Chan, Nieva collaborate on 23rd SEA Games song

Jose Mari Chan - one of the country's leading composers and singers and Rene Nieva - lyricist of the Biyahe Tayo! Song used for the Department of Tourism's WOW Philippines campaign - combined their talents to come up with the theme song for the 23rd Southeast Asian Games being held Nov. 27-Dec. 5, 2005. Chan, who is also chairman and president of BISCOM (a major sugar trading firm) did the music while Nieva (Chairman and President of top PR agency, Perceptions) wrote the lyrics for the song entitled "We're All Just One".

The CD of the song is now being played on radio and TV and rendered by the FOUR2FIVE all-male singing group during the 23rd SEA Games Mall Tour that has been doing the rounds of leading malls in Metro Manila to promote the games and rally support for the Filipino athletes competing in the sportsfest.

During the opening ceremony for the games at the Rizal Park on Sunday, Nov. 27, the song will be sung by 9-year old singing sensation Julia Abueva - granddaughter of National Artist Napoleon Abueva. She will be backed by the San Miguel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Ryan Cayabyab and the San Miguel Master Choral. Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Philsoc) president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, Jr. - who requested Chan and Nieva to do the SEA Games song - lauded the two for their "selfless and patriotic act in lending their talents to the creation of the song without charging a single centavo".

"On behalf of the POC and Philsoc, I would like to formally extend our thanks to Jose Mari Chan and Rene Nieva. The song captured the message of "One Heritage, One Southeast Asia" that we wanted to convey to all the countries participating in the SEA Games. We have no doubt that the song will inspire all the athletes to do their best in the spirit of love, peace and brotherhood," Cojuangco pointed out.

"It was a great honor for me to have worked with a first-rate, multi-awarded musical artist like Jose Mari Chan," Nieva said. "When Mr. Cojuangco called me last January to ask whether I could provide the lyrics for the music composed by Chan, I was initially daunted by the task. Unlike Biyahe Tayo! - where I did the poem first with Rico Blanco, Mike Villegas and Angelo Villegas setting it to music afterwards - here the music came first, and I had to put in the words to synchronize with the music."

Nieva said he was about to give up and tell Mr. Cojuangco to ask someone else to write the lyrics. "But I just had to do it because, like Biyahe Tayo!, it was for the country" he recalled. "And if Jomari didn't like it, then he could just ask other, more established lyricists with whom he has worked before to do the job. Or he could do the lyrics himself, which he was fully capable of doing, having done both the music and lyrics for many of his songs."

Nieva thought it would take him several days if not weeks to do the lyrics. But with the deadline set by Cojuangco fast approaching, he sat down at home in the evening of Saturday, Feb. 12, played the tape of the music repeatedly, wrote and re-wrote the words, and finished the lyrics in about two hours. The following Monday, Feb. 14, he sent it to Cojuangco, who passed it on to Chan. It was with great relief and joy that he received a call from Chan a few days later to say that he "loved" the lyrics. All the more thrilled was he when he heard the tape played for the first time during the media launch of the 23rd SEA Games on March 15.

"I chose for the title 'We're All Just One' because I worked as ASEAN Public Affairs Advisor for Exxon Chemicals in the 1980's, and in my travels around the region, I realized that we had so many things in common with our neighbors in Southeast Asia - in looks, in language, in our psyche, in our sense of humor, in our history and culture, "Nieva explained.

"I thought that, indeed, we really belonged to one racial and cultural family, that we were all brothers and sisters. And what was the SEA Games but a family reunion where all of us relatives gathered together in the home of one of us and engaged in friendly but intense competition, celebrated each other's victories and renewed bonds of kinship that date back millenniums," he elaborated.

"It was this message of us Southeast Asians belonging to one family that I tried to convey in the lyrics of the song - of how we compete in the various sports, give our best, play fairly and with sportsmanship, and all the while get to know, understand and appreciate each other better," he continued. "With the Philippines being the host country, and we Filipinos being known for our hospitality, I included in the lyrics words of welcome, inviting our guests to see the beauty of our country, meet our friendly people and simply enjoy themselves and have a good time before, during and after the games," Nieva further stated. Nieva added: "When I was writing the song, I was hoping that the 23rd SEA Games would provide a catalyst that would help us lay aside our differences for a while, and unite and work together to ensure the success of the games and cheer our Filipino athletes to victory."

"I was also hoping that, above and beyond the SEA Games, the message of unity in the song would be taken to heart by our fellow Filipinos. For after all, the Philippines is the only country we've got. We Filipinos are really all brothers and sisters belonging to just one family, and we should all work together in peace and harmony for the lasting good and progress of our country," he emphasized.

