You Light Up My Life: A Song In My Youth Essay

If there is one song that reminds me of my childhood, I think You Light Up My Life by Debby Boone is the one. I don’t know why since the song is not intended for children, I think, but what I remember is that I usually hear this song being played always on the radio in my neighborhood. It is the first long song I can truly sing aside from the usual children’s songs of my time. I like the song’s easy tempo and the way it was sung by Debby Boone, soft at the beginning then turns a little louder at the chorus.

I remember in my second year in high school, we were asked to each sing a song in an outfit or dress appropriate to the song we were going to sing as part of the subject curriculum. If one is not confident about his voice, he can do lip synch as long as you know the lyrics of the song and you will be able to follow it. Our grades depended on our participation so there is no escaping the program. We even invited other teachers to watch and judge our performances. A classmate who sang the song High School Life wore her class uniform. Others wore their Sunday dress, polo with long sleeves and Barong Tagalog for the boys. I, who chose to sing this song, wore my graduation dress which I used when I graduated from elementary. It was below the knee, with ruffles on the sleeves and lots of lace. I practiced hard singing this song, complete with hand and body gestures, and I was confident that I could do it since I have been singing this song for so long. I watched my classmates one by one as they sang, others were nervous, others were calm. Most were wonderful in their numbers. When my time came, I became so nervous that I could hardly sing loud enough for everyone to hear. I cannot even move my hands, I just stood there murmuring my song in the microphone. I saw my teacher prodding me to sing louder and to move my arms and sway my body a bit to the music but I just can’t. When I finished my song, I almost cried because of humiliation. Good thing I have friends who were with me always during that time and told me that everything’s alright.

Debby Boone

Debby Boone is not the original singer of this song. But it is her version that became a huge success, always topping the Billboard Hot 100 for many weeks. It also gave Debby numerous nominations and awards in different award giving bodies like the Grammy Award and the American Music Award. Then she went on to singing country music like In Memory of Your Love. She later focused on singing Christian music.

Here is a video of Debby Boone singing You Light Up My Light.