The bane of my existence ♥

I am really loving this walking down memory lane stuff. ^^ It makes me reminisce of the good old days.

Before going gaga over TVXQ and the whole of the Korean culture, my major fandoms were American and British boybands.

Backsteet Boys, NSYNC, Westlife, Blue, 98 Degrees.

And then there was a1. I am making this extra special because they were my TVXQ back then ^^ I loved the other boybands that I mentioned, but a1 stood out among them all.

The year was 1999.
It was the boyband explosion era.


From left: Paul Marazzi, Christian Ingebrigsten, Ben Adams, Mark Read

a1 (yes, it's a small a and a 1) is an Anglo-Norwegian boyband whose first single, "Be the First to Believe", was released in 1999. The band consists of Mark Read, Ben Adams and Christian Ingebrigtsen. The group's publicity mainly focuses on the fact that they write the majority of their own songs and the three band members also play their own instruments. 

See? I go not for the looks but for the talent. What I loved most about a1 is their ability to compose songs and play musical instruments. (Okay TVXQ much)

My mom bought me a cassette tape (don't laugh, cassette tapes were the thing that time) of their 1st album called Here We Come. Seeing the cover itself without listening to the songs first made me ecstatic. I was in Grade 5 back then.


From left: Paul Marazzi, Mark Read, Ben Adams, Christian Ingebrigsten

My first reaction: dfjkfjkdhfdkjfhdakafd WHO THE HELL IS THE 3RD GUY??? I was instantly smitten by Ben Adams upon seeing that picture. I went gaga over his mesmerizing eyes and heart-shaped face. It's safe to say that he's my bias there. I remember me and my bestfriend Kamille ogling over Ben for blah blah blah times.

And so I listened to their album. Unlike in CDs wherein you can easily jump in to the next track with just a click, cassette tapes were way difficult to handle. The fast forward and rewind buttons were my constant buddies then.

And now for the tracklist:

See how many songs they've written? Almost all. :D

Heaven By Your Side is my all time favorite a1 song. The melody and the harmonization was great, there was no overlapping of voices, and lyrics are really romantic :) I also remember tuning in to a weekly countdown on our local radio and voting for this as the number one song. Too bad no MV was released for this song. NSYNC's This I Promise You was its greatest competitor back then. This song, together with TVXQ's On&On will be my wedding song. :)

Like A Rose, a song written by Ben Adams when he was 16 was also a staple in the charts alongside Everytime. It was the time wherein boybands gave OPM artists a run for their money.

And oh. This is Ben. :) Biased much. XD






Oh yes. I could sit all day doing this post. ^^


a1 during the shoot of Summertime of Our Lives MV. HELLO HAIRY BEN <3

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In 2000, my aunt gave me a1's second album, The A List as a graduation gift. :)


From left: Mark Read, Ben Adams, Christian Ingebrigsten, Paul Marazzi

The 1st single was a remake of a-ha's 1980 hit song, Take On Me. It was well-received by fans and it was added to their laurel of hit songs. My mom personally loved a1's version because it was well-made. :)

Here's the tracklist:

Here goes their songwriting prowess again.^^

Living the Dream was my favorite track in the album. Ben's voice is simply heaven. *sighs*

"I can't believe we're living the dream, we're diggin' that scene, we finally made it through the fire.
Something 'bout you blows me away,like night over day, we're kissing the loneliness goodbye yeah.

True love, true love, baby could this be? True love, true love, baby happenin' to me."

/brb spazzinggggggg I'm so dying of so much giddiness here

And yes, they dance too! The MV for Same OId Brand New You showcased their dancing skills. Wet Ben is wet. :D :D

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And then they came here.

Pathetic me, I wasn't able to see them in their mall shows. My mom just wouldn't let me because she said I might get squeezed in the audience with all the pushing, pulling, and shoving. Uknow how fangirls are. It's always a frenzy whenever they see their idols in the flesh. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. /jumps off the building

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Upon the release of their third studio album entitled Make It Good, the boyband phenomenon in the Philippines was already dying. ><


From left: Ben Adams, Mark Read, Christian Ingebrigsten, Paul Marazzi

Turns out, this will be the last album of the group as a whole before Paul Marazzi left in  2002 for personal reasons. *sniffs then sobs*

Then they released two compilation albums in 2002 and 2004:

The Best of a1


Greatest Hits

Released on 2 February 2009, following Ben Adams' appearance on Celebrity Big Brother. The album was a commercial failure, following poor promotion and very low sales. It was announced via Ben Adam's Twitter account that the band plans to re-release the album at some point in the future, with the addition of any singles they release during that time. Sad. ><

And yes. Here's Ben Adams now:






fjkdfhfkjdhfkdsjhsjkhcsfvjhbvscjvbcvfs HOLY MACARONI PEPPERONI /incoherent

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Waiting for Daylight


Waiting for Daylight is the a1's fourth studio album. The album was released on 11 October 2010, and is the band's first new material in over eight years.  Now that picture reminds me of TVXQ's Mirotic album version B.

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By the time a1 released their compilation albums, I was already a TVXQ fan.

Although I don't spazz anymore on them like I used to 10 years ago, I still love them to death because of their excellent skills in singing and songwriting. :)))))

And yes. It was really fun reminiscing how I was 12 years ago. :)