Ariel’s new album contains 10 cuts including the duet with Regine Velasquez titled Tell Me. His sixth from BMG Records, In My Life includes the cuts, Before You, You Are, Mamahalin, Love is the Answer, Ibulong Mo Sa Hangin and Maghihintay.
"I am proud of this album. It perfectly captures what I am right now, Ariel says. "As an artist, I make it a point that each album I release reflects my current persona and it must be different from the last. I don’t just record a song and release it. It should be able to show who I am and what I am."
Ariel was first heard in the song Sana Kahit Minsan which became a hit. More hit songs followed like Photograph, Simple Lang, Ayoko Na Sana, Minsan Lang Kitang Iibigin, Wala Kang Katulad and Aawitin Ko na Lang, among others.
"I was surprised," recalls Ariel of the first time he heard his first song, Sana Kahit Minsan being played on the radio. "I was riding a jeep at that time with my cousin. So I whispered to him. That is my song being played on the radio’."
Ariel’s first taste of the big time was when he guested in Pops Fernandez’s concert at the ULTRA. "I was really nervous. I felt sick," he recalls.
But the jitters soon disappeared when he staged his first solo concert, First Time, at the Music Museum. "I was a bit calmer, polished and I also felt good," he says. Thus, when he mounted Simple Lang at the Folk Arts Theater, Ariel was already a seasoned pro. "It was easy na for me. Nahasa na ako. I was doing campus tours, provincial shows almost every week."
Aside from music, Ariel is also a TV-movie actor. He is a mainstay of the telenovela Narito Ang Puso Ko. In the movies, he has starred opposite Vilma Santos, Lea Salonga and Sharon Cuneta.