The language of the soul...

"Music is a language of the soul", says West,  "and a musician is an interpreter of sorts. 

If we are  

doing our work well, we spend as 

 much time listening, 

 as we do translating what we discover". -  Corinne West.

A song, specifically an Emil Chou original, Peng You,  heralded Kim Chiu's entry into Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition I, April 24, 2006

On Kim's first day at PBB after the Opening Night, she sang Peng You to two housemates Jamilla and Aldred .

Jamilla and Aldred were curious if she spoke Chinese and if she knew a Chinese song. They also asked for a translation. She told them, Peng You, means Kaibigan, Friend.

                           

                          CTO -Peng You by Kim Chiu

Big Brother asked Kim to sing Peng You for him at the Confession Room.  Big Brother without Kim's knowledge opened the audio to the rest of the housemates. 

Peng You also opened opportunities for Kim.  She recorded her album, Gwa Ai Di or I Love You with a Tagalog adaptation of Peng You in it for Star Records  in 2007. Gwa Ai Di  went Gold.

Kim Chiu - Gwa Ai Di                          CTO

Title: Gwa Ai Di
Artist: Kim Chiu
Label: Star Records
Released: 2007
Number of Tracks: 7

1. Crazy Love
2. Gwa Ai Di
3. Trying
4. Peng You [Tagalog Adaptation]
5. Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin (”The Moon Represent My Heart”)
6. Heartbreak Song
7. I’ve Fallen For You [Bonus Track]

http://www.soundtripnetwork.com/130/kim-chiu-gwa-ai-di/     - to listen to Kim's songs.

Kim's chosen songs or songs chosen for her in her record album released in 2007 sounded prophetic.  

First, they were just friends (Peng You) with some doubts  (Crazy Love) that they could never be but hoped (Trying) that they were meant to be; she finally said I Love You (Gwa Ai Di) singing together the same song (I've Fallen for You)  but as they grew apart, Kim plaintively sang Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin (The Moon Represents My Heart) before they finally parted ways (Heartbreak Song).

Fastforward 2012, Kim is singing a different tune.  The songs she sang recently are not prophetic, but if I may say so,  her songs "represent her heart"  in real time.

Here are the songs she just sang in Cebu Saturday, June 23, 2012; Katy Perry's Part of Me, followed by Aiza Seguerra's Para lang Sa'yo  and   Rihanna's  California King Bed.

                            CTO  Kim Chiu

                                CTO  Part of Me by Katy Perry 

If music is the language of the soul, there is a "part of" Kim that remains unbroken after the heartbreak and that is her soul.

                             CTO Para lang Sa'yo by Aiza Seguerra

Here, Kim with her spirit, unbroken and unbowed, rises from the ashes of her heart like the mythical Phoenix, renewed and reborn, ready to love again.

CTO Para Lang Sa'yo - Lyrics

Noo'y umibig na ako subalit nasaktan ang puso

Parang ayoko ng umibig pang muli

May takot na nadarama

Na muli ay maranasan

Ayoko ng masaktan muli ang puso ko

Ngunit nang ikaw ay makilala

Biglang nagbago ang nadarama

Para sayo ako'y iibig pang muli

Dahil sayo ako'y iibig nang muli

Ang aking puso'y

Pag-ingatan mo

Dahil sa ito'y muling magmamahal sayo

Para lang sayo

[ Lyrics from: ht/www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/aiza_seguerra/para_lang_sayo.html ]

Muli ay aking nadama

Kung paano ang umibig

Masakit man ang nakaraa'y nalimot na

Ang tulad mo'y naiiba

At sayo lamang nakita

Ang tunay na pag-ibig na'king hinahanap

Buti na lang ikaw ay nakilala

Binago mo ang nadarama

Para sayo ako'y iibig pang muli

Dahil sayo ako'y iibig nang muli

Ang aking puso'y

Pag-ingatan mo

Dahil sa ito'y muling magmamahal sayo

Para lang sayo

Di na ako muling mag-iisa

Ngayon ikaw ay nandito na

Para sayo ako'y iibig pang muli

Dahil sayo ako'y iibig nang muli

Ang aking puso'y

Pag-ingatan mo

Dahil sa ito'y muling magmamahal sayo

Para lang sayo

Ako'y iibig pang muli

Para lang sayo

Para lang Sa'yo is an utterly moving song of a woman in the throes of a new-found love. She finds in a man the true love she has been looking for. She is liberated from her old hurts after having met him and for him she will love again.  She is telling this man to be careful with her heart. 

Who is this man, Kim?

                   CTO - California King Bed by Rihanna

I will just take the last line of the song:  "My California King".

Now I have pieced together the songs of old and new and if singing in Church is " praying twice"  then may I say, singing in public is "speaking to the multitude twice"?

We heard you the first time Kim; you are coming out of the ashes of your broken self and have found a man you are willing to fall in love again with and you have identified him as "My California King".

I presume the choice of songs is deliberate; songs that will be sung in your home city Cebu to fans, friends and relatives and bystanders alike, reverberating worldwide to everyone who care to watch and hear and pick up the meaning of the songs you sang.  

What the mouth does not speak, the heart sings; the heart that is now ably speaking the language of the soul.  

What a beautiful day Saturday was; liberating in a way and yet Kim could always say, "...wala naman yon, nagkataon lang" and fan that I am, I would also just answer, "ah okay", and leave it at that.

There is however someone from California named Xian Lim, who is making his "Harana "You", his record, "So it's You" , his composition, "Ako'y Sa'yo Lamang", his Love Rose Tree, his prayers reach the depths of someone's heart through God 's grace and will; sleeping soundly the Saturday night  his lady-love Kim sang her songs  in faraway Cebu.  

                    CTO  - Kim and Xian 

He heard the songs in his heart and understood. I am taking poetic license here as love moves in mysterious ways and the trip to Baclaran Church Wednesday night by Kim and Xian  and the faith-filled prayers said there certainly could move mountains. Could be Kim also shared her repertoire with Xian.  

I am more into the mountain-moving faith and the man that uses it as "Jesus said, 'Believe me, if you trust and do not falter and you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea', even that will happen.  You will receive all that you pray for, provided you have faith."  (Matthew 21:21-22) God is good, all the time, all the time, God is good!

Kim, Xian you went to Baclaran Church to pray together with Lakam, Kim's sister.  Nobody would have known about it except that you met up with an entertainment  writer Rommel Placente who said such good things of you in his radio program, Vibes Tayo. He said that he was impressed that young celebrities like you would still find time to go to Church midweek and in early morning.  

I see you Kim, Xian, as role models of the young; you, being prayerful and hardworking. What a blessing that though you are practically  at the top of your careers and are extremely busy, you  do not use your outward "busyness" as an excuse for missing Church,  neglecting  your souls as many of us do.  

We lesser mortals cannot anymore say we are busy and don't have time for Church or that we have so many chores, God will understand or that  Sunday is just another workday.  

Who could be busier than you two, Kim, Xian?

Thank you Kim, Xian for the gift of you two--praying as if everything depended on God and working as if everything depended on you; I have said this before and I am saying this again--faith and good works should go hand in hand.

The language of your soul is prayer; the language of your soul is music; the language of your soul is love.  

                        

CTO-Evergreen by Barbra Streisand and IL Divo