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Behind the Music: 'Christmas Won't Be the Same Without You' by Martin Nievera

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Leah C. Salterio

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gS-pwomkLtM?enablejsapi=1"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>Did you know that it was not Martin Nievera who originally sang the first Christmas song he composed, “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You?”</p><p>In 1985, when Nievera was still hosting “Penthouse Live” together with and Pops Fernandez, he was requested by their TV director, Fritz Ynfante, to write a Christmas song. It came a few months shy of their altar date in June 1986.</p><p>“I wrote the song for a Christmas special ‘Penthouse Live’ was planning,” Nievera told ABS-CBN News. “Tito Fritz Infante, our director and dear friend whom I owe my whole TV career to, wanted a couple of original songs for the special and challenged me to write one, but I needed a story. A true story.”</p><p>Nievera didn’t have to look far. Beside him all the time was his co-host Fernandez, who had a really unique, true Christmas story.</p><p>“I chose to write this song about my dear, dear bestest friend,” Nievera said. “Throughout her childhood, Pops never had a real traditional Christmas with her father, the late Eddie Fernandez.</p><p>“For those who don’t know the story, Papa Eddie was wrongfully accused of a crime he did not commit and spent many Christmases behind bars. So Pops never really spent a noche buena kind of a Christmas with her father. Ever.”</p><p>It didn’t take long for Nievera to pen his first Christmas song about the “unique” Christmas story of Fernandez and her dad. The melody was subsequently added and thus was born “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You.”</p><p>“That was the very first Christmas song I had ever written,” Nievera beamed. “Tito Fritz loved it and included it in the ‘Penthouse Live’ Christmas special. The only difference was naturally, it was Pops who first sang it on TV. I later recorded it for my first ever Christmas album with Vicor, released in 1987.”</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZD3y_JAu7uQ?enablejsapi=1"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>To this day, “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You” has been in the roster of Christmas songs every Yuletide season. It has become a sentimental favorite of many Filipinos.</p><p>“It’s a Christmas song I don’t have to sing all by myself,” Nievera said. “The moment we get to the chorus of ‘Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You,’ everyone sings along. It’s the most beautiful feeling any singer-songwriter can ever experience.”</p><p>It turned out that “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You” was not the only Yuletide tune that Nievera wrote, although the song became one of the selections in his very first Christmas album, “A Martin Nievera Christmas,” under Vicor Records.</p><p>“My biggest dream as a frustrated songwriter was to write a Christmas song and to hear it during the Christmas season on the radio and in the malls, right after an old Johnny Mathis Christmas classic,” Nievera said. “When that happened I knew my dream came true. After that song, I was hooked. To this day, I love writing Christmas songs.”</p><p>The following Christmas, Nievera got to record another Christmas song, “Christmas Time, “ where his eldest, Robin, was only a few months old. “For the recording, Robin made a cameo role during the fade out of the song,” Nievera recalled.</p><p>Even when he transferred to another company with Polyeast Records, Nievera didn’t stop writing Christmas songs. “A month after 9/11 happened in 2001, I wrote two more,” he said. “The first was, ‘My Heart Song,’ a Christmas song I wrote inspired by an 11-year-old boy who wrote a book with the same title. His name was Mathew Stepanek and even on a wheelchair with a very rare form of muscular dystrophy, he was able to write a song.</p><p>“I saw Matthew on the Oprah [Winfrey] show and he spoke words of wisdom beyond his years right after the planes crashed into the twin towers. His interview with Oprah became the lyrics to the song named after his book, ‘My Heart Song.’</p><p>“Then, soon after during the same Christmas, that song gave birth to another again, ‘Can’t Stop Christmas,’ written with my good friend Louie Ocampo also for the fallen heroes of 9/11.”</p><p>Through the years, “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You” has been recorded by other artists and Nievera cannot be more proud every time he hears a re-imagined version of his first Christmas song.</p><p>“To hear other people sing that song and make it their own is a big compliment,” he maintained. “But more importantly, when someone else sings my ‘Christmas Won’t be the Same Without You,’ it assures my place in the Christmas season and adds life to the song, bringing it one more Christmas closer to becoming an old Christmas classic.”</p><p>During these uncertain times with the pandemic not abating yet, Christmas 2020 remains uncertain for every Filipino. “No one really knows what will Christmas this year be like.” Nievera allowed. “So I decided to write yet another Christmas song, with, of course, my dear friend Louie Ocampo.</p><p>“Only this time, it is not just a song. It’s my Christmas wish for everyone, as we all hope and pray for better times and a better Christmas. My wish for everyone is, ‘A Brand New Christmas’.”</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7fiJmhefcxc?enablejsapi=1"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><div><strong>A Brand New Christmas</strong></div><p>Music: Louie Ocampo<br/>Lyrics: Martin Nievera</p><p><br/>A brand new Christmas<br/>A brand new day<br/>I stand beside you, but you seem so far away<br/>A brand new normal is what they say<br/>A brand new Christmas can’t take this away</p><p>A happy Christmas through unhappy days<br/>You can’t stop Christmas no matter what people say<br/>Merry Christmas, a better New Year<br/>A brand new Christmas<br/>A Christmas without fear</p><p>A brand new Christmas<br/>An old Christmas tree<br/>I’ve got my family sharing one Christmas eve<br/>In different countries, so far apart<br/>It’s complicated, thank God we made it</p><p>A happy Christmas through unhappy days<br/>You can’t stop Christmas<br/>No matter what people say<br/>Merry Christmas, a better New Year<br/>A Christmas without fear</p><p>(Bridge) Each day and every day<br/>Been through it all together my hope<br/>My every prayer is living, loving, giving, healing<br/>Holding each other</p><p>A happy Christmas through unhappy days<br/>You can’t stop Christmas<br/>No matter what people say<br/>Merry Christmas, a better New Year<br/>A brand new Christmas<br/>A Christmas without fear</p><div><strong>Related video:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wnN5krujBbQ?enablejsapi=1"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Did you know that it was not Martin Nievera who originally sang the first Christmas song he composed, “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You?”</p>

Did you know that it was not Martin Nievera who originally sang the first Christmas song he composed, “Christmas Won’t Be the Same Without You?”