Jose Mari Chan

In his more than three decades as a recording artist-singer-songwriter, Jose Mari Chan's unprecedented success has been highlighted by two Diamond Record Awards. In the Philippine recording industry, a Diamond Record Award is equivalent to 10 Platinum awards in sales, meaning 400,000 copies sold. His album 'Constant Change' has to date sold more than 500,000 copies in the Philippines and in other ASEAN countries, making it a certified multi-platinum album. His lyrics, and his singing style, have in fact made Jose Mari Chan a household name synonymous with love ballads as well as Christmas memories. Indeed, his album 'Christmas In Our Hearts' has now become a platinum winner sixteen times over, and continues to be a best-seller every Christmas season. His other subsequent releases, 'Thank You, Love' and 'Souvenirs' are also multi-platinum discs.

Superstar Jose Mari Chan has garnered several AWIT and KATHA nominations and awards including ALBUM of the YEAR, RECORD of the YEAR, BEST JAZZ RECORDING and BEST TRADITIONAL POP SONG. In 1974 he was honored as one of the TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines). He has been conferred a DANGAL NG MUSIKANG PILIPINO award by the Philippine Association of the Recording Industry and the Antonio C. Barreiro 'Lifetime Achievement Award' by the Metro Pop Foundation. He has also starred in more than ten TV specials spotlighting his music, the latest of which was 'A PERFECT

CHRISTMAS WITH JOSE MARI CHAN' aired on ABC TV Channel 5. As a concert performer he has performed in New York's Carnegie Hall, Atlantic City, Washington DC, Rhode Island, Cherry Hill (New Jersey), Virginia, Seattle, San Francisco, Reno (Nevada), San Jose (California), Los Angeles as well as in Toronto. He has also performed in Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Oslo and various Asian cities like Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bandung and Jakarta.

His song compositions have been recorded by the following foreign artists: KAMAHL (Australia), AARON KWOK (Taiwan), SANDY LAM (Hongkong), SALLY YEE (Hongkong), PAULA TSUI (Hongkong), YASUO T. (Japan) and TOMOMI AKIMOTO (Japan). A sugar trader-businessman by profession, singer-songwriter by vocation. Jose Mari Chan is the current Chairman & President of BISCOM Inc, Hyatt Regency Hotel Manila, and A. Chan Sugar Corp. He is married to Mary Ann Ansaldo, the sister of Margarita Ansaldo, wife of former Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Jesus Tambunting. He has five children namely Lisa, Joe, Anna, Franco and Angelica.

Rene Nieva

Rene Nieva is chairman and president of Perceptions, Inc. He put up the company in late 1986 and it has since grown to become one of the country's leading PR firms. It counts among its current clients major Philippine and international organizations such Airbus, Amway, Business Software Alliance, Cisco Systems, HK Tourism Board (HKTB), Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Turner Entertainment (CNN & Cartoon Network). Nieva started his PR career in 1962 with Business Relations International (BRI) headed by Filipino PR pioneer Jose Carpio. He then worked from 1968 to 1976 for the international PR firm Curtis J. Hoxter, Inc. in New York where he rose to the position of Vice President.

He returned to the Philippines in 1976 and organized the Public Affairs Office of the Bancom Group, then a leading financial/business conglomerate, heading said office as Director. In 1979, Exxon Chemicals chose Nieva from among various candidates from Southeast Asian countries to be its Public Affairs Advisor for ASEAN while concurrently holding the post of Public Affairs Manager for Exxon Chemical Philippines. In 1985, Nieva was promoted to Public Affairs Associate for Exxon Chemical Asia Pacific (ECAP) based in Hong Kong. Perceptions has received numerous awards for its PR projects for clients such as Grand Anvil Awards from the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP), Golden World Awards from the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), Gold Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communicators as well as awards from its own clients such as BSA and HKTB.

Nieva has served 4 terms as National Chairman of the Philippine Chapter of the IPRA. He is also a member of the PRSP, which has accredited him as an APR, and of the Philippine Association of PR Counselors, as well as of business and civic organizations such as the Rotary Club of Makati West, Knights of Rizal and others.

He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with an A.B. degree in Economics and holds an M.A. degree in Corporate and Political Communications from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He loved to write from his youth, winning writing contests at the Ateneo and thereafter, including first place in the National Rizal Essay Writing Contest of the Knights of Rizal. He also wrote the lyrics for the song Biyahe Tayo! which was used by Pfizer Bonamine and the Dept. of Tourism for the WOW Philippines Biyahe Tayo! campaign in 2004 to promote domestic travel.