Soulful Ruben

Released only three months ago, Ruben Studdard’s first album Soulful is already a big hit with more than a million copies sold and no one is surprised. The winner of the second season of the phenomenal talent show American Idol is proof that good old-fashioned soul singing still hits the mark. Soul, which the Motown label took to great heights during the ’70s, has been on the backburner these past years as its younger and hipper brother, which is more rocking R&B than soul, took dominance of the hit charts almost everywhere.

But there is just no way you can put something like soul in storage. More dramatic and more dependent on expression, all it needed was the right interpreter to once more showcase its outstanding qualities as a popular music form. A recent breakthrough happened with the sensational Alicia Keys. Her young following might not be aware of it but she did introduce them into an updated version of soul. We should now watch out for even younger converts with the rise of 16-year-old British sensation Joss Stone, who is soul through and through. And then there is Ruben, America’s Velvet Teddy Bear who is now in an enviable position as the third corner in the new soul triangle.

Only 25 years old, Studdard clinched his American Idol victory with his rendition of the Leon Russell classic Superstar. This was totally unexpected by a lot of people watching the finals because the show had shown a distinct bias in favor of teeny bopper contestants, who sing in imitation of their favorite artists, preferably those pop divas who can scream their heads off. Ruben, a former football player who is huge at 6’4" is not likely to get a spike haircut or sound like somebody’s clone. What he has over the others though is his smooth singing voice and soulful style which can be very sexy. Add that to his huggable girth and smiling face and you will know in an instant how he got the nickname Velvet Teddy Bear.

Given the fact that the production of Soulful was a hurried affair, he won the contest in August and the album was out in the market by late November last year, I will forgive the unfortunate choice of materials. Superstar is included plus Flying without Wings, Ruben’s first single release after winning the contest. Sorry 2004, No Ruben, What is Sexy and the other originals given him though are a tad below mediocre and do not really exploit the clarity of his deep tones properly. The Bee Gees’ How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is one of the group’s best works but it does not do anything for Ruben. His revival of Nat Cole’s For All We Know gives him the right groove but it is the only one of its kind in the album.

If that is the case then why should anybody listen to Soulful? It is by Ruben, that’s why. That rich voice can make the worst song ever written "listenable." Besides, listening to him brings back those golden times when Lionel Richie, Teddy Pendergrass, Luther Vandross, George Benson and other soul balladeers of the same ilk were the heartthrobs of the airlanes.

That type of singing is what Ruben has brought to the forefront once more and I am hoping that he will have more hits, do better albums and engender a return to sweet soul ballads.

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Speaking of American Idol, the show is now seen live in the Philippines via Star World on cable. It is seen at 8 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday with several replays. The show is every bit as exciting as we heard and it was interesting to see judges Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and the acerbic Simon Cowell dish out advice to the contestants. The auditions were fun to watch and the most common reaction among local televiewers was that Pinoys can certainly do it better.

I am sure that Paula, Randy and Simon will find the fabled embarrassment of talents in this country should they ever do auditions in the Philippines. But eat your hearts out. The show is American Idol. That means you have to be an American to join. So take note, all remaining proponents of US statehood out there. I am sure you will find quite a number of aspiring pop stars and their parents campaigning to make the Philippines a state of the US of A just to be able to join American Idol.