Captured by Christian Bautista

CEBU, Philippines - For a romantic balladeer like Christian Bautista, coming up with a new album featuring all-original songs is one big step for him as an artist. “Risky,” he describes such endeavor because an all-original album would not guarantee a sure hit.

To promote his third studio album entitled “Captured,” Asia’s Pop Idol came to SM City Cebu last April 6 during its “Awesome 3-Day Sale.”

Released late last year under Warner Music Philippines, the album has 12 tracks including The One Who Won My Heart, Captured (a duet with Sitti), Creation, Hope, I Believe, Take a Ride, Just This Time, I Want To Be The One and many more.

“This album is about being creative and being risky because of all of its songs are original. It’s okay to do covers, but later on an artist has to come up with originals,” he said during an interview with The FREEMAN. “So, hopefully, this album will capture people’s hearts.”

In this album, Christian continues to do what he does best—ballads—but not without a touch of other modern genres. He also got to work with the country’s popular music icons such as Martin Nievera, and Ogie Alcasid as well as songwriter Andrew Fromm.

It was Fromm who wrote the hit The Way You Look At Me from Christian’s first album. And now, he comes back with Creation, which Christian describes as very nice and intense.

“Parang sinasabi nya sa isang babae na everything about you is perfect,” he said.

However, of all the 12 songs, Christian’s favorite is Hope, the song that was written by his younger brother, Joshua. The line from the song, “I’ve never been worth this much,” was what struck him the most.

“Parang ang sarap mahalin ng ganon. Sobrang pagmamahal yun,” he said with a smile.

“TAKE A RIDE”

After five to six years in the music industry, Christian has maintained his stature and has continued to captivate the audience with his voice, may it be in the theater stage or concert scene.

“We always try to do something different each year. Last year, we had West side story. Ngayon, balik na naman kami sa concert scene. Yun nga, we just produced ‘Pop Icons.’ Hopefully, this year, another successful album,” he said.

For him, whatever success he has achieved has come with experience, failures and instructions from his mentors.

“Maganda din na ma-explore ko ang artistry ko. I get to experiment and I listen to the comments of the audience or sa management. Thereby, I grow. Not just yung sunod ako ng sunod. Dapat din may ma-contribute ako,” he said.

Christian is a Landscape Architecture graduate from the University of the Philippines. So how did his college education help in his career?

“Sa architecture kasi, di lang kami nag-da-drawing. Ini-explain din namin yung concept namin sa public. So ang confidence dun ang naturo sa akin pagdating sa performances ko. How to connect to the audience, to respond to interviews and to relate with different people—those are the things I learned,” he explained.

“THE ONE WHO WON MY HEART”

Things have long been over between him and ex-girlfriend Rachelle Ann Go. Christian said that they no longer feel awkward towards each other and have already become friends.

What he learned the most in that relationship was “learning to adjust to different people, knowing when and how to say things.”

Christian attested that right now, he is still looking for the one who will win his heart.

“Di naman ako nagmamadali. Kaya I’m meeting many friends and getting to know a lot of people,” he said.

As for co-singer Karylle who is being linked to him, Christian gave out the usual “We’re friends” showbiz answer. They happen to be under the same management and so they get to work together in many projects like “West Side Story.” No next level yet for them, he said.

So for now, Christian is not yet captured (yes, he is single!) and has not captured yet the heart of The One (still searching!).

But surely, with his string of romantic ballads, he has already captivated and captured the hearts of his audience.