When Harrison Craig came to Knox City

By Maria Smith

It must have been my lucky day on 1 July when visiting Knox City after work. I found Harrison Craig and his entourage still signing CDs and taking photos with the remaining fans waiting patiently since the shopping centre opened at 8 am.

Security guards busily walked around, looking exhausted amidst hundreds of spectators and avid fans of young Harrison Craig whose smile certainly captivates and transcends one’s emotions particularly when he sang “Unchained Melody” and “You Raise Me Up” from his newly released album “More Than A Dream”.

Unquestionably, Harrison’s magical appeal has provided a superb opportunity for people to relate to this young man whose winning voice not only brought about a lot of romanticism in our lounge rooms recently during the highly-exciting Voice competitions. Personally, this brought back memories of the Nora Aunor and Sharon Cuneta era in the Philippines when as a young teenager, I would queue up a mile just to touch their shadows, and if lucky grab their highly-sought autographs.  Needless to say, I love singing just like the millions of Filipinos out there!

At the backstage, Harrison’s equally famous brother, young Connor, looked exhausted and certainly wanting to end the day but not before a photograph with your humble reporter whose lucky day never seemed to end.  I waved at Harrison and before I knew it, he was right next to me and my daughter Leilani posing with that captivating smile that also brought back those memories of yesteryears watching “Tawag ng Tanghalan” and getting to meet the singing stars when lucky.

Just as he was getting ready to leave, Harrison’s exhausted mother still managed to give me a smile after a terribly long and overwhelming day at Knox City. I wanted to give her a hug but worried she might fall asleep in my arms.

Yes, when Harrison Craig came to Knox City, I went back in time too, it was a beautiful feeling!