President Arroyo sings with Richard Carpenter in Philippine

[SakuraSYayoi]

After I found Richard on the news in Philippines, I have checked Filipino sites. The same site, which had Richard's video, uploaded Richard's video with President Arroyo on Feb. 14th. When you search, you can find a dozen of articles about Richard in Philippine, some news have Richard's photo, such as AFP or the Standard.HK.

Yesterday, Arroyo shrugged off her troubles to spend Valentine's Day singing a duet with Richard Carpenter of The Carpenters fame.

Carpenter met with Arroyo at the presidential palace....

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=61595&sid=17608966&con_type=1

Arroyo sings with Richard Carpenter, Claire de la Fuente on V Day
MARK UBALDE, GMANews.TV
02/14/2008 | 07:01 PM

Amid the controversies hounding her administration, a mellow President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took time to sing with legendary 70’s singer Richard Carpenter and Claire de la Fuente in Malacańang on Valentine's Day.

Richard, one half of the melodic pop duo, The Carpenters, made a courtesy call to President Arroyo on Thursday to promote an album.

The President, wearing an orange V-neck dress, was accompanied by De la Fuente, a.k.a. "Karen Carpenter of the Philippines," in singing her favorite Carpenters song "I Have You." ....

"Oh she sang that really well," Carpenter, who was in a barong, said. "The President sang absolutely lovely and what meant more to me than listening to her sing is that she knows the words and music to one of our lesser known songs. Not one of the greater hits and that really means something."

"The only one [who] didn't sound too good was [me]," he joked.

At the peak of their career, Richard and sister Karen had three No. 1 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen No. 1 hits in the Adult Contemporary Singles Charts, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Their singing career ended after Karen’s death in 1983 due to complications of anorexia nervosa.

For Valentine’s Day, Carpenter hoped that President Arroyo will, "have the rest of this day be as special as it has been to this degree."

As to her personal Valentine's celebration, Arroyo told reporters that she and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo had no plans yet for Valentine's.

The American artist arrived in the Philippines to promote De la Fuente’s first international album, where she sang Carpenter's composition, "Something in Your Eyes."

The two met for the first time last December after De la Fuente sent Carpenter a recorded cover of one of the Carpenters’ popular songs.

Carpenter's lyricist accompanied De la Fuente to his house in California to hear her sing....

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/80601/Arroyo-sings-with-Richard-Carpenter-Claire-de-la-Fuente-on-V-Day

VIDEO on GMA NEWS.TV. (The audio sounds very bad on my speaker)
Arroyo sings with Richard Carpenter, Claire de la Fuente
http://www.gmanews.tv/video/18094/Arroyo-sings-with-Richard-Carpenter-Claire-de-la-Fuente

Sakura

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

A photo released by the Presidential Close-in Photographers Office, PCPO, Malacanang Palace in Manila, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo,center, poses with international performer Richard Carpenter, right, and Filipino singer Claire Dela Fuente, left (Hope the link works)

 

[Actorman]

"Carpenter's lyricist accompanied De la Fuente to his house in California to hear her sing...."

Gee, this is vague. Do they mean the lyricist for the unnamed hit cover version which would most likely be John Bettis? Or is it the lyricist of "Something In Your Eyes" which, if I remember correctly, is Pamela Philips Oland?

 

[SakuraSYayoi]

"Carpenter's lyricist accompanied De la Fuente to his house in California to hear her sing...."

Gee, this is vague. Do they mean the lyricist for the unnamed hit cover version which would most likely be John Bettis? Or is it the lyricist of "Something In Your Eyes" which, if I remember correctly, is Pamela Philips Oland?

The lyricist is not John but Pamela. In the second photo the woman behind them may be Pamela(?) Pamela took Claire to Richard's house last December and visits Philippines with Richard and Mary. The woman was sitting next to Mary in the video, I think.

Sakura