Is Filipino Music Going International?
Bing Image Creator: golden musical notes, stars and a huge suspension bridge against a blue sky at dawn in 2010s record cover style
Filipinos have performed as musicians internationally at least since the 19th century. Soledad’s Sister, the novel, has the KTV bar singer Rory hoping to perform in Saipan. There are by now regular concerts by Filipino groups for Filipino communities abroad, with the 1MX Music Festival recently in London and soon to be in Sydney and Toronto. Still just one Filipino group – SB19 – have built a truly international fan base as of now, including people who found out about them without the usual Pinoy friends or relatives.
#PPopRise
Of course SB19 are partly riding on the coattails of KPop, which first reached the West in the noughties and was known everywhere by the time Gangnam Style came out. KPop itself has its roots in American influence especially due to post-WW2 US troops. What has changed since the ’50s is that global culture has become extremely diverse, with genres such as reggaeton or Afropop achieving international influence as well – which makes me ask: why not PPop also, given Filipino talent and global presence?
Post-WW2 Philippines also started by imitating American stars, for instance with Eddie Mesa as the Filipino Elvis. The 1970s brought OPM on one side and Filipino rock on the other, with names such as Hotdog and Pepe Smith respectively. The 1990s brought a further boom in Filipino rock bands. I tend to see imitation, adaptation and innovation as the stages of assimilating foreign influence into one’s own culture, including music. PPop as a product of more recent Korean influence I think has gone through similar stages.
#SB19
Trained since 2016 under a Korean firm, SB19 made its debut five years ago with a video showing only Koreans, though the music was in Filipino. Their music video “Go Up” in a Korean-inspired style wasn’t successful either at first. It took a dance practice video with the five young men going viral to make it a hit. SB19 eventually left their Korean management and have gradually developed a unique style going from typical Filipino ballads to rap, house and R&B – with all as strong vocalists and performers.
Their at times rocky route to fame involved critics and haters, but also their very loyal fan base, known as A’tin, pronounced eighteen as that comes before nineteen, but also has the connotation of atin, ours. WYAT, meaning Where You At, a retro number about reconnecting to friends and family after the pandemic, kicked off their 2022 global tour. Fans from Canada travelled to US concert venues to see them. Regine Velasquez sang their song “Hanggang Sa Huli” with them at the homecoming concert of the WYAT tour.
A new era?
The almost cinematic trailer for their recent #Pagtatag EP made me finally notice SB19. Some years ago Giancarlo had mentioned PPop to me but I wasn’t really interested yet. Another group, Alamat were the ones I first noticed, with their catchy number Aswang. Some weeks after the Pagtatag trailer, SB19 came out with Gento, a word play on ganito (like this) and ginto (gold) – a word play typical for their leader Pablo, who composes the group’s music. Dance videos of Gento went up worldwide on Tiktok and elsewhere.
With their their originality and creativity fully unleashed, they were noticed by influencers just before their present tour to the USA and Canada, which starts July 21st in Chicago. Even the start of their world tour with two concerts at the Araneta Coliseum in June put them on the map of many Filipinos, who wondered what was going on and who is SB19. Nowadays their music is the background for many a graduation dance in the Philippines. Recently, a collaboration with US songwriter JVKE called Golden Hour was released.
What is key I think to international appeal is to have something both universal and unique, something human that all can relate to, but with an own distinct flavor. This isn’t just about commercial success. It’s also about soft power via cultural influence, about the Philippines as a brand. And about Filipinos succeeding through perseverance and determination as positive role models. With 1Z which is SB19 managing itself wanting to help Filipino talents, it is also about new opportunities. Let us see where this all leads.
Irineo B. R. Salazar
Munich, 15 July 2023
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The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Two SB19 interviews, one by Karen Davila last year and a recent one by VOA news:
nice interviews.
Thanks for convincing me about PPop. Just to give a further idea to all of what the SB19 can do and especially how wildly creative Pablo is two videos – one is a Filipino lovesong and one is Pablo’s solo number with his dark side.
SB19 concert dates:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02CnJ5EWjXnFeT26SvmU1zRM1Vd61rvJgZMMMEvE18eCWP9dCo2i8H7iU8t1njgRadl&id=100044484037423
And a recent video to give an idea of how they perform live:
The song Freedom is from their new EP.
This is a video of a school singing MAPA by SB19 as graduation song..
For comparison, the version by Ben and Ben together with SB19:
The song Mapa refers to parents (Ma, Pa) and the guidance (mapa) they give.
Meanwhile, fans in Canada promote SB19’s coming Vancouver concert:
And a KOREAN group dances to the rhythm of Gento by SB19.
The world is so different now from the time Eddie Mesa emulated Elvis.
https://www.ppopprofiles.com/post/who-is-sb19
posted a short hx of the the boyband sb19. it is now apparent, ‘we give you the best’ the dept of tourism slogan made specially for pinoy nurses in london at the time of king charles III’s coronation is utterly, utterly myopic and terribly short sighted!
rightly and truly, it is not only nurses but music band that our country gives best to the world, and sb19 is among the best of music bands. it wont be long before sb19 won a grammy!
Thanks kb, that is truly an excellent summary of their path.. an important aspect I didn’t mention in my article was Ikako, SB19’s hymn to frontliners.
https://www.ppopprofiles.com/alamatprofile
The above profile from the same page is of Alamat, the group which first made me see that PPop is more than a KPop copy – my original prejudice and that of many.
https://www.ppopprofiles.com/post/sb19-gento
The above article interprets the many metaphors in the SB19 Gento video, actually an analysis that makes the most sense and seems the most complete of all.. great reference website!
Re Alamat, even if this video is a bit confusing at times, it is one of their greatest pieces – about siblings whose parents work abroad and their crises, in many different Philippine languages. Alamat isn’t quite where SB19 is yet, but they have been around just two years and are around 5 years younger than them, so they may yet go places.
Not PPop but certainly part of the very interesting stuff happening on the Philippine music scene is this new rap single “Otro Klase” by WUT from Zamboanga – with verses in English, Tagalog, Bisaya and Chabacano.
There is a lot of energy behind all of this, and who knows where it may lead. See y’all..
The Zamboanga video has one man rapping in Tausug BTW, nearly forgot that.
And there is one more unusual detail actually two which I leave to y’all to spot.
gangsta or rap music is not really my thing, though I am stoked young people are finding their niche, creating their own type of of music, being social, learning to be in a team and how to make a team work, being mindful and supportive of one another and harnessing their creative energy. and if it comes with financial windfall, moral or others, all the more reason to support them.
it can never be said that filipinos lack artistic talent.
The talent is definitely there. Of course, there are among the young people those like the Cebuana Morissette Amon, aka Mori, who are in a league of her own. Nobody says Filipina Whitney Houston or Filipina Mariah Carey referring to her, she is simply Morissette, named after Alanis Morissette by her father who was a rock fan. Here, she sings what Whitney sang at the Academy Awards in 1994.
Or take Gigi De Lana and her band Gigi Vibes, basically a highly versatile former wedding band that streamed during the pandemic and went viral, catapulting especially her to stardom. She doesn’t only do the belting Filipinas are known for. She has rock numbers like “Unholy.”
Mori and Gigi have a duet singing Toni Braxton, Regine Velasquez has a birit queens showdown with 5 young divas, including Mori, Regine, Mori and Gigi each have Wish Bus performances. The rock band Aegis (all women) from the 1990s also performs on the Wish Bus etc etc
I have to say most of the new music I listen to right now may be called Pandemic mix. Discovered most of them during the Pandemic and thus will have that special place in my heart and mind as helped me cope during one of my worst times.
The pandemic was also when the Herrera siblings, Waleska and Efra, Venezuelan siblings sitting high and dry in London, discovered Filipino music in general. Pilita Corrales singing in Spanish reminding them of “bolero” songs. Nowadays, they have been through nearly every major performance by Mori, have interviewed Pilita Corrales, Gary V. and Jaya and have even featured Tawag ng Tanghalan old episodes a number of times.
Being grounded is a nice way of finding new things. For me, it was the time I wrote the Going Home series with Karl and a number of other landmark articles. Knew almost nothing about that PPop that still looked strange to me. If I had known about Morissette I might have gotten hooked on her music, Gigi maybe not as much, though I have noticed that Gigi has a certain way about her a lot of American male reactors respond to. Different strokes for different folks. One can see the difference in style between Mori and Gigi in this Toni Braxton duet by them.
Still compared to that Bini for instance seems bland to me – though another might find them nice and comforting with none of the usual Filipino diva drama. Even as Lagi by them starts nearly teenybopper style, it does start to pick up later. I would have put in a pinch of salt and pepper, meaning a bit of “Gigi Vibes” and some “Mori” but that’s just me, still a bit more spicy would be what one would associate with the tropical Philippines. SB19 manages to mix song and rap, balance ballads with faster and at times edgier numbers. I didn’t like the rap from Kaia or G22 as it didn’t sound authentic. If song comes from the heart, rap comes from the gut and one feels what place it comes from. In that case, I prefer Bini even if at times too nice. Women PPop groups could learn from veterans like 4th Impact is my impression.
