ARNEL PINEDA ' JOURNEY'

Arnel Pineda's life is a classic rags-to-riches story.A poor boy living his lonely little world in the streets of Manila,singing covers of bands like Survivor,Aerosmith,Led Zeppelin,Air Supply and Journey,in nameless bars.
But he had the voice,and the hair of a natural-born rock star.And now,he is living a dream.
When legendary rock band Journey needed a lead vocalist,they turned to the Internet where they found on YouTube video clips of an unknown 40-years old singer from the Philippines.
Because Arnel's rendition of the Journey song "Faithfully" had developed an Internet cult following,guitarist Neal Schon took interest,enough to invite Arnel to San Francisco in California to an audition.
The rest of the band member's stamp of approval came almost as fast.They
knew right away that Arnel possessed not just the voice,but also the emotion and soul their songs needed.What they wouldn't discover,until later, was why.
Arnel Pineda was born in Sampaloc,Manila.It was his mother who instilled his love for singing at an early age,encouraging him to sing along to songs from her favorite singers like Karen Carpenter and Barbara Streisand
Growing up, his parents entered him in many singing contests.
Until a tragedy fell upon the family.His mother,who had been suffering from rheumatic heart disease,passed away when he was 13 years old.Her illness had left their family bankrupt.
Unable to sufficiently provide for the family,his father,who was a tailor, took his two brothers to live with relatives,while Arnel had to stop school and struck out on his own literally out on the streets.He collected scrap metal,bottles,and old newspapers.Despite all these hardships,he remained optimistic about his future.
He auditioned for different bands until he landed on his first gig as lead singer of Ijos Band when he 15 years old. He scored gigs in HongKong where he entertained for 15 years.In 2006,talent manager and TV director Bert de Leon encouraged Arnel to move back to the Philippines and formed a band called "The Zoo"
But as destiny would have it, a diehard fan named Noel Gomez uploaded videos of the band's performances on YouTube.It was thanks to those videos and Noel,that Arnel wound up at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater in Chile, on February 21 last year,performing for the first time as the new lead singer of the legendary 80s rock band Journey.