Word: pineda
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...Thirty-three years after its birth, however, Journey is getting a second lease on life - and from a most unexpected quarter. In December, the band signed on new lead vocalist Arnel Pineda, a Filipino singer whom they found leading a Manila cover band. Six months later, the group kicked off a tour of Europe and the U.S. and released Revelation, an album featuring new songs and rerecorded classics that, two weeks after its debut, was the fifth highest-selling album in the States...
...Journey found Pineda is a Cinderella tale of the Internet era. In the wake of Soto's dismissal last June for unspecified reasons, guitarist Neal Schon turned to the Web in search of talent. After two days of surfing on YouTube, he came upon clips of Pineda singing with his band, the Zoo, and nailing all the right notes in a vocal-straining repertoire that included rock anthems by Survivor and Queen as well as Journey's famed power ballads like Faithfully and Don't Stop Believing. "I heard his voice and my eyes got big," says Schon...
...surprisingly, Filipino media in the homeland and the U.S. have lit up with Pineda coverage. "Everyone's talking about it," says Marilyn Deleon, 44, a Filipino-American Journey fan in New York City who helped create animated videos of Pineda and other Journey members and posted them online. At Pineda's first U.S. performance with Journey in Las Vegas in March, Schon estimates Filipino Americans made up half of the audience. Some countrymen are already painting Pineda as a kind of national hero. "There's [boxer] Manny Pacquiao, [pool player] Efren Reyes and then there's Arnel," says Kookie Luib...
...Journey's die-hard fans - and there are plenty - have embraced Pineda with open arms. When Nell, who did not want to reveal her real name, started an Arnel Pineda fan site in December, the Florida-based web developer says angry Journey fans left death threats on her answering machine. The band's traditional fanbase is mostly white and American, and some are upset that Pineda is neither. "Journey is supposed to be an all-American band," one fan wrote in an online forum...
...more people hear Pineda's truly stunning voice, the number of critics is likely to be drowned out by a roar of support. And the number of online rock stars is sure to skyrocket. "If you want to get discovered, you don't need a demo anymore," says Ayson. "Everyone's putting their stuff on YouTube now." It's a reminder to all of us: don't stop believing...