Local R&B singer Kris Lawrence has no doubt benefited from Wham!’s “Careless Whisper” becoming hot again in light of the Katrina Halili-Hayden Kho sex video scandal. But lo, the release of his version of the ’80s hit is not intentional or wasn’t done to cash on the talk of town that continuous to sweep the nation in the same breadth as that of the pandemic-level flu.

While incidentally he is also known as an ex-boyfriend of Halili, Lawrence has made listeners wonder that his radio stint off the piece originally sung and co-written by George Michael is some sort of gimmick. His cover is a number off his new album “Moments of Love” which will be released tonight at 8 p.m. at the Eastwood Central Plaza.

“We already put out the song even before the video scandal became a major thing. It was simply coincidence,” says MCA Music’s ad prom head Grace Foronda in a chat with the Manila Bulletin.

The Star in a Million Season 2 Grand Winner, Lawrence worked on the 80s hits theme in choosing the album tracks. Apart from “Careless Whisper,” “Moments of Love” boasts his suave renditions of popular tunes like “Suddenly,” “Your Song,” “Now and Forever,” “Without You,” “We All Fall In Love Sometimes,” and his next single “Just Tell Me You Love Me.” Some of the songs are duets with Billy Crawford (“All My Life”), Jay-R (“Right Here Waiting,” “Honesty”), and Denise Laurel (“I Will Take You Forever”).

Three years after he released his signature hit “Kung Malaya Lang Ako,” the piano prodigy has recorded an album where he successfully displayed his talent on the keys. Drum machines were set aside. “It’s all feel. I just sat down at the piano and punched in,” he recalled. It is said that long before he discovered his singing potential, Kris was already a piano prodigy at age 5. During his childhood years in the US, he was enrolled at the Yamaha School of Music where his teachers put him in the Composers’ Class – the only eight-year-old in a class of students twice his age.

Asked why of all songs “Careless Whisper” was picked as Lawrence’s carrier single, Foronda noted, “We at MCA and his manager Arnold Vegafria thought his version of the song is beautiful enough to be the album’s first radio song.”

While there must be so much hate against warring camps involved in the controversy featuring “Careless Whisper” as accidental soundtrack, Lawrence is definitely enjoying his own moment with the ’80s classic.