Archive for October, 2009

RX 93.1 Daily Survey
Friday | October 30, 2009

1.    Fireflies – Owl City (back at #1)
2.    Higante – Francis Magalona and Ely Buendia
3.    Zero Gravity – David Archuleta
4.    Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen / She Is Love – Parachute
5.    3 – Britney Spears

Credits to renz_reggy03 of PMCT PEX

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RX Countdown Top 7 (October 30, 2K9)

20. Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo
19. I Want to Know What Love Is – Mariah Carey
18. Brick by Boring Brick – Paramore
17. Bad Romance – Lady GaGa
16. Two is Better than One – Boys Like Girls feat. Taylor Swift
15. New Perspective – Panic at the Disco
14. Get to You – James Morrison
13. Who Says – John Mayer
12. Meet Me Halfway – Black Eyed Peas
11. Just Say Yes – Snow Patrol
10. Don’t Stop Believing – Glee
9. One Time – Justin Bieber
8. Party in the USA – Miley Cyrus
7. She is Love – Parachute
6. Halfway Gone – Lifehouse
5. Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen
4. Higante – Ely Buendia and Francis Magalona
3. 3 – Britney Spears
2. Zero Gravity – David Archuleta (last week’s #1)
1. Fireflies – Owl City (new #1)

Credits to erzo01 of PMCT PEX

RX 93.1
Daily Survey
Oct 29, 2009

1.    Zero Gravity – David Archuleta (back at #1)
2.    Fireflies – Owl City
3.    Halfway Gone – Lifehouse
4.    3 – Britney Spears
5.    Party In The USA – Miley Cyrus / Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen

Credits to Nette KUlet

There’s no doubt that David delivered one of the best speeches ever and just like any other speech, we want to know ever single word of what he actually said. Everything about it is just inspiring. We’ve been asking for it and looking for it…now, it’s here! The Transcript! Special Thanks to MaggieAnn and Jenny of FOD.

Here’s a bit of David Archuleta’s Speech at the 25th Annual Utah Women’s Conference.

Well, thank you. Hello. Good morning. I’d like to thank Senator Hatch for inviting me to come. When I was first asked to speak at this, I thought it was kind of funny. It’s like, David Archuleta, speak? A David Archuleta speech for me that’s kind of like an oxymoron. I’ve never been very good at speaking, but I always thought, my whole life (I guess there hasn’t been a whole lot of it) but when I was younger I was never good at speaking. I probably would have never been able to come up and say five words in front of all of you a few years ago. I always thought I guess that’s why I have music in my life and singing because that’s the only way I know how to communicate to people. Over the last couple of years, it seems like music has kind of gotten me into a lot of situations and a lot of trouble with having to speak in front of people a lot. But I feel like it’s a good opportunity to kind of overcome it. I have some notes. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’m supposed to be saying but the things I have to talk about here are a little random. I still think there are some important things to talk about.

One of the things I wanted to talk about was since speaking is something that I thought I would have never done anything like this a few years ago. Sometimes you have to face your fears. I kind of wanted to talk about that a little so I had a little bit written here. It’s like even though speaking is a fear of mine I know it is something I need to face and go head-on against and do more of. One of the things they asked me to speak about was about following your dreams and still realizing the important things in life. The first question I thought of was “What does it mean to follow your dreams?” I kind of thought well, it’s your desire to accomplish something that seems difficult. It’s like well that will only exist in my dreams. That can never happen in reality, but then it’s like well, why not! I mean if it’s something you really have a desire to do and you feel like it’s a good thing, it may seem difficult to do but you just take those first little steps. I think those are the most difficult things to do, getting it started, getting started with doing that. The first step of having greater growth in life is facing those fears and not being able to accomplish those things. If you want to get better at something, you need to start in the first place. It’s like, “Oh well, I’ll never be good at that and I’m bad at that” and so we avoid doing it and try to avoid it: like speaking for me! I didn’t avoid it today but I think that’s a good thing.

As I stand before all of you here today, you’re my witnesses, I’m taking that step forward and improving my speaking skills. It really is a difficult step sometimes because it’s almost like we’re fighting this current of fear that’s pushing us back. That’s the thing that keeps us from moving forward from our weaknesses. If we have a weakness, okay mine is speaking, speaking as you can see is difficult for me. If I would have been like oh, I’m not ever going to speak because I’m bad at it. Well, David! How are you going to get better at it if you never do it? You know, you start little. Sometimes I speak to small youth groups or to my friends and things like that. Then I would realize speaking can actually be a really good thing because you can communicate through music but there are also things in speaking that it’s like having a conversation with someone. As much nonsense as I can make sometimes when I’m speaking, the more I do it the more I realize wow, it’s a really great thing because I’m able to share with people my experiences and the things I have been able to do and the things I’ve learned most of all, I think.

