Jose Mari Chan: The music icon is - surprisingly - a jokester too

CEBU, Philippines — When international women's advocacy organization Zonta International, and the women of Zonta Club of Cebu 1 brought the singer and his family to Cebu, almost all the seats inside the Pacific Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino were filled. Dubbed "Celebrate Life: Golden Years of Service & Music featuring Jose Mari Chan," the concert commemorated Zonta Club of Cebu 1's 50th anniversary which also coincided with Chan's transcendent career that has now spanned 50 years.

The halls did not only echo Chan's music, but it was also filled with laughter – something that not everyone would expect from a Jose Mari Chan show. You'd think the 72-year-old could have been a stand-up comedian if things had turned out differently by how he would seamlessly inject belly-aching anecdotes in between performances.

As if to walk us through his career, Chan would take us back to the day a certain song came to be, and then proceed to tell jokes of all sorts-about marriage, past experiences and whatnot.

The songwriter jests that it's something he needs to do so that people won't fall asleep because love songs don't normally keep an audience awake.

"Give me a topic and I'll think of a joke," he'd say, later explaining that it's all in the delivery.

"You know, life is serious," he begins in an interview after the concert. "You should always think positive and be funny. Laugh at yourself."

Ever since we hit the ber months, social media has blown up with memes and jokes about how its Jose Mari Chan season all over again. His tunes have become theme songs for films and television shows. Other singers have done covers of his classics. But notably, the popular "Christmas In Our Hearts" – which he sang with his daughter Liza at the Cebu concert – remains untouched.

Whatever may be behind his success, Chan only knows that none of it is entirely his. His songs becoming film anthems? It probably had to do with the plot. No one has dared to present a rendition of his popular Christmas song? Perhaps they wanted to keep its father-daughter feel. But at the end of the day, Chan, the beloved voice behind "Beautiful Girl" and "Please Be Careful With My Heart," refuses to take all of the credit.

"No, no, I can't say it's [his career] immortal. When you say immortality, it's forever and no one is ever able to maintain such career. I should try to keep pride from my life. Pride is the greatest sin," says Chan, adding that thinking of oneself as the best is what brought Lucifer down, thus it would better to remain humble.

"The gift of music is not ours, it was just given to us. So you have to share that with the people and you have to share that in a good way.

The Christmas songs will not talk about Santa Claus, it will talk about our Savior, Jesus Christ in the manger."

Most of Chan's songs are inspired by his wife of 47 years, Mary Ann. He likes to think that good music is like a good marriage, containing elements that complement each other.

Having performed all over the world,  he almost always gets the same request.

"Whether it's April, June, or July, they always ask me to sing 'Christmas In Our Hearts' and 'A Perfect Christmas.' And when I sing them, I see the audience teary-eyed because they miss their family. They miss Christmas at home."

Which is exactly why the balladeer came up with "Going Home To Christmas" - his latest album containing 22 songs, including a track called "Song of the Firefly" which he sang with his 10-year-old granddaughter. This is his second Christmas album after 22 years since he released "Christmas In Our Hearts" in 1990.

He listens to new music, although he cannot find it in himself to become a fan, saying that he yearns for the melody and the lyrics.

He's down for more concerts, but he says that he'll have to think of new jokes to tell. He would like to write more music, but he's afraid that the type of music millennials enjoy is not the same type that he writes.

But he does think the "hugot" culture of today is a pretty neat concept. For a change, he'd like to make a musical from scratch with new songs to enjoy. He already has a storyline in the works and a few melodies in his head.

Not too many people know that besides hailing from Iloilo, Chan has Cebuano roots too: His maternal grandmother is from Bogo City and her younger brother is Cebuano artist NandoyAlfon. Throughout the "Celebrate Life" concert, Cebuano talents like Anna Fegi-Brown, Clifford Gawchua, Bessie Villamor, USJR Drac Larks and Nightingales, Knapsack Dancers and performers from Benedicto College and Brown Academy of Music were among the guest entertainers.

He also performed with his sons – Jose Antonio, Michael Philip and Franco – who he helps out every now and then since they also dabble in songwriting.

Chan is similarly willing to guide other artists with their compositions should they ask for help. In fact, his inspiring message does not only apply to the future batch of balladeers, but to a new breed of songwriters as well.

"God has given you that gift. Keep writing. Even if you write ten lousy songs before you write a good one, keep writing. I wrote maybe 40 terrible songs when I was 13 or 14, and if you listen to them, the melodies were derivative–they sounded like the hits of those days," he quips.

Younger artists should take a leaf from his playbook: How he enjoys himself just as hard as he works. He often apologizes for being too talkative in between songs, and drew laughter from the crowd everytime the backing track plays while he was in the middle of a flashback.

The concert lasted for hours on end with Chan walking up and down the stage, retelling beloved stories, greeting familiar faces in the crowd, and mingling with the audience as he walked across the ballroom. Even after that, he stayed on to sign CDs, bonding with every single fan who came his way. Even at the early hours of dawn, he still made a sensible, if not fun interviewee.

"When you're doing something that you love, something from your passion, strangely, you don't get tired," Chan shrugs when asked where he gets his energy to withstand long nights like this.

"I love what I'm doing. I enjoy it. Not so much the applause, it's not that. What I appreciate more is when you tell me 'Oh! Your song was our theme song!' or 'I grew up listening to your music!' That's fulfillment for me," he smiles, before dashing off to his wife who has been waiting in the sidelines all this time, ready to call it a night.