see girls and boys selling lanterns on the streets..." You may not know the rest of the song, but you're most probably aware of the tune or the opening lines of Jose Mari Chan's famous "Christmas in Our Hearts." It's heard in malls as early as September 1, sung by carolers (in the B.C. times, as in "Before COVID"), and hummed by people everywhere as Christmas draws near. The song is also the title of Chan's bestselling album Christmas in Our Hearts, which was released on November 17, 1990 and went on to become a Double Diamond record.
In a virtual conference with Summit Media, Chan narrated the inspiring story behind "Christmas in Our Hearts." It all started in 1988, when one of his friends from college, Chari Cruz-Zarate, asked him to set her poem to music in preparation for her high school class' silver jubilee homecoming.
"She had written a poem called 'Ang Tubig ay Buhay' because the advocacy of that class is the precious resource of water, how we should conserve water because it's not an unlimited supply on this planet. The poem was very well written, and I was inspired so it was easy for me to set it to music. The class liked it, and they sang it in their silver jubilee. Then after that, the song was forgotten. I had it shelved," Chan shares.
Two years later, Universal Records told him the good news that his 1989 album Constant Change was so well received that it becamse the first OPM album ever to reach Diamond status. The album includes popular love songs "Beautiful Girl" and "Please Be Careful with My Heart." The late Bella Dy Tan, then head of the record company, told him: "I want you to strike while the iron is hot, take advantage of this, why don't you come out with a Christmas album?"
Chan agreed and "remembered the melody [of 'Ang Tubig ay Buhay']. [It] was catchy, happy. It's not sad."
"I remember praying to the Holy Spirit to inspire me to write words to that melody, appropriate words to deliver the real message of Christmas: not Jingle Bells; not Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reinder' not Santa Claus," he adds.
One Sunday morning after Mass, a young lady chased him in front of the church. "She knocked on the window of my car and she gave me her card," Chan recalls. The woman is Rina Cañiza, who then hoped to co-write a song with the singer-songwriter. "One day, I'll give you a call," he told her.
Chan later called Cañiza and invited her to his home to listen to the melody of "Ang Tubig ay Buhay." After a few days, they finished the song that we now know as "Christmas in Our Hearts."
"That gave birth to the song, which 31 years later, I'm so blessed that the song is still sung by young and old people alike, year after year after year. It's a gift from God," Chan ends his story.
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Source: Spot PH
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