You may Read the FULL Transcript by downloading it HERE.

Is the the last leg of the David-Demi Tour? Well, New Hampshire is in for a treat! They had David! Wow! Yet another great concert! And the POLO! ♥.♥ Haha.

Enjoy the videos!

Thanks to @muldur, @DAarchielene, @gengenw @JennaArchie & @FerjiPerj for the heads up!

It’s been a while since David blogged glad he got his blog up already! Wohoo!

David, your speech was amazing!

Anyway, let’s all read his blog!

NEW HAMPSHIRE!

Hola! I am in New Hampshire right now for the last 3 shows with Demi Lovato this week. We had rehearsals today, and they went pretty well. I haven’t sung these songs for a while haha, but it’ll be fun to do them for the shows. It’s fun seeing all the crew people again! It’ll be fun to perform for all you guys again! So let me know if you’re coming to any of the shows that are coming up! I know the weather has been pretty gloomy, but apparently I left Utah right as we were getting some major snow in that area. I prefer the rain here in the east over the freezing snowstorms in the Rocky Mountains. I hope everyone back over there is safe though.

So last Monday I spoke at the morning session for the Utah Women’s Conference. I was the speaker for the morning session, and Laura Bush was the speaker for the afternoon session. I was a little nervous to speak when I was trying to figure out what I should say, but the more I thought about it the more I surprisingly got excited to speak. I really had a great time getting to talk about what was on my mind and share it with all the ladies who came haha. I’m glad that Senator Orrin Hatch invited me to come, so thank you very much Senator! How many of you were able to make it to that conference, anyway? If any of you took notes I’d be really curious as to what was note-worthy I guess haha. My sister Claudia came and brought my friend Ashlee with her, and they took notes. It was really odd to think that my sister and friend were taking notes on what I was saying, but I thought that was really neat at the same time. So if there was anything you were able to learn from what I shared I’d love to hear what stood out to you!

Today I got a great workout in! But the bad thing is while I was running on the treadmill I did something to my back. It still doesn’t feel very good lol. During the rehearsals I just sat on the stool, which was really weird during Zero Gravity! I’m hoping that I can move around better tomorrow haha. Imagine me singing “Nothing brings me dooown, when you’re aroound” and I’m stuck on a stool. hahaha… It’s funny as long as it doesn’t actually happen lol. Well… it probably would be funny even if it did happen. But oh well. Anyway, I’m probably finished talking. Oh wait! Halloween is this weekend! If you guys have any cool costumes you should share! bwahahaha. I really don’t have anything in mind for myself costume-wise, but I guess we’ll see if I’m in the mood when the day comes closer. But all right, I’ll stop talking now and talk to you guys next week! Ciao.

Song for the day: Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen

Traditional yet contemporary.

Christmas is tradition. The songs in the album are traditional Christmas songs and for artists and musicians, the challenge is how such songs can appeal to the general public and their fans in a way that they’d still be able to keep the essence of these songs. Most importantly, how such Christmas album can stand the test of time. Some artists have released Christmas albums with their own musical touch and yet they fail to live up to it—either they over or under do it. “Christmas from the Heart”, on the other hand, I could say, would be able to live up to that challenge. Time will tell.

I’m no music expert but I’m going to base this review on what I know and love about music.

David Archuleta’s voice soars in this album. Obviously, this is a given, however, there’s something about this album which makes THE voice more special. There’s another element in David’s musicality and artistry which was revealed in this album—he is a storyteller. Not just an ordinary storyteller but a great storyteller. We all know that he sings from his heart and that every time he sings you could just feel every emotion he brings with the songs and you feel it—you feel him.

The musical arrangement and production in this album is timeless—the strings, the choir, the movie score magic, jazz, soul, contemporary R&B, and pop elements of each song. Again, David brings fusion into his music.

Now, add that voice with music, it’ll give you brilliance. Imagine having those elements plus a great story in one music album, like an audio book with only one difference, it’s a musical audio book. It really wouldn’t be a problem if it’s a movie musical or Broadway musical. No need to use our imagination. But what if it’s a musical audio book? Would we have the same feelings? Clearly, I did. Well, first listen was enough for me. I see images running through my mind—Mr. Holland’s Opus, Aladdin, and all those movies. Again, the difference is: David Archuleta is on these movies, well, his voice is, with people in the background interpreting what he’s singing. It’s weird but true.