There is a certain joy in doing something that feels like play. It is imperative that we Filipinos help find each other this great place where we uplift each other.
Also felt that Alamat was sometimes missing something. I remember watching their YouTube channel pre debut and they seem to have had a more Korean training like experience at least in the surface level. They lived in one house Pinoy Big Brother style that was their dorm and had training from various coaches. I assumed that they were given allowances during their training days.
Well, the WHAT song by SB19 was similar to Ily-Ily in being overloaded, trying to do too much at the same time. I admit I have similar articles. In any creative endeavor, keeping things tight is a skill that must be learned by doing.
The difference is that it seems Alamat did not progress after Ily-Ily like SB19 progressed after WHAT, even as they had a chance as their becoming smaller made their individual identities more pronounced.
But instead of great stuff like Porque (which was good, except that it was way too cool and too stylized for a tragic and angry song of lost love) they went more to themes for very young men like Aswang (young men’s attraction to female sexuality including fear of being drained by it), Maharani (trying to be the “good guy” around a woman who is with a bad boy) and Day and Night which is hanging out with godlike, unattainable woman has to go home before dark.
Whereas SB19 has the more mature themes like “I want you” (intimacy) or “Liham” (commitment) as well as family themes like MAPA or edgy themes like the solos of Pablo, Ken and Felip which have them as werewolf, vampire and moon God respectively. Jungian psychology says one must acknowledge one’s “shadow” to deal with it. In fact Pablo sings about giving the keys to his inner beast “sa kanya” – he said he meant God as he is a believer. In any case we don’t get to tame our inner beast without first knowing it.
Alamat are younger than SB19 though so they can still develop, even as they don’t have a member who writes songs, they have Thyro, who is a veteran songwriter. Don’t know if he will dare themes that are as edgy as Bazinga, WHAT, or MANA by SB19. But he could dare more..
🙂
PiE, thanks for spotlighting SB19 as an example for analyzing the underlying dynamic of music appreciation, as ksmbahay accurately observes. Yes, the fandom of Elvis, myself included, will have to look to the essence of that dynamic, somethings in their performances must be witnessed to be appreciated and find that solidarity in beat, tonal symmetry and the creative/artistic genius to put these elements together. Once experienced the resonance takes over. Fans & promotions will take care of the distribution. SB19 reminds me of my days comparing the music of the Beatles & Mick Jaggers band.
Duly noted: The Bing AI used & appreciated. Will try to read & give review of book “2084” by academician (Math) John Lennox.
Welcome! Yes indeed, there is a dynamic similar to the Beatles, including the occasional tension between Josh, the oldest member of SB19, called Kuya, and Pablo, the leader of the group, called Pinuno. Both compose BTW so there is a parallel to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Not in the Beatles equation is Stell aka Stellvester Ajero, named after Sylvester Stallone by his parents. A lot of the ladies are fans of either high-voiced, beautiful Stell or extremely low-voiced, strong and silent Ken – mirroring the real world where some women prefer the romantic and even somewhat effeminate type while others want the “man’s man”. The contrasting appeal of high-voiced Philip Bailey and DEEEP voiced Barry White in Earth Wind and Fire, or the heroic tenors of classical music versus the powerful kings and prophets sung by the basses. Just some random stuff also, SB19 is a spectrum of Pinoy types from tall Chinoy Justin who went to La Salle Benilde to relatively short but bad boy type Josh who experienced actual homelessness as his family went totally broke his teens.. from Caviteño Pablo who not only plays with his native Tagalog most skillfully in both rap and song but as an English major makes innovative rhymes such as “want some get some no later, woke up and baked that potato” or “let us one and lose the two” for reconnection between people in WYAT, somehow bringing the sense of what kita in Tagalog means into the English language; to Bisdak Ken who is usually silent in interviews, giving off the vibe of a “bugoy” or Visayan gangster at time and playing with that image in solo singles like “Criminal” but also composing own verses like this in his Visayan single Palayo:
“Dagan ko palayo na sa imo ay’ nag gukod kay ‘di nako gusto
Didn’t come to play with you oh ayaw sayangang oras ko oh
Taas ra kay’ imong garbo oh if there’s a problem girl that’s you oh..”
KB, anong ginawa mo kay Ken at mukhang nasaktan mo siya ng malalim? Iyan iyong binitawan mo pinagkakaguluhan ng mga fans niya sa buong mundo na mas bilib pa sa kanya. CHAR.
As someone who writes I feel the strongest affinity to Pablo of course, his mastery of writing songs that catch people’s attention makes me feel a positive form of envy and admiration. His eclecticism and exploration of topics both deep and shallow is where I have also gone. There are fewer lady admirers of Pablo, the at times strange and sullen type who has been called the Alpha Wolf by some also due to the werewolf theme in his solo single La Luna, but there are Latina fans who have joked that they would not mind being eaten by Pablo, the “moreno”. Even as I find “simula ng La Luna, magtago na lalo ka na” an unsettling verse, especially when he performs on the Wish Bus and looks into the camera. Sana wala siyang dalang balisong.. (though I admire the word play between La Luna and lalo na, lalo ka na, damn damn damn!)
Of course among straight male fans the fandom or admiration is due to affinity at times and among the younger ones possibly wanting to be just as cool as one’s idol.. I didn’t admire any singers as a teen but I admired Harrison Ford. My father liked Humphrey Bogart, it seems.
And as the generations pass, legacies are passed.. the progression from Eddie Mesa as Filipino Elvis to Pepe Smith, the son of an American soldier and a dancer from Angeles City, seen as the founder of “Filipino rock”.. I wonder if his classic “Ang Himig Natin, Ang Iyong Awitin, upang tayo’y, magsama-sama, sa langit, ng pag-asa”, allegedly composed when he went to the toilet during a PBA game to smoke marijuana on the toilet, may at some time in life have inspired Rivermaya, one of the most important 1990s alternative rock bands, whose hymn “Liwanag sa Dilim” became one of the battle cries of the 2022 Pink Campaign “ituring mo ang sariling tagawahi ng ulap, sa kalangitang kulimlim.. Kampanang yayanig sa bawat nilalang,
Magigising ang lupang kulang sa dilig” – a nation’s songs indeed mirror its soul..
More unsorted thoughts.. the SB19 song Hanggang Sa Huli especially in the version sung together with Regine Velasquez would not have been out of place as the theme of a 1950s Filipino movie about a failed romance.. even as it’s original video was an anime theme, done by Justin who studied multimedia in La Salle, done as a comic due to lack of funds for a real video.. the topic of Japanese anime influences on stuff like Trese is a further topic..
🙂
As always, PiE, give it to you comment & analyze, the man of flywheel memory – AI will NEVER catch up with you. You’ve sliced and diced our music phenoms well. It is enough that you helped this septuagenarian feel young cerebrally celebrate our bilingual, multicultural generation take their rightful place under God’s sun. Having said this I’m turning UP my headphone to listen to SULTANS OF SWING my favorite anthem in my post-Beatles world.
you previously mentioned mick jaggers. I’ve read somewhere that mick jaggers’s old dad was unhappy with his son’s chosen career, and told the young mick in no uncertain terms to – get a real job!
I imagine most pinoy dads would be like this.
That hit by Dire Straits is from 1978, I was in first year high school then and more keen on Saturday Night Fever and John Travolta than on their music.
1985 when I was 20 was when Money For Nothing by Dire Straits came out and I loved it. “You play the guitar on the MTV.. that ain’t working, that’s the way you do it, money for nothing and chicks for free..”
True by Spandau Ballett in my late teens was a song a Bicolano friend and myself thought we could sing in natural harmony, like many Pinoys can when drunk at parties, now I wonder if we were just drunk. 😜
The men in this video are it seems a former entertainer band that worked in Norway.
They are probably a bit drunk and clearly merry in the video, but can definitely sing. 😲
Hanggang Sa Huli by SB19 with Regine Velasquez is another sample of Filipino harmonies.
PPS
Best vantage point to view Chicago’s skyline is from the Adler Planetarium overlooking Lake Michigan. Must visit. So much US-PH history bound together.
wow love this comment
Sonny, the SB19 Chicago concert is tomorrow, you may want to spread the word, possibly some of your grandchildren or their friends might go?
(Though there are middle-aged Filipinos going with their kids, sometimes Fil-Am parents are even happy that SB19 helps their kids reconnect with the Philippines and even with Tagalog, there are mixed youngsters fascinated by a heritage nearly forgotten, usually their mother’s)
More details.. (the Dallas concert tomorrow seems a bit of a challenge too just like Chicago while it seems Los Angeles is sold out, New York I think also, given that those areas are Filipino population centers, San Francisco I haven’t checked the status Washington as well)
Truly, the world has become the Filipino’s fusion oyster, the Island & Diaspora Philippines has been bridged. The Filipino is home!!
In the middle of Chicago, it seems that place is called “The Bean”..
“GENTO, GENTO, di to basta bingo bingo; need mo makompleto para bento gento, ano kaya mo?..” is clearly a challenge but a positive one as..
“..Kahit na wala pang hinto ciento por ciento bawat bitaw ko mismo ‘eto kaya mo!..” is clearly a can do mindset.. 🙂
And of course, there is the countdown all over social media for the first concert night..
