Spanish Steps "One Shot" from their album "Stories of a Stranger", which contains the lyrics "Rome is burning, you can taste the embers / I am walking hard on Spanish Steps". In 2007, John Tesh of Entertainment Tonight fame, recorded an instrumental tune called "Spanish Steps" on his "A Passionate Life" album. On 16 January 2008, Italian artist Graziano Cecchini covered the Steps with hundreds of thousands of multicoloured plastic balls. He claimed that it was done to make the world notice the situation of the Karen people in Myanmar, and as a protest against the living conditions of artists in Italy.
Capital of the Philippines heavily armed Spaniards quickly defeating and crushing the native settlements to the ground. Legazpi and his men followed the next year and made a peace pact with the three rajahs and organized a city council consisting of two mayors, 12 councilors, and a secretary. A walled city known as "Intramuros", at the southern banks of Pasig River was built to protect the Spanish colonizers. On June 10, 1574, King Philip II of Spain gave Manila the title of "Insigne y Siempre Leal Ciudad" ("Distinguished and Ever Loyal City"). In 1595, Manila was proclaimed as the capital of the Philippine Islands