Into the songs we have the symphonic-Broadway-Story-musical (SBSM), contemporary-R&B-Pop-musical (CRPM), soulful-jazz-musical (SJM) and the movie-score-magic musical (MSMM). Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard on High, O Come All Ye Faithful, What Child is This, and Silent Night have that SBSM feel to it—the strings and the bridge and the musical solo. Listen to how he sings—he speaks to you and tells you a story. You can just picture him in this one great movie scene and singing his lines through song. Listen to the music, towards the last part of Angels, the orchestra was on fire–powerful strings. It’s amazing.

Soul is something we can’t take away from David’s musical style. He’s such a soulful artist and teaming him up with another soulful artist in her own right would mean one nice duet. Charice Pempengco’s duet with David is probably one of the most talked about track in this album and now I know why. The blending is awesome. Technically, it was an amazing vocal performance for both artists. I applaud Charice for such soulful effort. In Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas there is no doubt that it was going to be one soulful duet but David added jazz into it. David is oozing with jazz in this track. It’s soulful yet jazzy. I’ll be home for Christmas, on the other hand, is the jazziest of them all. David’s smooth jazz.

O Holy Night is amazing live. The album version definitely surprised me a lot. This version made me realize what this album is all about—a timeless classic. The arrangement for this song is just AMAZING. Vocally, I would prefer the live version but the vocals along with the orchestra made it feel like those powerful movie scores. The symphony made it work so much. It is powerful. This goes with Silent Night and What Child is this as well. The intro of Riu Riu Chiu reminded me of Harry Potter in some ways. Haha. Movie magic score in the works.

The First Noel, Pat-a-Pan, Riu Riu Chiu and Melodies of Christmas are those songs which would really appeal to the general public. The modern feel of these songs would definitely appeal to David’s fans as well. The intro for Noel reminded me of The Foo Fighters’ song Next Year. Pat-a-pan has that R&B feel to it and David singing in French is just awesome. Who would have known he can sing in French? We now come to my most favorite track from this album, Riu Riu Chiu. It’s traditional yet it sounds so modern. It seems like Latino Pop. There’s something about this song. Spanish is love. ♥

If there’s a song that would best sum up this album, it would definitely be the original song which David co-wrote, Melodies of Christmas. The song tells us what he thinks of Christmas and just everything about Christmas and what it reminds him of. It’s a well-written song. If it’ll be release as a single, this song will come a long way! A classic in the making!

Of all the songs in Christmas from the Heart, Ave Maria would probably be the most overlooked song but I think this one is the best track in the album. It’s haunting. The choir is angelic. David’s voice soars. It’s a classic. Probably one of, if not, the most challenging song in the album and David definitely, definitely nailed this song. His version is truly one of the best versions of Ave Maria ever.

To sum it all up, Christmas albums may just be Christmas albums to some of us but as mentioned earlier, it’s the most challenging kind of album to make. Yes, it is traditional and yes, everyone can just sing every Christmas songs out there but as how to make it your own and still live up to the spirit of each song remains to be a challenge. Some have been successful and some eventually failed. Yet, success does not only mean that the albums were widely received during their time but also the ability of these albums to keep up with time. An album’s success is measured through its timelessness. An album isn’t considered to be one of the classics when it fails to keep up with time. This album is not one of those albums. This album will stand the test of time and I guarantee you that Christmas from the Heart will be one with the classics—that is, a Christmas album classic. Soon enough, it will.

click here to get more photos!

RX 93.1
Daily Survey
Oct 27, 2009

1. Fireflies – Owl City (5th day @ #1)
2. Zero Gravity – David Archuleta
3. 3 – Britney Spears
4. Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen
5. Higante – Ely Buendia and Francis Magalona / Halfway Gone – Lifehouse

credits to nette kulet

RX 93.1
Daily Survey
Oct 26, 2009

1. Fireflies – Owl City (4th day at @1)
2. 3 – Britney Spears
3. Live Like We’re Dying – Kris Allen
4. Zero Gravity – David Archuleta
5. Higante – Ely Buendia and Francis Magalona

credits to nette kulet

RX 93.1
Daily Survey
Oct 24, 2009

1. Fireflies – Owl City (3rd day at #1)
2. Zero Gravity – David Archuleta
3. Higante – Ely Buendia and Francis Magalona
4. Party in the USA – Miley Cyrus / Halfway Gone – Lifehouse
5. One Time – Justin Bieber

credits to nette kulet