...the Filipino laguage to foreign tongue

American sings in Tagalog

BY JEFFREY O. VALISNO, Sub-Editor

BusinessWorld, Weekender

 

At a time when there are those who think using Filipino is only essential when you talk to vendors, drivers and house maids, there is someone like American singer-songwriter David DiMuzio who went out of his way to learn the vernacular from his Pinoy friends -- all because he said he loved the sound and tone of the Filipino language.

Born of Italian and Jewish/German descent, the 26-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina endeared himself to Filipinos by singing well-known Filipino pop songs on his videos on YouTube.

Mr. DiMuzio’s videos performing Top Suzara’s “Sabihin Mo Na,” Rico Blanco’s “Antukin,” and Rivermaya’s “Himala,” among others, have been viewed more than four million times.

At the same time, Mr. DiMuzio’s “Taglish” (Tagalog-English) series of videos featuring his impromptu jams with Filipino musicians like Jason Fernandez of Rivermaya, Barbie Almalbis, and Dex Yu of Letter Day Story has also earned him a lot of fans around the world.

Asked why he likes to perform Filipino songs, Mr. DiMuzio wrote on his Web site www.daviddimuzio.com: “I think every word of every language has a melody of it’s own -- a natural way of being spoken that leads to the way it is sung. The Tagalog language has a melody all it’s own, and I enjoy being part of that melody.”

To mark the release of his latest album containing his “Taglish” compositions, Mr. DiMuzio will have a concert tomorrow night (Sept. 24) at the Teatrino Promenade in Greenhills, San Juan.

The self-titled album will feature Mr. DiMuzio’s single “Naiisip Mo Ba?,” which he composed with Filipino songwriter Jimmy Borja.

“We wrote the song together. I wrote all the English lyrics, the Tagalog lyrics, I wrote the bridge. Jimmy Borja wrote the chorus. I wrote the melody,” Mr. DiMuzio said in a recent radio interview.

“Naiisip Mo Ba?” has been shared more than 60,000 times on Facebook, and has been on the Top 20 original singles charts in most radio stations.

Aside from “Naiisip Mo Ba?” the album contains the Taglish songs “(I’ll Do Anything) Para Sa Iyo,” and “Magic.”

Mr. DiMuzio started writing songs when he was 11. He put out his first album I Wanna Save The Last Koala Bear when he was 23.

Mr. DiMuzio, who is former world champion juggler, said he learned about Filipino music through his Filipino friends in the US.

“My best friend in the US is Pinoy. Growing up around his wonderful family including his adorable karaoke-loving grandfather was my first introduction to Filipinos,” he said.

“When I started performing on cruise ships after high school there were a lot of Pinoys working on board and a lot of them became my good friends. It was some of these friends that first invited me to visit the Philippines,” he added.

His first trip to the Philippines two years ago proved to be very enjoyable. “It was two of the best weeks of my life, and I immediately decided I had to come back,” he said.

A few months later, he returned to check out the local music scene where he became an instant fan of Rico Blanco after watching him perform.

“Once back in the US I started listening to [Mr. Blanco’s] album almost daily, and ‘Antukin’ became one of my favorite songs,” he said.

“I loved learning so many new Tagalog words, and it was easier to remember them in a song. I ended up learning almost every song on the album -- both the English and Tagalog songs.”

His love for Filipino songs would have remained just a pastime until he received an e-mail from record company MCA/Universal Music Philippines.

“[The record company] heard about one of my original English song ‘So Hard To Let Go,’ and they told me Nyoy Volante wanted to record it for his next album,” Mr. DiMuzio said.

He then became friends with Mr. Volante, who introduced him to other Filipino recording artists like Yael Yuzon of Sponge Cola and Gary Valenciano.

“As I got the chance to hear these artists perform live I was really impressed by their songs. Every time I heard a song that I didn’t know I would ask someone ‘...what’s the title of this song?’ Soon I was learning lots of new Tagalog songs, and what made it even more exciting was often being privileged enough to get to jam the hits I was learning on stage with the original artists,” Mr. DiMuzio said.

It did not take long for other local artists to take notice of Mr. DiMuzio’s talents. Since then, he has written songs for local singers like Mark Bautista, Arnee Hidalgo and Geneva Cruz.

“So many things inspired me to share my music in the Philippines, but mainly it’s just my love of being ‘in’ the Philippines,” he said.

“I’m not sure where my art will take me. Being an artist means changing. I’m a perfectionist though, so I will never release any material that I don’t think is great, and I will only write songs that come from my heart and that have a message I believe in,” he added.