Journey Takes To The Stage With New Lead Singer

Newly-hired Journey frontman, Arnel Pineda took to the stage with his new band mates for the first time a few nights ago at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Viña del Mar, Chile.

In the video of the performance below, you can see how he took on the legendary Journey ballad “Faithfully.”

Personally, I think he holds his own quite well onstage with the group. He’s not quite the shoe-in for the Steve Perry role that Stave Augeri was, but there’s a definite similarity in his style and voice and I think he’ll do quite will in his new role.

Tags: Arnel Pineda, Chile, Journey

New Journey Frontman Has Come A Long Way

The fact that Journey’s new lead singer, Arnel Pineda, is from the Philippines means he is in for one heck of a commute unless he plans to move to the Unites States, but  Pineda’s road to fame is a lot longer and more difficult than an airplane trip from Manila to San Francisco.

Once living on the streets of Manila as a result of serious financial problems following his mother’s death, Pineda was able to work his way back from homelessness and is now on the verge of fame and fortune he could only have dreamed about.

Discovered by Journey guitarist Neal Schon on the wildly popular video sharing site, YouTube, the 40-year old singer almost sabotaged the opportunity to join Journey’s ranks when he dismissed Schon’s e-mail as a hoax. I suspect most of us would have had the same reaction. Who would expect an e-mail from a guitarist from one of the world’s best-known classic rock groups?

On the first of February, Pineda will return to the U.S. to begin working with the group on a new album that might be released as early as this summer. It surely sounds like Journey was only lacking a single important element before being able to begin recording new material: A new singer.

Journey is a classic rock group that certainly appears to have a lot of life left in them. They have toured in recent years and with a new album planned for the summer, they are showing no sign of slowing down.

How Journey’s fans react to the new frontman remains to be seen, or course, but as far as the band is concerned, this guy is the real deal and there’s little doubt he has paid his musical dues, as well as the dues that have been demanded of him just to survive.

For more on Arnel Pineda’s amazing story, check out GMA Network.

Tags: Arnel Pineda, Journey, Singer

Journey Finds Their New Lead Singer

Now here’s a story that should keep aspiring YouTube performers in front of their video cameras. One of the best-known classic rock groups of all time, Journey, has hired a new lead singer and they found him, yes, you guessed it, on YouTube!

This is the classic “dream come true” story featuring Arnel Pineda, a singer from the Philippines who was singing with a band called The Zoo. A band that was known for singing songs by Journey.

Hearing that name, I would more expect a Scorpions cover band, but I suppose it can work for these guys as well. The name sure didn’t seem to hurt Pineda’s chance to make it big.

Frustrated with the lack of a lead singer after the departure of Jeff Scott Soto earlier in the year, guitarist Neil Schon decided to spend some quality time on YouTube searching for the right singer.After hours of searching and nearly throwing in the towel, Schon stumbled onto the video of The Zoo performing “Faithfully,” and was convinced he had found Journey’s new singer.

As you can see from the accompanying YouTube video of Journey’s new front man, the dude can sing. Although he is not quite the same Steve Perry shoe-in that Steve Augeri was, to my ears he certainly sounds enough like Perry to pull this off.

Pineda comes to the group at the right time it seems. Journey is currently working on a new album that they hope to release sometime next spring or summer.