credit: Nandito Ako
As I read blogs, comments, and watch videos of DA on AI, one thought keeps running through my mind: Be Careful What You Wish For!
I remember the topics:
- The difficulties and struggles of the school-age participants
- The discussions on last minute song changes or refusal of song choices
- The judges comments/support or lack thereof
- The overwhelming response of the musicians, audience and public
- The worry over contracts and what they might mean
- The struggle and pressure to produce an album, with music videos
- The pressure and joy of the AI traveling concerts (I was – and still am, I expect – completely in love with the AI concerts that DA did!!)
- The blogs, the “owners”, the tours under contract
- The discussions about pros and cons of different publicists, labels, genres, bands
- The wonder of experiencing DA’s constant change-ups, licks, interpretations, and heart-delivery: love, vulnerability, and strength
And on, and on. And with every challenge: More DA. More exposure. More learning about it all. And about him, as well.
credit: Lily
There are also many aspects of DA that I could not fully know at the time, because I learned about him through the medium of AI. And many, many times: the medium is the message.
I remember how there were discussions on how wonderful it would be when DA was free of the AI contract(s), and could do things more his own way.
I thought to myself how for me at least, it was like a dichotomy: I did not want AI to “own” him. Yet I felt a certain ownership myself. And it was because AI “owned” him that the whole dynamic of “ownership” came up in the first place. I felt like I had a window into DA. Their ownership gave me the illusion of ownership as well. (Like really identifying with a character in a movie or story – I value the experience, I value my own experience with the character – I learn, and it becomes part of my life.) I think that is part of the attraction of “reality” television shows.
Of course, I never wanted to “own” DA. I just wanted the closeness to continue more or less the same. But I didn’t realize. How could I? I had never been on a reality show. I did not become a “public figure” at the age of 16. And “Dear DA” never wanted to be a public figure in the first place. He just wanted to follow the direction of the spirit and sing. It brought him publicity. It brought him to AI. It brought him to me. I am grateful.
So now, like before, I find myself “wishing for DA”. Wishing for him to be happy, for him to find the music he loves and a way to share it … especially, I wish for the continuation of it’s impact on my life. I admit that!
It is January 2016 and yes, why not? I am “wishing for DA”. And as I already have got most of my other wishes, that he be free, that he can do the music he, himself chooses, that he can do things “his own way”…. Is it too selfish of me to hope that my other wishes will be met as well? Hey! It could happen!!
So I will make an unapologetic wish list:
- that DA tours this fall (or latest, next spring) all across the USA (and other countries), so that other fans can see him live
- that DA records a CD with Spanish music
- and one in English as well
- that the powers that raise him up will sustain him and successfully enlist his kind and honest heart in a new “contract” a new “ownership” that carries him onward and upward and…. Closer to so many who have come to love him. No matter how they came to “know” him.
Dear DA: We wish for you only the very best and brightest of futures. Fans just…well….want to be enfolded in the sounds of all the music that that future holds. You see, we love that sound and I believe that this is just the way it was meant to be.
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