Sounds familiar...

There are only 18 songs in my ITunes at the moment, which might make it the most lame and most boring ITune in the whole universe, and maybe even the next. Because of this, I've made it a habit to connect to the network and mooch off my other colleagues ITunes. That's the great thing about having an office network, you can benefit from other people's resources.

Golf must have the most number of songs in the office. He has around 30 days worth, if I'm not mistaken. He has a very varied selection, which is awesome. Best of all, he has Sophie Ellis Bextor, which means he definitely has taste. I'm a big fan of Sophie since 2002, but unfortunately, her albums aren't available in Manila or Hong Kong. I should have gotten one of her CDs when I was in Europe last year. He also has Carpenters, Isaac Hayes, Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone, so you can tell this kid has got an old soul. Alas, he has no Britney Spears, though.

Today, I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and listen to my other officemates' iTunes. The first one I saw was Keith's, so after a quick double click, I was in his song network. I expected Keith's selection to be predominantly Chinese. Since he's a Hong Kong Chinese, I could imagine him listening to KellyJackie, Rain, and the Twins all day long. When I began poring through is music selection, my deduction proved to be a correct one. Most of the songs are written in Chinese, so they're of no use to me.

Still, my persistence led me to scroll down and down and down. And while doing that, I saw this very familiar title:

"You made me stronger."

I thought... could it be? Could it be the song of Asia's Songbird, Ms. Regine Velazquez? Could it be the song she wrote after breaking up with Ariel Rivera? Curious, I double clicked on the song, and waited with baited breath.

"Is it hard to believe i'm ok? After all, it's been a while since you've walked away. I'm way past crying over you finding someone new..."

Yes! It was Regine! It was so great hearing one of her songs after a long time. Not because i'm a fan, but Regine really has one of the best voices on the planet. She's got the voice of an angel, and listening to her is so soothing - even if she's shrieking 40% of the time when she sings. So that song played for a few times before deciding to move on further down the list.

Then I saw it...

"Bulag, Pipi at Bingi."

Whoa! How could that classic Filipino song be in my Chinese officemate's iTunes! I double clicked on the tune just to make sure, and it was indeed the ditty that every Pinoy must know.

Wondering why he had Pinoy songs in his list, I checked the album title to see the source of these 2 songs. The Album title is "Classic Asian Love Songs", and was produced in HK. By the way, that's also where "You made me stronger" came from. This little factoid made me break into a big smile. That's because: 1. Two Pinoy songs are considered Classic Asian Love Songs in Hong Kong, and 2. My Chinese officemate likes listening to it. (I checked the playlist, and he plays these 2 songs often.)

I should chat with Keith one of these days so we can talk about Regine. He might want to know more about the voice behind the song.

And yes, it looks like i'll hang out Keith's iTunes more often these days.