From Manila Park Benches to Fronting Journey

Arnel Pineda was born on 5 September 1967 in Tondo, Manila. His mother encouraged him to sing, and his childhood favourites were songs by Karen Carpenter and Barbra Streisand. When he was 13, his mother died of heart disease, leaving the family in debt. His father left Arnel and his siblings in the care of relatives.

The Philippine Star reported that he then slept on the streets for about two years, in public parks or on a bench outside a friend's house. He earned a small living by selling glass bottles, newspapers and scrap metal to recyclers, and at times he lived on little more than Marie biscuits. The article offers no further detail about how he got through those years.

Singing remained part of his life. At 15 he became lead singer of a group called Ijos, which played at a pizza parlour on Taft Avenue in Manila, and he later joined another group, Amo.

Years later he was discovered on YouTube. He replaced Steve Perry, who left the American rock band Journey in 2006, and has been the band's singer for more than ten years. Journey, with Pineda in the line-up, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and in 2018 the band began a 58-concert US tour at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Pineda described the experience as magical and said it had changed his life radically, in a way that felt like a continuing dream. He considers himself very lucky, and says he is working hard to maintain the Journey sound. He is married to Cherry Flores, with whom he has three children, and has three other children from his first marriage.