Irineo, The Bean is part of Chicago’s Visitors’ Complex: Milennium Park, Grant Park, same-same, aka Field Museum Campus. ‘houses’ Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum of Natural History (owns largest collection of Filipiniana, Baguio/Mountain Province). Chicago Art Institute owns original City Plan of Manila by Burnham & Gov Taft. SB19 venue is less 2 miles NE of O’Hare International, a US Air Carrier National Hub; 10 miles NW of Chicago downtown; Chicago & vicinity is approximately as large as the Philippine Capital Region area-wise; 2,3 million population; Newberry Library, walking distance from center of downtown, owns 1 of 6 originals of Rizal’s NOLI.
PS
Filipino Chicago population approx 100,000. Personal trivia – Rush Hospital alma mater of Mateo Carino, MD, scion of Ibaloi tribal Chief, original tribal owner of Baguio.
Filipino nurses in Chicago dance to Gento by SB19:
SB19 Fans aka A’tin wait for the “Mahalima” at O’Hare airport.
Their Chicago concert is tomorrow and their Dallas concert is on Saturday.
To give some additional texture to the Gigi de Lana story, some stuff about her when she still went by her real name (Mary) Gidget Dela Llana.
Her song contest win seven years ago.
She and Sam Mangubat doing an acoustic cover of Shallow 4 years ago.
Quite impressive for a senior TSOH member , technically a senior citizen currently updated in todays young Filipino artists.
Yes , these artists are ambassadors when they performed in the world stage.
KZ Tandingan’s interpretation of Rolling in the Deep, a story of a failed relationship mocking the guy and her version of Say Something, expressing pain and fear of what it (affection) may bring.
Thanks isk! I actually was a bit afraid to be seen as in the final stage of my mid-life crisis at 58 years of age, just two years before senior citizenship, while writing about a group of young Filipinos breaking out abroad. Ewan baka pagkamalan pa akong nababakla sa kanila. 😧
But here you are pointing me to a trailblazer of these young men in many ways, for instance performing 4 years ago with the rapper Gloc-9 who according to some sources I read or watched was one of SB19 Pablo’s rap idols.😲
Even Jesus had John the Baptist to precede him. All the more in music, you have long lines of development. Looking back in the past few days, I found out the seemingly the greatest trailblazer was Pilita Corrales, who performed in Las Vegas with Sammy Davis Jr. – and discovered both Gary V as the interview below shows a rare gem by the Herrera siblings, Venezuelan musicians living in London, and even Regine Velasquez based on comments.
My original learning about music being classical, I do recall some writing that Beethoven would never have become what he became without the pioneering influence of Mozart, especially his breaking out of the mode of writing all operas in Italian and crossing over to German.
My later musical background having a strong influence of gospel, soul and rap, I recall how Falco rapped about “Amadeus, Amadeus..” aka Mozart in his native Viennese dialect, the first truly German-speaking rapper, then how four German teenagers joined a rapping contest in Heidelberg, then the site of one of the biggest US bases in Europe, but rhymed their verses in their native language as it reflected their feelings better. These middle-class teens became Die Fantastischen Vier eventually, though it would take nearly 15 years or so more until German language rap from the rough neighborhoods of Berlin came up.
I know almost NOTHING about the evolution of Tagalog rap, but the language has a unique staccato to it when raped. Tagalog can sound so romantic when sung and so aggressive when rapped. And I believe rap is usually best in one’s own language or even dialect or street slang. If songs are from the heart, rap is straight from the gut and can be a punch in the gut if delivered well. That is why rap lines in Tagalog from SB19’s Pablo or Josh are powerful, while some PPop girl groups trying to rap in English don’t sound that authentic to me.
As for Tagalog soul, some searching in YouTube unearths collaboration between KZ Tandingan and Jaya, a further queen of Filipino soul. Many layers and what one group sings today is what the youth who will produce the next batch of talents will hear and be inspired by.
I only found out a bit more about the likes of Ely Buendia and the Eraserheads, the Filipino rockers of the 1990s, during VP Leni’s Pink campaign. Yeng Constantino, who covered Ely Buendia’s Liwanag sa Dilim, was it turns out part of a group together with KZ Tandingan.
KZ Tandingan wasn’t in Las Vegas but won a huge competition in China and was on BBC Radio, it turns out. 2018, when she was abroad, a lot didn’t have the huge ecosystem of influencers on Youtube international reactors. YET interested in a range from K-Pop to Indian pop music. Seems that ecosystem grew out of the pandemic with a lot of people locked down and some of them trying to find a way to earn money while out of musical gigs, with YT offering that option as they have a model paying based on views and “Adsense”. Nowadays, it seems a lot of these reactors pick up whatever is popular among other reactors and try to give their own spin to it in the competition for YT $$$. Filipino stars such as Morissette and Gigi made it into that age while KZ Tandingan only partly did, and SB19 made it big among some KPop reactors. Seems reactors are the equivalent of what radio station DJs once were for singles – what they played hit the charts. Even newer is Tiktok challenges going viral. Giancarlo told me about Fly Fly Butterfly – known to me as Paru Paro G, going viral on global Tiktok not too long ago. What exactly is that? Does it fall under budots (“Visayan techno” is how I roughly define budots)? Anyhow, Gento by SB19 utilized Tiktok effectively with its catchy dance challenge. Well, I guess the history of Philippine music digesting influences then going international still is unwritten..
“…the history of Philippine music digesting influences then going international still is unwritten..”
————
Filipino songs are already being taught in other countries , from Asia to Western countries.
Thanks.. here two examples of Chabacano which is heavily Spanish influenced in turn influencing Latin America.. here a cover by Venezuelan singer Waleska Herrera and a Spanish version by Dominican twins Sol y Luna..
It is fascinating how similar yet different Chabacano and Spanish sound..
..though Waleska’s drummer and rapper brother Efra Herrera said that rappers from the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico shorten phrases and sound almost Chabacano.
Well, the classic by Ryan Cayabyab “Coconut Song” was first sung by Smoky Mountain and is now a staple of choirs worldwide.. PPop girl group Bini have a version of it too, in their usual very nice style.. but it also has an almost Carribean flair.
If I didn’t know better I might think it’s by Harry Belafonte, like “come Mr. Tallyman tally me banana..” though it starts corny and so it’s Pinoy: “The coconut nut is a giant nut if you eat too much you get very fat.. now the coconut nut is a big big nut but this delicious nut is not a nut..”
Eartha Kitt pioneered with her Waray-Waray cross over then fast forward – the Lettermen discovered Filipinos do not discard proven standards Jonathan Potenciano (Tawag ng Tanghalan) became a Vegas lounge bar resident balladeer; The Reycard Duet had their Vegas turn with their Comedy & Music Act opening for various headline artists; SOCIETY OF 7 had their Vegas turn covering old standards.
Martin Nievera and Lani Misalucha also had their Vegas turn
Lani & soloists from Society of 7 gave well-received renditions of popular songs very well received by the Vegas crowds, Fils & non-Fils alike, thus the unmistakable delight to newcomers; SB19 & fans well-leveraged the ease of intersection provided by friendly technologies. (Note: one of these days I hope to experience one or more of Martin’s songs that will hit me like KZ & her cover of Adele’s did me.) 🙂 (I still owe you a ‘3-gens’ reflection, Gian)
Re friendly technologies, Gary V who has been in the entertainment industry for nearly 4 decades speaks of the huge advantage of today’s socmed in exporting Filipino entertainment in an interview with the Venezuelan Herrera siblings:
If one looks at the Gary V of the 1990s, one can see why he today as a nearly 60 year old is fascinated by SB19, as he himself was in a similar league in his youth, except that as Waleska Herrera noted elsewhere, Ricky Martin was known in her country but not (yet) Gary V.
Even as early pundits spoke of the Internet as a medium of disintermediation, it also has created new intermediaries. YT influencers like Waleska Herrera who has looked at Filipino showbiz way back to Nora Aunor’s start in 1967 are an example. They are like DJs of old.
Thanks for sharing. On Waleska Herrera’s version, the recording is well balanced, the combination of acoustic guitar and piano is superb.
Welcome. Waleska Herrera is clearly a pro, as one can also see in her following reaction to Regine Velasquez’s voice over the years.
I also like and follow the reactions of Peter Barber, a real classical bass singer.
Here, he excellently analyzes a Wish Bus performance by Mori. Including the ramifications of performing live including headphones because you otherwise don’t hear yourself properly etc
I failed to address this ” a bit afraid to be seen as in the final stage of my mid-life “.
I failed miserably in profiling you, I apologize. It just reminds me of Edgar Lores’ analysis on Bato sa Buhangin. 😮
No problem, I was half-joking because before you only few answers to my posts.. and come to think of it, Bato sa Buhangin and SB19’s Hanggang Sa Huli have similar very Filipino themes of love lost, just like Ryan Cayabyab’s composition Sometime, Somewhere which is sung for instance by Regine Velasquez “..our love, like love, is what it is, is what we’ve got; our love, like love, will have to wait, until that sometime, somewhere!” 🎶😢💔🎶🎶
These two interviews of SB19 by fellow musicians The Juan’s are excellent in giving texture to how SB19 developed..
