March 29 Sunday Richard Poon's first solo album "I'll Take Care of You" was awarded a Platinum Record by MCA Head, Ricky Ilacad (Trivia: he's the first local artist of MCA music to reach Platinum) at ASAP '09. We intended it as a surprise to Richard but knowing him, I know he already had an inkling to what will happen.I decided to include this segment in my Roadman's Adventures because although the actual awarding was held only at an ABS-CBN studio nevertheless the road leading to that Platinum Award was in itself an adventure. It took a year before RP's solo album reached this milestone. I was a witness of his rise to "fame" (I define fame as name recall because now everywhere we go people know him by name. For someone like me who has known him prior to this, this is really mind boggling). When I started in Cornerstone more than a year ago, Richard's career was just about to take off. He was already getting recognition during his days at U-Turn but it was when he went solo and when he immersed himself with the "standards" that his talent and potential really peaked. In the past year we have toured the country and I saw right before my eyes how he gradually endeared the whole nation with his music. From the mothers who cried when he sang, "If I Could"... To stories of cancer patients who for some reason got renewed strength as they listened to his album containing timeless classics... Its amazing how music can open doors of the heart. I know one woman whose husband died a year ago who was touched when she listened to RP's version of "I'll Take Care Of You". That song somehow helped her grieve through that difficult season in her life. She is now one of our staunch supporters and also a dear friend.
I believe this is what separates an amateur from an artist... In fact its not just a platinum award or a sold-out concert... its when your music brings people to another place above the one they are now living, when your song brings out treasured memories from the dusted compartments of the mind, when your voice stirs the feeling of loving and losing and sometimes both at the same time. That's the time you have arrived. And in that aspect, based from the response I saw from the people, Richard indeed has arrived.
As millions of Filipinos watched Mr. Ilacad hand that Platinum Award to Richard, for most of them, it may look just as any other award. But for us who supported, loved, encouraged and watched him from the beginning it was a fitting way to end such a remarkable year... and also to begin another promising one.
Now speaking from the shadows, from someone who saw Richard's life onstage and offstage, I cannot discount the fact that the success that came his way was really the hand of God at work. He prepared him for such a time as this. He may not be overtly professing his faith to the multitudes but as he performs his music in excellence... God is glorified. And with that, I know the Platinum award came way before it was even awarded.
With RP's Cornerstone Family
With MCA Music
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