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If you're like me, YouTube was where I discovered the incredible talents of many individuals who shared their voice, in ways that wasn't possible before. Sure, there are countless cat videos, and dumb pranks that breed more stupidity, but it is the ingenuity of other people around the world that allowed more opportunities of representation. In high school, there was a period of several musicians that got there start, and it was likes of people like Melissa Polinar, Gabe Bondoc, and Jeremy Passion that sang their hearts to anyone who would watch.
I was really into their music, and many other Filipino kids like myself, would know every lyric to their music, because we saw a bit of ourselves in them. It's a powerful thing to consider, and I can't help but wonder how strange that feeling may be.
Last year, in August, I had seen on Melissa's Instagram that the three artists I had listened to countless of times would be performing at The Chapel, a very intimate venue located in San Francisco. I saw Melissa and Gabe perform there the year before, and I had also taken my camera then, so I figured I'd do the same again, this time around.
The first time I had attended, I got pretty close to the stage, so I had no trouble taking pictures. It wasn't the case for round two. Where I stood wasn't far but I definitely ran into the occasional frustration where a fellow concert goer, who was too tall for their own good, would get in the way. Yet, the photos I did manage to capture, I was really happy with. Stylistically, all three artists performed differently from one another, in terms of their physical stage presence. I hoped to capture that, through Gabe's coolness, Melissa's heart, and Passion's...passion.
In fact, the biggest moment that hit me was when I had posted pictures from the concert on my Instagram. Melissa, herself, reached out to me and had asked to use the photo I took for promotional purposes, which, at the point, had made me so dumbfounded. I couldn't have typed "YES PLEASE" any faster, because I, frankly, get easily starstruck.
Like a chump.