Learn more about proposing marriage on Studio 23’s Breakfast this Wednesday!

Breakfast, Studio 23’s longest-running local show, is focusing on love this Wednesday, August 2, 2006, and who else better to talk about wedding proposals than the owners of Perfect Proposals, the only wedding proposal planning service in the Philippines today?

Catch Breakfast on Studio 23 at 6AM onwards and catch Ganns and Cathy Deen as they give ideas and tips on how to develop that perfect proposal for the woman (or man!) of your life.

To text in questions you’d like answered in advance (either on the show or personally), send your message to 0920.907.3962.

God bless and see you on Wednesday!

I’m so psyched. Three of my favorite CCM songs are doing well on the charts:

Ayiesha Woods‘ Happy is rising up the Billboard and Radio & Records charts, as is Brandon Heath’s Our God Reigns. I’m also psyched for Katie Giguere’s I Lift Up My Eyes, increasing in radio airplay at inspo stations across the USA. You can listen to the first two at the MySpace pages I’ve linked to, and you can listen to Katie’s song in snippets on your website.

Oh, and look at THIS! Deborah Gibson’s back on the charts! Haha! What goes around comes around! Jordan Knight does a duet with Debbie titled Say Goodbye and it debuts at #35 on the Adult Contemporary charts! It’s a back-to-the-80s comeback! Click on the link to Jordan’s MySpace page to give it a listen.

I’ve loaded the lyrics to Say Goodbye by Jordan Knight and Deborah Gibson on my Blogger page here.

Upon Dan’s recommendation, I uploaded six songs onto the Podsafe Music Network. These would be:

Superblessed

Superblessed (Saint Stephen’s Remix)

Heaven and Earth

Incomparable

Love Song for a Redeemer

To Me You’re Everything

Please feel free to visit the Podsafe Music Network and use any of my songs in your podcast. Let me know if you do so I can link you up.

Checking in on my MySpace page, I saw that the number of hits to the page jumped 110 notches to 669 from 559 the day before. What the…? I thought to myself. Why this sudden spike?

So I did a Technorati search (oh, sure, like y’all have never Googled yourselves) and found that - yet again! - my Web buddy and benefactor Bene Diction has superblessed me by linking to MySpace page, thanks, in turn, to another great Web friend, Dan Johnson, who included two of my originals, Magpasalamat and Superblessed (Saint Stephen’s Remix) in his podcasts, where BD heard it and deemed my music “very cool.”

Dan also recommended I upload some of the material onto the Podsafe Music Network, which is what other indie artists are doing. While I’m a songwriter, primarily, looking to sell my material to other labels for their artists to record, there’s a little birdie in me that’s also saying, hey, give it a shot, you never know.

It’s like Dan’s my godfather, you know? I praise God for giving me such encouraging online friends, brothers and sisters in the faith, united by Christ’s love and the passion for blogging to glorify God’s name. Wow.

Oi vey. This is what the family of God can do. What would a struggling Filipino-Christian songwriter in a third-world country do without brothers and sisters in the faith throughout the world to encourage them to pursue their dreams and make music for Christ?

Songwriting is one way to glorify God, after all. 1 Peter 4:11 “If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, who whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever.”

So, I wasn’t able to record the song I wrote for Pinoy Dream Academy. The weather simply didn’t make for a conducive trek to Makati, which is a shame (who wouldn’t trek for P100,000?). However, there are always silver linings in the dark storm clouds, and God remains faithful. I received a reply from a gentleman from the ultimate Philippine talent agency for Christians, who indicated that ‘Heaven and Earth,’ one of my more recent tracks and one of the ones available for download on my MySpace page, had potential, and asked me for the lyrics.

By God’s grace, this could be the start! I hope it meets their standards, as do the other three I sent (all downloadable on MySpace). This Time, especially, is the only secular track on that list of four, and since the artist who’s recording it right now hasn’t officially bought it from me, I still have dibs on selling it to someone else.

On another note, management is looking for songs for Heart Evangelista and Karylle, and so now I’m now working on two tracks, one called I Choose You, a Kristy Starling-type ballad with Heart E. in mind, and the other, for Karylle, a track called Don’t Walk Away, with a Shanice Wilson vibe to it. Calling on the muses of Diane Warren, come and visit someone else for a change!
If you can remember me in your prayers, please do say a short one for these songs to find their marks and be accepted. Lord, please open this door for me, please, please, please.

Looking for some topnotch Contemporary Christian Music from upstanding men of God?

