MANILA, Philippines - To mark Jose Mari Chan’s (photo) 47th year as a premier recording artist, RJ FM is playing Joe Mari’s words and music four times every day, six days a week this month and in June.
It has been a successful career path for Joe Mari as a singer-songwriter-recording artist, beginning as a very young guest performer in the TV shows of Pilita Corrales, Carmen Soriano and Lyn Madrigal in the mid-’60s. He then went on to host the ABS-CBN musical daily show Nineteeners in 1966, before recording Afterglow, his first recording single, in1967.
A string of hit songs came one after another and in 1974 he was named one of Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines.
To this day, he has headlined shows all over the world as a concert performer.
The recording industry acknowledges that Joe Mari holds the distinction of having the country’s two biggest-selling albums of all time, Christmas In Our Hearts (Double Diamond Record) and Constant Change (also a Diamond).
Last year, his latest contribution to the music world was his album Going Home to Christmas which garnered three Awit Awards and three Catholic Mass Media Awards for Best Album, Best Christmas Song, etc.