Chan to sing Ninoy's poem for Cory
MANILA – Renowned composer-singer Jose Mari Chan is singing “I Have Fallen In Love (With the Same Woman Three Times)” at the funeral Mass for former Corazon “Cory” Aquino on Wednesday.
“I hope I don’t cry when I sing that song,” Chan told Mornings@ANC.
He will sing at the end of the funeral Mass, added Chan.
The song was originally a poem written by former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. for his wife, Mrs. Aquino. In 1987, when the country was about to commemorate the death anniversary of Ninoy, theater stalwart Cecile Guidote-Alvarez approached Chan and asked him to “set the music” for it.
Chan recalled he only had two weeks to come up with a melody. But, he said, the Holy Spirit and Ninoy guided and inspired him to create “a melody that is worthy of the beautiful words he wrote.”
“I could feel the immense love and respect that Ninoy had for Cory,” Chan said.
Compared to his other love songs like “Beautiful Girl,” “Tell Me Your Name,” “Can We Just Stop and Talk a While” and “Deep in My Heart,” Ninoy’s “I Have Fallen In Love” is “much deeper.”
His love songs, Chan said, are “mostly flippant, trite first meetings.” Ninoy’s poem, on the other hand, saw the transformation of a woman, in this case Cory, from a young lady to a pillar of strength for her family.
During Ninoy’s death anniversary, another singer performed the song in front of Cory but Chan said he was present in the event. The singer, he said, was in tears after the song.
The first time he would talk to Cory was when the former leader called him to convince him to run for senator under Fidel V. Ramos’ ticket. Chan said he politely declined the offer.
“And then I remember receiving a note from Cory thanking me and [telling me] how she appreciated the music that I wrote,” he said.
There was also a time when Chan visited her in Makati and they talked about his music.
Two years later, he and his sister visited Cory in Tarlac. “She was our personal guide. She took us around the Ninoy Aquino museum and we had lunch together… she gave me a beautiful painting that she did.”
He said that the meeting in Tarlac was the last time he saw the former leader.
Through the song, Chan hopes that the country “will remember Cory as a woman.”
“To the Filipino woman, she would always be the source of inspiration. She was the devoted mother, she was the devoted wife and everything has been said about her – a great leader, the one who brought back democracy. More than that, she was an extraordinary woman,” he said.
Christian Bautista recently recorded his own version of the song. And Chan is happy because it is one way of keeping the music, and hopefully the message, alive.
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