LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts/ Angelman Foundation) - With over 20 No 1 hits already to his credit, songwriter Regie Hamm chalked up his biggest hit this week, as his American Idol-winning song, "The Time of My Life" (recorded by last season's A.I. winner,
David Cook), jumped to the No 1 spot across the board on the AC charts.
The song has also become synonymous with the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was featured as the closing number on NBC's international coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, last week, a performance of the song was featured on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" in a tribute to the 2008 American Beijing athletes.
But for five years prior to this American Idol win and rejuvenated bounty, Hamm's family was in chaos, turmoil and financial ruin after a meteoric songwriting rise, a successful pop CD release and a single that was No 15 with a bullet on the charts...and climbing.
A multiple SESAC Songwriter of the Year in 1995, 1996, 1997 and 2000, Hamm and his wife were a "jet-setting, highly paid, well-groomed couple who understood success and how to achieve it," reflects Hamm. Upon learning that they could not have children of their own, they went to China and adopted a baby girl.
From that moment on, Regie was "Isabella's daddy. Everything else was a footnote." He was poised to hit the road, promoting his CD after that China trip; but adopting Isabella began a harrowing 5-years' long labor of love, raising a child with an undiagnosed, rare genetic disorder, now called Angelman Syndrome.
"I lost my record deal, we sold our house, and no one was interested in signing me, recording my songs or having me produce anything," Hamm recounts. "My wife, who at one time had been an executive with an expense account, took a job at a call center to provide insurance for the family."
In March of this year, "with no publishing deal, no record deal and no career left to speak of, my wife, Yolanda urged me to write a finale song for American Idol. With nothing to lose, I came up with the line "'...taste every moment and live it out loud.'" And now with that phrase on the tips of the tongue of millions of fans around the world, Regie Hamm has gained perspective after nearly losing everything.
"You can't see the circle while you're making it. Only special moments can allow you to see all of it...China...babies...songs...music...dreams...success...happiness. They all mean different things to me now. Any plan I could've developed would never have been as beautiful and unexpected. This one was divine."
"The Time of My Life" debuted at No 1 on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart and is closing fast on the magical 1 million-download mark on iTunes. It is currently No 1 on Billboard's AC chart. Hamm now sits on the Board of the newly founded Angelman Foundation, FAST (www.cureangelman.org), and has become a voice for the possible cures and incredible scientific breakthroughs for this incurable disease.