The Juans BTW not only have a collaboration (“Hindi Tayo Puwede”, again tragic love) with Mori and Gigi, there will also be a collaboration with SB19 it seems.
Might be interesting too if SB19 also does songs with a woman guest singer like Alamat has done in Ily-Ily.
Alamat I wonder if there is any member who composes. Jao choreographs, which is the role of Stell in SB19. BTW in Crimzone it is not just Pablo but also Ken and Josh who composed.
KZ reminds me of both Merci Molina LA MALAGUENA or Donna Summers’ SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY
Merci Molina’s cover of La Malaguena:
Ms Summer’s Nobel Prize appreciation performance.
Thanks for sharing Sir Sonny.
Wish we have more teachers promoting Pilipino composition.
Lani & soloists from Society of 7 gave well-received renditions of popular songs very well received by the Vegas crowds, Fils & non-Fils alike, thus the unmistakable delight to newcomers; SB19 & fans well-leveraged the ease of intersection provided by friendly technologies. (Note: one of these days I hope to experience one or more of Martin’s songs that will hit me like KZ & her cover of Adele’s did me.) 🙂 (I still owe you a ‘3-gens’ reflection, Gian)
I clearly recall replaying VDISC US 78-rpm vinyl records left by GI’s in 1945, at our ancestral home in Luna, La Union using RCA Victor Box turntable, circa 1948; 2 favorite titles were Swedish Rhapsody and Roman Guitars if memory serves. Playback equipment salvaged from US reconnaissance base station where Luna stones later picked clean for international destinations in later years (area was called Baluarte area, named after the brick moro pirate watch tower; there are similar towers in Bacnotan and Ilocos Sur before Vigan. Note: enjoyed listening to progressions: 45-rpm, 33 1/3-rpm. monaural to stereophonic, quadraphonic to Sony Walkman to iPhone w/bluetooth headphones. 🙂 Now I feel young & ancient at the same time!! Yes, I was addicted to Pilipino Komiks, Hiwaga, Kislap, Liwayway – the works. I drew the line at Tiktik! (Lol)
🙂 You’re very welcome, isk!
The matter of baluartes is interesting as there are similar structures all standing on high ground with a commanding view of the sea – and presumably line of sight to one another for light signaling – around the entire Sicilian coast.
Built by the Spanish to guard the bread basket of the Mediterranean from Barbary Pirates. Sicily was under Spanish rule longer than the Philippines if one counts the time under Aragon..
Re audio, we still had a “portable” meaning suitcase record player with 78, 45, 33 and 16 speeds. I did play a Christmas single at 78 once and make it sound like The Chipmunks, to the amusement of an elementary school classmate and myself.
RCA.. interesting that they as a record company also made record players.. I guess the analogy is like IBM sold hardware and software in one back in the days. The big US players RCA and CBS were taken over by BMG (Germany) and Sony respectively in the late 1980s.
For me, the progression was to cassettes and mixtapes in the 1980s, with my brother and me quite fond of our double cassette player, and then my fascination with CDs around the 1990s, an IPod was what my brother gave me in 2005 when I turned 40, now it’s pretty much unused. Either it is Spotify on my mobile now with Bluetooth headphones, or Youtube also on tablet. What I also had was a Discman, come to think. I still have a CD Player and some vinyl records.
In memoriam, Tony Bennett, 96 – whenever life ran on fumes. First heard him in 1952 over Philippine airwaves.
A good part of my natural curiosity is to find out what accounts for staying power of vocal artists: Johnny Mathis, Vic Damone, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Vale, Tony Bennett, The Beatles, et al … We the fans are hard-pressed very often to have the right words to describe what they have for all the years they have been at their craft. What keeps them always at the top of their craft? We know it is hardware-related i.e. it is their “pipes” that makes them came-across effortlessly all these years. Yes, I think I have found the single encompassing word: “tessitura”. And I did find a complementing article about it. 🙂 Enjoy!
https://johnhenny.com/difference-range-tessitura/
Thanks sonny.. makes sense as I somehow found out at some point that the more modern songs did not quite fit me for minus one or karaoke, but Frank Sinatra or Basil Valdez did..
..all of this because I once knew a part-time entertainer, a former UP Saringhimig member, who also stuck to a certain “tessitura” when he sang, so happened that I picked up some of the songs from him as our voices were quite similar. But whew, all that is ages ago.
Listening to Gigi De Lana, real name Mary Gidget Dela Llana, perform at Tawag ng Tanghalan 7 years ago and doing a rock number recently which is quite often reacted to by foreigners, one can indeed feel that she does stick to her tessitura which seems somewhere in the high alto range – all the special effects and fireworks notwithstanding, whether it is the belting in classic Filipino ballads, the growling she adds in rock numbers, or the twang she often has in English – what does matter I guess is indeed where one has one’s voice most of the time.
Here is one more popular number from Gigi..
..and an interview with her..
(Her very recent success is also thanks to friendly technologies)
Re vocals, this stuff BTW by Waleska Herrera commenting on SB19 vocal rehearsals is gold:
Another matter are the dance rehearsals:
(The fans commenting are themselves dancers, it is quite awesome to look at anything done with passion as a true craft, even as dancing is something I never had much talent for except maybe to follow the rhythm)
Most welcome, Irineo. 🙂
Before, I used to call it “finding your groove”, the sweet-spot in vocals. Tessitura, nice ring to it – almost onomatopoeic. Now, bcoz of this awareness I can confidently choose what music I can attempt to sing and knowing that I expect to “groove to” and comfortably do in public (minus-1, karaoke).
“it is quite awesome to look at anything done with passion as a true craft, even as dancing is something I never had much talent for except maybe to follow the rhythm) …”
🙂 This comment is a keeper, Irineo!
This round of exchanges makes me realize we as a music culture do have a lot of things to appreciate and enjoy across our age preferences. I luv it!
I’m terribly terribly out of topic dito, but music to me earworms ito! ang dating ultra mahal na pangulong si digong duterte was seen hobbling in china and visiting chinese president xi jin ping with a walking stick. the stick was not for digong to you know, whack xi with it! but according to ex senator drilon, digong could well be asking for assylum, may kasong genocide pending sa ICC kasi yan.
methink, assylum aside, digong was not really selling maharlika investments to xi, but come bearing much prized commodity: true state of intel about recent and upcoming american activities in our shores. vp sara duterte kasi is inside pbbm’s innermost circle and knew all about our state secrets. it would be super easy for sara to pass on info to her dad. info that xi wanted most, kaya most welcoming si xi, smiling and having pics taken with digong, lol!
“digong could well be asking for assylum, ”
———–
Duterte knows he’s done, no use to exile himself out of the country for the remaining days of his natural life. He will be remembered as the mayor president who oversee the killings of his people instead of taking care of them.
Looks like the SB19 Chicago concert sold out last minute and was great..
Dallas tomorrow, the practically sold out West Coast next weekend..
#PAGTATAGWorldTour
#PAGTATAGWorldTourChicago
#PAGTATAGWorldTourDallas
The song Crimzone makes the composing talent of Pablo clear in many ways:
Not only in words but also choice of voices as this live snippet from Chicago shows:
A bit like classical composers use different voice ranges and instruments to give texture..
A possible explanation for the SB19 Dallas concert later today would be Latino fans:
I not only checked the man’s profile. I already guessed that no Filipino would have the Twitter handle Titito, except as an anonymous troll, maybe, but he isn’t that 😀
I wonder how many of the it seems numerous Dominican Republic fans will come to Dallas this evening, that will of course depend on whether they get visas, I know of two really hardcore fans and influencers who took the long way to Manila via Dubai to see SB19 because no US visa. As for Chicago, I have seen some indications of UK fans taking the plane over the Atlantic. Hey, last year, some fans from Italy and Cyprus went to the SB19 WYAT concert in Dubai, though those I know about were also of the type fan and influencer on Youtube. 😯
Thanks. Some youngster music composition is overwhelmingly loud and if played using boom box, yare na ang tenga.
To KB: Di ka nag-iisa. lol
Pablo makes the difference as an instinctive great songwriter.. a Caviteño who clearly is poetic not only in his native Tagalog but as an English major is great in that language also.. and the songs of SB19 are such a broad register as well:
Ilaw for instance is about alienation and wanting to return home:
“..tao po? Pakinggan niyo naman ako
Bakit ‘di niyo subukang buksan ang bukas namang pinto?
Nang tuluyan nang makita niyo
Tunay na ako, ‘di nagtatago
Sa likod ng bumubulag na ilaw na ‘to..”
Freedom is about freedom through those who make you feel free..
“..’Pag ika’y kasama ‘di nababahala
Langit ang biyaya ng ‘yong presensya
‘Wag na ‘wag ka na sana pang mawawala
‘Pagkat pakpak ko’y ‘yong binuka
Lilipad nang malaya kasi nga
You are my freedom
Oh damn it feels so great
We gotta celebrate oh yeah oh yeah..”
Love the beats and lyrics of these music videos. Thanks.
