Jose Mari Chan on memes when Ber months come: ‘I feel proud’

With September here, Jose Mari Chan memes and songs are expected to dominate people’s timelines.

It happens every year, and the King of Christmas Carols couldn’t be happier.

In an episode of “The Howie Severino Podcast,” Jose Mari Chan described the feeling as being a blissful parent to a child’s achievements.

“I feel proud,” he said. “I feel proud because you know, I’ve said this many times that I consider my songs like my children. These songs came from the womb of my heart, you know.”

“I wrote these songs over nights and days,” he added. “When a song of mine becomes popular, it’s like seeing your son becoming president of a company, president of a bank, you know.”

Among Jose Mari Chan’s songs that gets blasted whenever the Ber months come is “Christmas In Our Hearts.”

In the podcast, the singer-songwriter reveale it wasn’t actually intended for Christmas. Jose Mari Chan narrated creating the melody for a poem by Charie Cruz titled “Ang Tubig ay Buhay.”

“The rhyming was beautiful. It was perfect. It didn’t take me a long time to compose the melody and that eventually, I used [it] for ‘Christmas in Our Hearts.’”

In 1990, after the success of his "Constant Change" album, he was suddenly asked to create a Christmas song. Quickly, he recalled the melody he created years back.

“I said, ‘This would make a good Christmas song.’ I remember, Howie, praying to the Holy Spirit to enlighten me and to inspire me with the right lyrics to the song.”

Joining him in the song’s composition was Rina Cañiza, whom he also just met at church. After, he recorded it with his daughter Liz.

Alas, his record label told him the song was “too Christian” to be played in radios. As such, they called a press conference to help them decide what to put out.

“You know what their choice was? ‘Christmas In Our Hearts,’” he said. “And the rest is history. It picked up right away. ‘Christmas In Our Hearts’ has now sold triple diamond records.”

With the song being played and sung even after over 30 years since its release, Jose Mari Chan could only consider it as “God’s gift.”

He once said “Christmas In Our Hearts,” when put in memes, makes him “forever young.”

Though he’s become a symbol for Christmas nearing in the Philippines, he never fails to remind that the occasion is for the Lord.

“I am not Christmas, neither is Santa Claus. There’s only one Mr. Christmas and that’s the Baby Jesus. That’s the reason why we are celebrating Christmas, to celebrate his birth.” — LA, GMA News