My favorite CCM male singer, Mark Schultz, has a new album coming out. The title of the first single - incidentally, the same title as the album - is Broken and Beautiful, and you can listen to it here. While not as catchy as some of his previous topnotchers, including Letters From War, I Am, and the spectacular You Are a Child of Mine, Broken and Beautiful is still light years ahead of some of what’s currently available.

Brandon Heath is a spectacular young man with a distinctive sound. His mindblowing single Our God Reigns is steadily climbing up the charts, and why not? With elements of Chris Tomlin and Aaron Shust, Brandon Heath is your next big CCM singer-songwriter. You can listen to Our God Reigns in full on Brandon’s MySpace page.

Warren Barfield’s second single off his sophomore album Reach is Come Alive. Radio didn’t pick up on Saved as much as I thought it would, but Come Alive does have a more radio-friendly feel to it. Hopefully, it’ll be a bigger hit than its predecessor. You can listen to a nice lengthy clip of Come Alive on Warren’s official website, and I’m sure it’ll be posted in no time on his MySpace page.

Matthew West’s third single off his sophomore major-label release, History, is the title track. History has a certain feel about it that may take a while to grow on you, but its lyrics are certainly encouraging and I think it’s a sleeper hit waiting to happen. It certainly is quite different from the previous smash, Only Hope, and is a lot less poppy and a lot more rock-oriented than the carrier single of History, Thirteen (Next Thing You Know).

Finally, adding some ‘color’ to this mix, I recommend Wayburn Dean, an inspiring gospel singer whose Gotta Forgive ‘Em single is smooth R&B/urban CCM. Its crossover potential notwithstanding, Gotta Forgive ‘Em is an outstanding cut.

Got this meme from Andrew.

1. What are you listening to right now? The last song on my MiniDisc player was The Real Party (Trevon’s Birthday) by Mary Mary, off their phenomenal self-titled album.

2. What is the most annoying song in the world? I’m not generally annoyed by most songs, especially since the nauseating pop ones usually tend to grow on me for sheer novelty value. I never did like really heavy metal, so I guess I would identify that genre because it gives me a headache.

3. Your all time favorite band/artist? Tough choice there. For sheer number of years and loyalty, I would say *preparing self for Andrew’s bashing* Wilson Phillips. I am, however, a loyal, loyal, loyal fan of Avalon, Indigo Girls, and Deborah Gibson.

4. Your newly discovered band/artist is? I was pleasantly and happily surprised by Rascal Flatts. Country music is very hard to come by here in the Philippines, and the three songs they’ve been sending to radio (What Hurts the Most, Life is a Highway, and their latest, Me and My Gang) are playing virtually nonstop on my MiniDisc player.

5. Best female voice? Oh, too many, too many, especially depending on genre. To promote some of the lesser-known ones, give a listen to Avalon’s Janna Long and Melissa Greene (pop), Martha Wash (R&B/dance), and Ayiesha Woods (Contemporary Christian).

6. Best male voice? Again, too many, but among the lesser-known vocalists who are phenomenal are I’m partial to Elliott Yamin (pop), George Huff (R&B/dance), and JodyMcBrayer (Contemporary Christian).

7. Music type you find yourself listening to most? Contemporary Christian of the adult contemporary/pop variety, mostly. Acoustic folk, light R&B, and club/dance.

8. What do you listen to, to hype you up? Black gospel. Oh yes. I love me some Mary Mary, Joe Pace, Mahalia Jackson, Israel Houghton, and Shirley Caesar!

9. What do you listen to, to calm down? Piano-led love songs to Christ. There are several. Lately, I’ve been reconnecting to Christ with Where Joy and Sorrow Meet, a Melissa Greene-led Avalon track on their stellar album, Stand. I like songs that make me cry with guilt set free by love. Mark Harris’ Find Your Wings fits that bill perfectly.

10. Last gig/concert you went to? Oh gosh, I don’t remember. 98 Degrees and Jordan Knight? *blushes*

11. Band/artist you find yourself listening to the most right now? Avalon’s Stand is the full-length album that I’ve been overdosing on lately (and it’s been three months), haha. Add to that list Rascal Flatts and you get an idea of how white I’ve been lately.

12. Most hated band/artist? I don’t hate any musician; they do what they do. But I dislike everything that Paris Hilton stands for.

13. Song that makes you think? I always get a good mental workout dissecting the songs of Indigo Girls. “I did a paper on [them] in college but I didn’t know what I was talking about.”

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