I am supposing the boys know how to read sheet music, compared to what is trending now where newer breed of musicians cannot read sheet music, what those music notes are, what they stand for, and what they meant in relation to the whole of the compositional arrangement. apparently, the boys are well educated having gone to college.
and unlike pambansang kamao na si pacman, who had previous kasagupaan with the bureau of internal revenue as regard unpaid taxes from overseas bouts, the boy band would know that income earned overseas equals tax to be paid back home. that is, if they have not yet decamped and become citizens of other countries.
income earned from overseas concert is highly taxable, but if the band can show receipt to prove they have already paid tax overseas, they will not be taxed again in the phillippines.
happy listening!
Pablo and Justin are college grads (English and Multimedia respectively) whereas Ken dropped out of agriculture to join SB19 (his parents took a long time to forgive him) and Josh finished high school via ALS because he had dropped out as his family became very poor and he had to work at an Internet Cafe to have money and a place to sleep – Stell finished high school but was pretty active in dance groups so I don’t know if he finished college.
One doesn’t have to know how to read notes to sing in tune. One has to have a sense of melody. When I was in a gospel choir for some years – late senior high and early university in Germany – I knew how to read notes to play piano but couldn’t transfer that to voice, but if I had heard the melody even the second voice once and practiced a few times I was OK. Trying to sing with a person who was more classically trained for a church hymn – not gospel but in Latin, failed as I tried to pick up his tune and he insisted I read the notes, so I quit even if had volunteered.
The 5 young men (Josh was born in 1993 and Pablo in 1994 so they have passed boyhood) have their own management firm 1Z and I assume they will have hired tax accountants who work well and whom they can trust. International taxation is a very tricky topic for artists.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/15/opera-star-montserrat-caballe-handed-suspended-jail-sentence-for-tax-evasion
https://www.mtv.com/news/kb34c7/pavarotti-agrees-to-125-million-settlement-of-tax-evasion-case
Correction, Ken dropped out of architecture. He was studying in GenSan but his family in Pagadian grew up poor, and his parents went to work abroad, leaving him with his grandparents. The rest of his story is told in several of the interviews I have posted.
Also leaving an interview with Mori here, the magnificent singer from Cebu who also made her tours to places like Korea and Singapore before SB19 were even known. Some foreign critics say she is in a league with Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston or even above.
In the above video you can see how even the Queen herself, Regine Velasquez, looked upon Mori, Asia’s Phoenix, like a proud mother looks at a daughter who is at her level of skill.
yaks, I would not touch la diva mariah carey! she won 15 billboards awards, 10 american music awards, 8 soul train awards, and 5 grammys. she also did a duet with big luci, opera great luciano pavarotti, and was not fazed by him.
and bec you mentioned opera big hitter monserrat caballe, she did a duet with rock legend freddie mercury, the front man of the band queen. their song barcelona was theme song yata of a summer olympic. looking back, in monserrat’s presence, freddie was a bundle of nerves, apprehensive but his rendition was perfect, the man knew how to count a bar and did not lose a beat. hold his own quite well and did not get lost in the perfect storm of the full philharmonic orchestra.
where am I? ah yes, mori, the girl can sing! regine is a real ‘alamat’ in our national music world.
Well, I do feel that Mori – whom Regine has jokingly called a “monster” in interviews – should internationally at least be as well known as Adele, but isn’t.
She has “inherited” the Ryan Cayabyab standard that used to be “Regine’s”, the bittersweet “Sometime, Somewhere”, but she would be worth the National Artist composing a song just for her even out of de facto retirement.
The great Philippine coloratura soprano Jovita Fuentes, National Artist is long dead, so is the tenor Aurelio Estanislao, but a duet of Mori with Broadway legend Leah Salonga would be a great single, too late for the coming FIBA opening on August 25th though.
Sharon Cuneta did sing with Michel Buble some years ago and..
Mori sang with David Foster and friends at the Solaire (the new Vegas?!) this year.
Ireneo,
how many from The Philippine High School for the Arts end up making it big in the entertainment industry?
from their website:
The Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) implements a special arts curriculum apart from the Basic Education subjects prescribed by the Department of Education:
Creative Writing – fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction conversations on issues in contemporary culture, seminar in cultural studies, writing for theater and film and graphic literature
Dance – fundamental dance steps and rhythm, dance notation and interpretation, choreography and composition, modern and contemporary dance, dance production and research, Philippine music and instrumentation, basic production design and production management
Music – applied music (voice/instrument), music theory, chorus, chamber music, music literature, large ensemble (jazz), foreign language
Theater Arts – acting, directing, ensemble building, theater theories, technical theater, stage and production management, theater and performance skills, musical theater, machinating performances
Visual Arts – visual perception, art appreciation, studio painting, materials and techniques, film cinematography
Amidst the forest of Mt. Makiling, the young former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, yearned for a people born to greatness and envisioned a society worthy of the heritage of the Filipino people.
Thus, under his governance, the National Arts Center (NAC) atop Mt. Makiling was conceptualized as a tribute to the Filipino artists. On the 7th day of April in 1976, the National Arts Center was formally dedicated to the pursuit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Since then, the NAC played a pivotal role in the cultural upliftment of the nation through the development of young talents.
On June 11, 1977, the NAC became the official home of the Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA) and continues to evolve as a training venue for artistically inclined students. In the same manner, it pursues to explore learning approaches, focusing on the arts.
reminds of Walt Disney’s CalARTS really,
p.s.– this is the band that defined my time in the Philippines. Mango Ave. theme songs.
this song specifically, the yearning is off the charts!
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lea-salonga-mn0000788283/biography
lea salonga is one filipino chanteuse extraordinaire, a tony awardee and have a big international presence as regards music.
Agree on Lea
you have good taste!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_High_School_for_the_Arts#Notable_alumni
There is one actor who is noted, but he isn’t that famous.
Probably one of those theater actors the mainstream entertainment industry sometimes hire in supporting roles, where they can be absurdly better than their mainstream colleagues.
The ONLY theater actor I know of the became big in the mainstream is John Arcilla, the actor known for his Heneral Luna role, has been called the Filipino Al Pacino, and now stars as the face of power and impunity, Carlos Fiero, in the ongoing Dirty Linen teleserye..
Pianist Rowena Arrieta is quite famous but in classical music circles, she is indeed a musician that travelled abroad but the world of choirs and classic performers is different.
Crossing over between the world of entertainment and “high culture” in music and acting seems rare in the Philippines. Exceptions like the composer of a substantial number of OPM hits, National Artist Prof. Ryan Cayabyab of UP, prove the rule. Have heard of UP Music graduates singing for commercials as a side job, and a lot go abroad for classical careers.
There seem to be more directors and scriptwriters coming for instance from places like the UP College of Mass Communication. Director Tikoy Aguiluz was not just a co-founder of the UP Film Center, now UP Film Institute, he has a UP Fine Arts degree.
That guy is a good actor!
Theres a lot of ballet in that school which I guess harkens to Imelda Marcos, but also folk dances. but i’m really surprise they’ve not produced much. thanks!
They should adjust their mission to get it in line with the K-pop industry. probably drop ballet or keep it but pivot to more modern dance especially hip hop, etc.
One of the members of the PPop girl group Kaia was with “UPeepz”, a UP dance crew, but this group is an extracurricular activity.
https://www.globe.com.ph/go/entertainment/article/upeepz.html#gref
UP Streetdance Crew competes internationally but I don’t know of any stars coming from it.
Stell who is the dance choreographer of SB19 finished high school I think, don’t know about Jao who choreographs for Alamat.
To give an idea of what kind of promotion SB19 has done, this “Crosswalk Concert” (clearly in BGC) with influencer Niana Guerrero..
To fill in more on Morissette (originally from Cebu) an interview by Jacob Restituto (New York).
Morissette was named after Alanis Morissette by her rock musician father and is, of course by now known to be world-class.
The tweet below summarizes what makes SB19 so unique:
“SB19 is considered the P-pop (Philippine pop) trailblazer due to several significant factors.
1. International Recognition
– SB19 gained international recognition and praise, particularly in the K-pop industry. They became the first Filipino group to be nominated for the Top Social Artist category at the Billboard Music Awards in 2021, alongside renowned K-pop groups like BTS and Blackpink. This recognition showcased their ability to compete on a global stage and brought attention to the P-pop genre. Recently, SB19 makes their debut on the World Digital Song Sales chart. Their single “Gento” enters at No. 8, granting the group their inaugural top 10 placement, first Filipino band to reach the World Digital Song Sales chart
2. Unique Blend of Sounds
– SB19’s music incorporates elements of Pinoy music, EDM, and Western pop, resulting in a distinct sound that appeals to a wide range of audiences. By blending different musical influences, they have created a fresh and innovative style within the P-pop genre, setting them apart from other acts.
3. Strong live Vocals and Dance Performances
– SB19’s members are known for their powerful live vocal abilities and captivating dance performances. Their synchronized choreography and impressive vocal harmonies have impressed both local and international fans, establishing them as exceptional performers within the P-pop scene.
