YouTube videos from the Philippines have had its first share of stardom when not so long ago, a video clip of about a thousand Filipino prison inmates dancing synchronously to the tune of Michael Jackson’s Thriller attracted over 11 million views.

Once again, this time on a more grandiose note, comes another video uploaded from the Philippines that made another success story. It paved the way for famous American band “Journey” to find their next lead singer from video sharing giant - YouTube.

Journey’s guitarist Neal Schon first noticed the new would-be lead singer for their band on the popular video site YouTube.com. At first he could not believe how well this Filipino singer rendered Steve Perry’s most popular songs that he had to turn away from his computer for a while, and back again to convince himself that the amazing singer was indeed for real. At first he thought “He can’t be that good.. but then again he was really that good.” He tried to contact Arnel via the guy who originally uploaded Zoo’s (Arnel’s band) video.

When Arnel Pineda first heard from Journey guitarist Neal Schon for an audition, he thought it was a sick joke. But who wouldn’t? Journey is a very popular American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco, California. Highly celebrated especially from the 70’s through the early 80s for their power ballads such as “Don’t stop believing”, “Any Way You Want It”, “Faithfully”, “Open Arms”, “Separate Ways” and “Wheel in the Sky”. Arnel replaced the very popular Steve Perry.

Arnel Pineda began singing since he was 5. First joining amateur singing contests, then got his first break at age 15 when he became lead singer of the band “Hijos”. He joined other bands as lead singer such as “Amo”, “New Age”, and “Most Wanted”. After series of successful stints in Hong Kong where he got sick and almost lost his voice, he returned to the Philippines and eventually formed the “Zoo” band. Arnel Pineda and the Zoo band became so popular that their videos performing cover tracks from famous rock bands like Journey, Survivor, Led Zepelin and Air Supply began gaining popularity on YouTube. On December 5, 2007, Pineda was formally announced lead singer of Journey.

Just imagine how easy real talents are spotted today.. YouTube and the internet have made it possible. Arnel Pineda’s story is indeed one of the first real career success story born off video sharing networks, if not the real first one.

So how close really is Arnel Pineda’s voice compared to that of Steve Perry?

Let see, you decide from these videos: