I often hear the song The Warrior Is a Child being sung by Gary Valenciano on the radio or on YouTube. I used to believe that he is the original singer and composer of that song. Until I found out that a woman during her 20s actually wrote and sang the original version.
Twila Paris, born December 28, 1958, is an inspirational music singer, songwriter, author and pianist. She wrote The Warrior Is a Child when she was 22 years old, at a time when she was “being counseled by one of the elders in her home church about the stresses of her growing fame in the Christian music industry” and she placed it under the “subject matter of the frailty of the inner spirit”. It was released in 1984 and, in my opinion, it is quite better than Gary V’s version.
Just listen to Twila Paris sing The Warrior Is a Child here:
Compare that to Gary V’s:
There is also this great rendition of The Ateneo de Manila College Glee Club which won them the Grand Prize in the Cork International Choral Festival in 2012.
One version which I am not particularly fond of is that of Regine Velasquez. This 2011 video recording is, sorry to say, quite an ear sore.
Now don’t get me wrong. Regine is a very good singer. In fact, I’m a fan. But in that video, it felt to me like she was just shouting. Regine wasn’t able to give justice to the song the way Gary Valenciano did. That is, for that moment.
So what do you think? For me, Twila Paris’ original version of The Warrior Is a Child is much better than Gary V’s. If you have any other opinion or violent reactions (I do hope it is not too violent) just shout it out in the comments. And please, don’t take my opinion on Regine Velasquez personally. Peace.