Arthur Nery hits No. 1

Horror of horrors! Arthur Nery cut his hair. I thought that was part of his signature look. But the long-straight locks have been turned into a school boy soup bowl cut. Or is it Prince Valiant page boy? Come to think of it, who remembers Prince Valiant?

Anyway, his girl fans are pulling their hair and wailing. What got into his head? He is a great singer, even better as a songwriter but he was also that sexy head of hair. Maybe he got tired of all those girls, plus others who keep wanting to run their fingers through his hair. Relax, all of you. Those locks will all grow back. We just have to wait a while.

Besides, he cut off his hair at a time when he can do anything and he will be forgiven. And I mean anything. The heartthrob from Cagayan de Oro (CDO) just notched a major milestone in his career. His latest single Pagsamo, has made him the No. 1 selling solo artist in the country. That is no mean feat considering that he is in a business teeming with an abundance of talent.

Nery’s Pagsamo hit 200,000 streams on YouTube during its first 12 hours out last Friday, Oct. 1. It was instantly obvious that viewers so loved the video that they just kept watching and listening again, and again that those numbers just kept on rising.

As of this writing six days later, the visualizer has been viewed over 2,300,000 times. And that does not include those assorted lyric videos, various mixes, covers, etc. And don’t forget, Nery still has to come up with the official music video. As for Spotify, Pagsamo jumped from No. 10 to No. 1 last Friday in the daily Top 50 hit list.

Nery is no stranger to big numbers. He is one of the most consistent artists around as far as selling big online is concerned. The singer is just fresh off another hit in Pelikula, a collab with Janine Teñoso for her new EP, Kwento Sa Silid. And before that, Arthur also did very well with Take All The Love and Happy w u, featuring Jason Dhakal.

Then there are his early releases which began with the sexy, jazzy, lovelorn album Letters Never Sent from 2019. These include the cuts that are now considered his signature songs like Binhi with 18,573,414 streams on Spotify and the relaxed neo-soul ballad Higa with 37,136,223 listens also on Spotify.

It was a slow burn that built up with surprising confidence from a guy no one had heard of until then. Well, maybe music lovers from CDO had and then later rocker and producer Kean Cipriano who signed up Nery for his OC label and brought him to Manila.

Then as if these were not enough, the success of Pagsamo has generated massive online interest in the music of Nery. So much so that his entire catalogue is now streaming like crazy.

Looks like we now have a big star in Arthur Nery. Great as it has been quite a while since we have had somebody who is a complete package. I mean, singer and songwriter of hit songs, and once the hair grows back, I will add, who also has looks and sex appeal.

While checking out the heart-tugging Pagsamo, you might also want to listen to other originals by Filipino talents, who have thankfully discovered intense creativity during this pandemic period. Here are those other hits.

Palayo, by Felip, who is really Ken of SB19 in a well-deserved first solo outing; Dulo, another broken-hearted weepie from prolific band The Juans; Upuan by Ben&Ben; Paraluman by another Kean Cipriano discovery, Adie; Nang Dumating Ka, another big hit from last year’s sensation, Bandang Lapis, SB19 and Ben&Ben in a collab for MAPA; Habang Buhay by singer and composer Zack Tabudlo; The Baddest by the boy band BGYO; and Hello, the latest by former movie star James Reid.