4. Engaging Fan Interaction
– SB19 actively engages with their fans, called A’TIN, through social media platforms. They consistently provide updates, behind-the-scenes content, and communicate with their fans, fostering a strong and dedicated fanbase. This level of interaction has helped the group gain immense support and recognition, solidifying their position as trailblazers in the P-pop industry.
5. Breaking Barriers
– SB19’s success has shattered stereotypes and challenged the notion that only Korean and Japanese groups can achieve international fame. They have proven that Filipino artists can compete on a global scale and have paved the way for other P-pop acts to gain recognition worldwide. SB19’s achievements have opened doors for the development and growth of the P-pop industry as a whole.
#SB19’s international recognition, unique sound, exceptional performances, fan engagement, and trailblazing achievements have established them as the P-pop trailblazers, bringing the genre to new heights and inspiring future generations of Filipino artists.
Good job, @SB19Official
#PAGTATAG
#PAGTATAGWorldTour
#PagtatagWorldTour”
Meanwhile, KPop has its first all-Filipino boy band, based in Korea and Korean-run. As we know, SB19 was originally Korean-run in Manila but is now managed by the 5 young men themselves.
(I had seen the name HORI7ON at times and wondered, now I know who they are)
This is huge.. Fil-Am rapper EZ Mil has been signed up by Eminem and Dr. Dre:
Eminem tweets a video of EZ Mil with the caption “why we signed him”
(Used to be up to date in matters rap but when it comes to this, I was indeed under a rock or simply older, with other things in focus)
wow big
ez mil is now based in las vegas, nevada. some of his rap songs are controversial dahil inaccurate daw, sabi kasi si lapu-lapu was beheaded!
last I saw, lapu-lapu’s monument in cebu was intact complete with head.
Oh, that was him.. maybe he should read my history articles from time to time, or even better watch Xiao Chua or Fil-Am historian Kirby Arraulo on Youtube.. it is quite interesting how many Fil-Ams have lost touch with that stuff.
Morissette is from Cebu and would never make that mistake for sure. The above 2 hour interview with Waleska and Efra Herrera is a gem, and her natural friendliness is amazing..
Her single Phoenix is amazing BTW, discovered it just recently on my present “journey”..
young ‘uns probly think it’s badge of honor to distort our country’s history and get away with it harap-harapan.
I think, the japanese have a term for it, ‘sabi no wasabi’, meaning the acceptance of the imperfect and the impermanent. still, it goes against my grain.
thanks for the music.
Welcome.. some more music as Youtube shows you more of the same when you start checking something out.. Undangon Ta Ni is Mori’s first English/Cebuano single:
Also interesting is Gary V describing how he worked with Mori for a new version of his own song “Could You be Messiah” during the pandemic..
..not all may know that Gary V has his own studio and all. In the end, he was extremely happy about the result.
I read it like this.
When it comes to rhyming : truth or viral?
https://www.spin.ph/life/guide/ez-mil-explains-inaccurate-lapu-lapu-lyrics-a1017-20210203
Thanks for the link KG.
Poor in poetry if he can’t express the accuracy of the theme. How he justify his piece, difficult to take, it shows arrogance.
————-
“The way I wrote that got people talking. Got people agreeing to it. Got people disagreeing, got people in the in-betweens. The way it is now, people are talking about it. I got to be smart about it.”
Agree 100 percent
selling his own country for a song, for brownie points, for fame? and he leave it at that! sana, may peace offering siya with another song, a better song than the previous: to correct his mistake, if he is really smart as he said he is. never say never, I have a dream . . .
Without that turn off from EZ Mil his endorsement from Eminem and Dr Dre was huge. people forget but the internet does not. unless not archived.
hindi lang po endorsed si ez mil kundi signed din po siya with eminem’s shady records. sounds great, but there’s a catch. kasi if ez mil failed to pack venues and sale of his concert ticket is poor, and if that happens one too many times, there is possibility ez mil will be dropped by the record label. happens to a lot of artists, they have got to make profits for the record company or it’s the highway. sounds harsh, but that’s business cutting off dead wood.
OT: at least the Italian-Americans from this Sopranos scene can be excused for their ignorance about Columbus as they are generations removed from the old country, and only Flavio from Napoli is there to remind them of the very strong divide between the North and South of Italy..
One of my favorite YouTubers for history and language, the Metatron, an Italian, explains the terminological differences between Italian-American and Italiano pretty well, but being born and raised in Palermo he does have a rant about some Italians from the North as well..
The situation of most Italian-Americans differs though as their folks left their country generations ago and the last ones speaking Italian or a local language (took a long time to teach official Italian to a nation only founded in the 19th century) were in the 1950s or so..
Shout out to TSOH commenters and readers in LA – especially LCPL_X in case interested. There are still 70 out of 1458 tickets left for this evening’s SB19 concert:
Chances of a bit of a free concert standing outside a bus would be tomorrow in North Hollywood, Wish Bus:
https://twitter.com/wishusaofficial/status/1685018860653584384?t=OVV1N6bu0rjPsDKlS8wSaA&s=19
All fancams and tweets from yesterday’s San Francisco concert are magnificent. Next Saturday is the New York concert, followed by the Washington D.C. concert next Sunday, then off they go to Canada for four further destinations on two further weekends..
LOL! thanks, Ireneo. but I’m more of a Taylor Swift fan myself.
But I am listening to EZ Mil now and his sister too , very impressed.
APL De Ap from black eye peas and Bruno Mars who grew up state side, and i guess Jaya daughter of Elizabeth Ramsey too. EZ Mil would be the first Filipino to really get signed to a big label. am researching and theres been acts like Bambu and the Blue Scholars but never really hit it big. currently its Saweetie, half Filipina rapper on the charts now.
EZ Mil has an original sound.
Here’s an interview with Apl de Ap BTW:
Quite a few here have mentioned KZ Tandingan. Here’s an interview with her:
Of course, there is always this constant discussion as to when a Fil-Am is still Filipino and when he or she gets disqualified, for example for “beheading Lapulapu”. The Turks went through a similar process with Tarkan, a star born and partly raised in Germany.
On August 11th will be the OPM Summerfest 2023 Venue will be at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
https://www.tourismwinnipeg.com/festivals-and-events/upcoming-events/display,event/12210/opm-summer-fest-2023
Last year’s OPM Summerfest held in Florida.
So many events for Filipinos in Canada to choose from with 1MX (ABS-CBN sponsored) on Sept. 10 in Toronto including Ben and Ben as well as BGYO which is ABS-CBNs PPop boy group..
while SB19 is in Toronto on August 11 and in Winnipeg on August 13th.. the difference is that SB19 is not marketed as a mainly Filipino “barangays abroad” event even as Filipinos carry things like in LA yesterday night which sold out.
No problem as both Afropop and reggaeton are strongly carried by African and Latino communities respectively as well, that is today’s diverse reality.
there’s also IMX in australia in october 2023 with maymay entrata, ben and ben et al attending. I’m most interested to see dami im who represented australia in eurovision song contest 5rys ago yata, and came second. boggled me mind how australia manged to enter eurovision song contest when it not part of europe and never has been!
if australia got in, why can’t philippines!
A break from the music break.
The world is still at war and a US air force general, Michael Minihan, is prepping up his boys for a war with China in 2025.
I don’t know how seriously we should take this hawk, but there will surely be a Philippine theater of this conflict should the Pentagon planners decide to let the war dogs fly.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/29/michael-minihan-china-war/
I was reading this morning that the US has struck an agreement with Australia to rotate more US troops through there. America is knitting a web that links Pacific countries, and it will increasingly constrain and frustrate China. It would all go away if China abandoned her imperialist ambitions and returned to cooperative and competitive commerce. I don’t know how humans became so stupid in a time when enlightenment should be rising.
Australia will be the weapons hub for the US military. They will manufacture missiles and tanks and insure seamless inter-operability of both country’s war machine.
From all indications, war with China does seem inevitable because the US consider the ultimate enemy now is not anymore Russia but China.
Whether it will be triggered by a Gulf of Tonkin similar incident or the Taiwan flashpoint, the Philippines will no doubt be in the line of Chinese fire because of those 10 military bases Marcos granted access to US troops and equipment.
https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-show-details-of-chinese-south-china-sea-military-bases-2022-12
philippines will always be in the line of fire regardless. the west phil sea is already so militarized by china, posing great military threat to both air and sea. I think, the presence of allied troops in our country is the only thing that stops china from launching immediate raid in our shores.
as well, china is apparently establishing military bases not only in solomon islands but also in papua new guinea, just a crow’s flight from australia.
if the inevitable happens, I hope pbbm will be like zelensky and stay to defend our country, and not run away with suitcases full of money!
Or maybe the Philippines will be spared because of the US presence. It’s all speculative.
The best deterence to any wars is to focus on UFO and aliens, Joe.
here,
south korea has 15 american military bases compared to our proposed 10. and maybe, those 15 military bases of south korea’s are the reason why nokor’s kim jung un can only fire most of his missiles into the sea.
having american military bases in our shores will more or less serve as deterrent to china’s aggression and expansionism in south pacific. china would have to think twice about launching armed invasion and military attack in our shores. china’s aggressive tendencies limited to off shore activities like shining laser beams to our pilots, swarming militia ships in west phil sea, harassing our fisherfolks, etc.
as well, australia is partnering with USA and doing its bit of curtailing china’s massive ambition. for australia too has been bullied by china with australian pilots lasered beamed a number of times too, chinese navy ships in near collision with australian navy patrol, etc.
will china spare philippines bec of US presence? of course not, but.
It’s interesting, war strategy. Russia is failing because they spread their troops too thin and got hammered. Japan did the same thing, fighting in China, the Philippines, and so many islands in the Pacific. The US powered through from one island to the next. If China just wants Taiwan, why broaden the fight to the Philippines and kick in the US Defense Treaty? Just take Taiwan.
pain in the !!! china cannot just march over and take taiwan, USA and allies are standing on its way. and with pocket deeper than most, china is hellbent on expansionism, bribing if not buying off the opposition, the way china supposedly bought off the media in solomon islands for favorable media coverage in the pacific.
there is never guarantee china will stop at taiwan. already, china has a military base in the horn of africa, as well as partnering with russia, north korea, iran, etc. as well, china’s influence in the middle east is fast gaining momentum. even the saudis who are strong allies with USA are leaning toward china now. though china’s offer of peace talks stalled in ukraine with zelensky reluctant to talk peace when china’s ally, the russians, are still very much in ukraine and bombing non stop. get the russians out first, then zelensky will talk peace.
to dominate the world, xi really has grander ambition! aided by its peace initiatives, military firepower, and top rate economy.
though countries like italy saw the evil of china belt and road initiative and backtracked. china’s products have flooded italian markets but italian products barely made it to chinese markets, hence the disparity.
to recap: I really think china will not stop at taiwan, it wants the whole world, the philippines included.
Only until Xi dies.
More on Morissette..
The above video from 2010 shows her first televised performance on Talentadong Pinoy. She was just 14 then, but one can see the natural confidence of the future diva already. Two panelists admired her stage presence, one of them added her “stillness” aka quiet confidence.
This interview with Bubs and Doe from the USA when she was just turning 25 (the interviewers are her age) shows her bubbly natural self when in interviews, she speaks of many things including the pandemic, cultivating her songwriting, her idol Regine, when she decided to be an entertainer (at 9) and how she never thought of having any backup plan (which is probably the reason why she worked so hard on her craft in addition to her natural talent) etc. etc.
A further interview.. Waleska and Efra Herrera interview Jaya:
And another collab.. Gigi, Mori and the Juans:
Interestingly while Mori is excellent as always one can feel how rock is more Gigi’s element..
FYI. https://www.cnnphilippines.com/entertainment/2023/8/5/Ez-Mil-Realest-Eminem-.html
my reply in rap:
real beast, real beast,
none of my business.
swear words galore,
old man duterte in seventh heaven,
satan talking.
Haha! Not bad. You may have a future if you can dance a bit, too.
I think all filipinos can dance, street dance included.
That love for the work is a part of craftsmanship. Without it you would end up singing the same old songs and never improving. This speaks to her work ethic that she has probably surpassed most of the local singers right now.
Well, she has added to her craft by entering songwriting some years ago, after having achieved quite an international reputation for her brilliant cover songs.
One major message of one of her own songs, Mirror, is “be a tree not a vine” – meaning her entire strategy is not just centered on quick fame but on true growth as a creative person.
Looking at Katrina Velarde again, she is insanely good in her own different way, but also navigated her career through the maze of talent shows and via the Wish Bus 107.5.
Katrina Velarde also was at TV5s Talentadong Pinoy, but later at X-Factor not The Voice like Mori, both later performed a lot on the Wish Bus which pioneered back in 2014.. Where she wasn’t was singing for Disney which is what Morissette and Stell both did..
In the biographies of both Mori and Katrina one can also see the continuing influence of musical Titans like Martin Nievera, Gary Valenciano and Regine Velasquez on new talents.
PPop groups and the firms that build them are the newcomers, even as the firm that built up SB19 (and now Kaia) was a pioneer, while Viva (with Alamat) and ABS-CBN (with BGYO and Bini) it seems just jumped onto the business model after SB19 started to show first successes.
One major difference between Katrina and Mori as well is that Katrina also does acting. Based on my analysis of the 2010s Top 10 in the Philippines as posted by Waleska Herrera on YT, popularity as a singer in the Philippines is helped by also being a popular actress. Among those with extremely high sales in the 2010s was Alden Richards and I guess Aldub helped. Julie Anne San Jose is a damn good singer as well (and a true musician like Mori as both also play the guitar) but her regularly being in GMA series certainly helped her popularity. Still, the likes of SB19 as well as Morissette are exceptions to the old rule that an “artista” must sing, dance and act (and then marry a politician, so they can live happily ever after) and may change things. After all, friendly technologies and then the pandemic changed a lot, now smells like a new era.
OT: the Philippines is more interested in generative AI than any other country in the world (Tweet)
ahem, in the airport I overheard a VIP reading an article to his fellow VIP that says, “AI will never replace politicians, managers, public servants and journalists as AI is not designed to be useless!”
in our country, there must be lots of useless politicians, managers, public servants and journalists that resort to using AI to do the hard work for them. apparently, quillbot is a summariser and paraphraser, it can slash through a long document with maybe several hundreds of pages of texts, jargons and legalese, and condense it into few manageable pages for easy reading complete with bullet points, though accuracy may not be quillbot’s best feature. it may not be sentient enough to know what humans feel most important and must be highlighted in the summarized article.
ever tried comparing the summary made by two different quillbots on the same given article, and see which quillbot is more to the point?
As we know, one thing Filipinos can do well is imitate, but this is insane:
Including the Filipino capacity to mock nearly anything and anyone..
That aside, Katrina Velarde sings magnificently when in serious mode.
SB19 finished the US leg of their tour in Washington DC on Sunday, singing “Freedom”, a magnificent hymn to camaraderie, their own and their bond with their fandom shows in the joy of the melody and how they dance to it:
“Heaven ay parang malayo sa katotohanan
Bigla nang iyong hawakan
Sa tangan mo’y aking naramdaman
‘Pag ika’y kasama ‘di nababahala
Langit ang biyaya ng ‘yong presensya
‘Wag na ‘wag ka na sana pang mawawala
‘Pagkat pakpak ko’y ‘yong binuka
Lilipad nang malaya kasi nga
You are my freedom
Oh damn it feels so great
We gotta celebrate oh yeah oh yeah
You are my freedom
Brought out the best in me
Forever I’m in debt of you of you
You are my freedom
Don’t know who sent you here
Not mad you’re welcome dear
Don’t disappear
You are my freedom
Now I can fly away
I’m taking you with me
I’m in heaven
Freedom
Oh oh
You are my freedom
Oh oh
My freedom
Oh para bang barko akong naglalayag sa gitna ng bagyo
Sinagip mo ‘ko sa negatibong dala ng mundo
Silakbo ko nang pagsamo
Na sana ay walang magbago
Baka ‘di ko kayanin oh mawalay pa sa iyo
At ngayo’y kasama na kita wala nang
Kahit anong bahid ng pangamba
‘Wag na ‘wag ka na sana pang mawawala
‘Pagkat kapayapaan kita
Ako’y malaya ngayon kasi nga
You are my freedom
Oh damn it feels so great
We gotta celеbrate oh yeah oh yeah
You arе my freedom
Brought out the best in me
Forever I’m in debt of you of you
You are my freedom
Don’t know who sent you here
Not mad you’re welcome dear
Don’t disappear
You are my freedom
Now I can fly away
I’m taking you with me
I’m grateful ’cause you are my
Oh yeah
Ako’y nagpapasalamat ‘di mapaliwanag
Oh yeah
Dahil ikaw ang liwanag ‘di kailan magdidilim
You are my freedom
Don’t know who sent you here
Not mad you’re welcome dear
Don’t disappear
You are my freedom
Now I can fly away
I’m taking you with me
I’m in heaven
You are my freedom
Oh oh
You are my freedom
Oh oh
Oh oh”
There is a bit of sarcasm but also a nice meaning in the song Mana, a reaction to those who said they were flying too high to remind them that they always stayed rooted to the ground even when flying high – like the manananggal.. and both music and show give thrills and chills..
“Ayy, hindi ba mahiwaga?
‘Di mo kilala no’ng nasa lupa pa
Ayy, ni walang alaala
Ika’y nangamusta, pusta ko 50
Ayy, ngayong nasa alapaap na
Giit ako ay nagbago na
‘Di mo ba ako nami-miss, oh, yeah
Nah, I’d rather half my body go missing, oh, yeah
Bakit nga ba ganito?
‘Di ko maintindihan ang sinasabi mo
Madaya ba’ng mundo?
Kung gano’n na nga, heto, babaguhin ko
Sa ‘kin ay hindi problema
Kung ‘di niyo pa rin nakikita
Tinataglay ko ang biyayang
Hindi niyo maikakaila
Manananggal, manananggal, manananggal, mana
Langit, lupa, magsasama, basta ba maniwala
‘Di man kita, tunay na halaga ng aking biyaya
Manananggal, manananggal, manananggal (brrah!)
Mana
Mana
Mana
Mana
Huh? ‘Di ko na marinig sinasabi niyo
‘Di na nga umaabot dito sa kinalalagyan ko
Ingay pa ng katabi kong eroplano
I’ll go turbo, turning on the nitro
Zoom, papalayo, ‘di na hihinto
I’ll be floating here ’cause I’m grounded, chillin’
What you calling punks? Yeah, we not dead
Wala na bang bago?
‘Yung hindi ko alam sa ‘king pagkatao
‘Di na ba natuto?
Kakailanganin niyo na ata ng milagro
Sa ‘kin ay hindi problema
Kung ‘di niyo pa rin nakikita
Tinataglay ko ang biyayang
Hinding-hindi niyo maikakaila
Manananggal, manananggal, manananggal, mana
Langit, lupa, magsasama, basta ba maniwala
‘Di man kita, tunay na halaga ng aking biyaya
Manananggal, manananggal, manananggal (brrah!)
Mana
Mana
Aswang ba kaya kinakatakutan?
Bibig mo ay itikom mo na lang
Pasensiya ko’y ‘wag mong subukan
Sige lang, sige, sige, ‘wag lang kakatulugan
Aswang ba kaya kinakatakutan?
Bibig mo ay itikom mo na lang
Pasensiya ko’y ‘wag mong subukan
Sige lang, sige, sige lang (oh!)
Manananggal, manananggal, manananggal, mana
Langit, lupa, magsasama, basta ba maniwala (magsasama)
‘Di man kita, tunay na halaga ng aking biyaya (oh, oh)
Manananggal, ‘wag mong katutulugan, kung hindi (brrah!)
Mana
Mana
Mana”
More on Mori.. her classic first own song “Akin Ka Na Lang” as sung in “The Loft” with a live band around her, almost in a cozy jam session..
From almost a year ago, her Bruno Mars Evolution medley, also with a live band.
Both numbers have this unique “unplugged” quality, as someone singing with a live band comes across so very differently than someone singing even live but to a backing track.
One can see two things here: Morissette mentioned in an interview that her family jammed especially before Christmas. Her father (a rock musician who named her after Alanis Morissette) was on the keyboard. She plays keyboard and guitar – especially guitar isn’t surprising given that Cebu is where guitars are made, hope that industry hasn’t gone the way of Marikina shoes BTW. “Full musicians” that play at least one instrument aside from singing have a different grasp of the craft. Julie Anne San Jose (GMA) has similar skills and musicality.
Second aside from honing one’s craft including going unplugged (also a capella like in Mori’s cover of “Driver’s license”) is trying different ways of interpreting songs as well as different audiences and markets. We might be watching a global star in the making right now.
Meron ibang Morissette na nagconcert lately.
Si Alanis Morisette.
Si Ice Seguerra ang Front Act.
Morissette Amon was named after Alanis Morissette by her musician father.
Actually, I did see the name Morissette at times before, but didn’t quite get that there is a Filipina singer with that name until after discovering SB19.
alanis morissette is canadian-american international singing sensation, habang itong si morissette amon ay bisayang kababayan natin.
if our kababayan morissette amon wants to be truly global star, I think, she would need a very good talent agent preferably an international one. as well mori would have to walk the talk extra hard. coz it is harder slog to create a brand name and keep at it. good voice and talent is not enough in this day and age. an agent can open doors, has knowledge and wider network plus resources to further a singer’s career.
si celine dion nga, before she become world famous with her equally sensational songs, she went tru the wringer and represented switzerland in the eurovision song contest kahit hindi siya swiss citizen. no rule kasi that says contestants must be citizen of the country they represent. celine dion won the contest and her name catapulted world wide, the publicity was stratospheric. and she has a very good agent who aided and abetted her singing career further still.
if our mori is satisfied and happy singing where she is now, fine. no need to burn the midnight oil if she does not want to.
Her time will come and it is up to her if it is to shine or to fade.
no filipino or filipino of mixed heritage has won europe’s eurovision song contest, ever! there has been attempts, to no avail. there are millions of musically inclined filipinos in europe, I’m guessing they dont have the vocal range to guarantee eurovision win. there are round 40 european countries vying, and an audience of round 163millions worldwide!
It is almost impossible for Filipinos or mixed Filipinos to enter Eurovision as the selection of national contestants is controlled by country, and like soccer, the Eurovision contest has a lot of nationalism playing into it.
Maybe Franco-Canadian Celine Dion could join for Switzerland because of French-speaking Swiss heritage or to represent them, I don’t know.
Besides Eurovision is not at all about quality especially not in the last decades.
Before the juries had a strong role to play, though it often amounted to favoritism especially in the Communist bloc. Now it is basically like a money-based “beauty” or “singing” contest in some Filipino barrios, except the money-based part is the phone voting which is paid for.
So what wins in Eurovision is the flavor of the year, so to speak. Germany won with a young lady singing a message of peace in several European languages in the early 1980s. In the noughties it was with a Latvian-German student who looked like the fairy tale description of Snow White and combined a certain friendliness with the sex appeal of the song her producer Stefan Raab wrote for her: “..like a satellite, I’m in orbit all the way around you, and love oh love, can’t last a minute without your love..” oh and Raab had tried for years to make Germany win..
There are a number of Filipina migrant kids in the UK who have won The Voice, one quite notable one speaks Liverpool dialect (“Scouse”) and there is Bella Santiago who won The Voice Romania, but she met her Romanian boyfriend, a band leader, as a pro entertainer abroad.
An Indonesian student who had been in several singing contests at home went to study in Germany on her uncle’s recommendation and won The Voice here.. Claudia Santoso (that’s her name) was part of the Indonesian folklore presentation at the Hannover trade fair this year, where Indonesia was the partner country and she performed in front of German dignitaries and the Indonesian President.. with the kind of support Indonesia gives to all its talents (its Embassies also take way better care of their students abroad than the Philippines I heard) there may be a popular Indonesian talent here in Europe sooner than there is a Filipino/Filipina.. wait, the Indonesian singer Anggun was once popular here, French label I think..
Filipinos in North America have Starmedia in LA which organized the SB19 US tour, the Wishbus USA based in LA, or the Fil-Canadian firm which I think co-organized the Canadian leg of the SB19 tour with Starmedia.. add to that the Las Vegas and showbiz contacts of the likes of Martin Nievera who did a US tour with Morissette not too long ago.. there is Ethnoex in Italy which basically organizes the ABS-CBN / TFC / 1MX stuff here in Europe but little else yet.. there are Fil-Canadian producers like Simon Servida who works with SB19 and many more in North America but over here, Pinoys aren’t that far up the food chain for the most part yet.. there are Pinoy rock bands in Austria of all places, don’t know that much about them..
thank you, Irineo.
posted australia’s eurovision entry 2022. entrant is filipino of mixed heritage, nice try but did not win.
I kind of drifted away from Eurovision in 2013, when the popular La BrassBanda from Bavaria was not sent out as the German entry because of the veto of the national jury that got fans very mad on social media..
..well the other band that was accused of being the jury’s favorite hardly made points in Eurovision, with Germany placing 21st out of 26 nations and one German state TV executive blaming it on the Euro crisis and Merkel being unpopular then while others found their entry “Glorious” to be too similar to the winner of the year before, “Euphoria”.. La Brassbanda still constantly goes on concert and has its fandom, though I am not part of it.
I know that Eurovision started ABBA on their phenomenal career, Celine Dion I didn’t know but it has become stranger and stranger over the years. Often the Southeastern European countries being many and having similar taste, sometimes the Nordics and Baltics are influential also.
Australia in Eurovision is a bit of a stretch actually. At least neighbors like Morocco or Israel somehow make sense. And then it is an English-speaking country. Even if since the 1990s a lot of Eurovision entries are in English, the sense of US and UK dominance might still play a role, meaning a Canadian speaking French like Celine Dion may have had a chance and Aussies are well liked at the Oktoberfest, but the phone voters might prefer someone who is from “here”.
Even KPop took longer to be visible in Europe. It started to be well known in the USA in the late noughties with Wonder Girls but here it took Gangnam Style to enter it into popular consciousness.. and even in 2021 a German radio host underestimated “Army” (BTS fans)
https://www.papermag.com/bts-german-radio-host-fired
..Back in February, Matuschik came under fire for making racist “jokes” about BTS, even going so far as to dub the group “some crappy virus that hopefully there will be a vaccine for soon as well.” The radio host also responded to BTS’ cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You” on MTV Unplugged as “blasphemy” and said they should be punished by “vacationing in North Korea for the next 20 years.”..
There is a crowd that likes K-drama and K-pop in Europe by now, and the occasional Turkish or Thai Netflix drama gets hyped (Thailand has the advantage of many Germans living there or married to Thais, Turkey has its migrants here) but the Philippines is still far, far away here. England has more of the Bollywood crowd, the Carribean people and the Africans, France has its former colonies as well, Holland is the import hub for most Asian food but it seems most Indonesian migrants or students prefer Germany to their former colonizer, Vietnamese who came as laborers during the Socialist era are in many Eastern European countries while in the West there are the children and grandchildren of former Vietnamese refugees.. there are large Filipino populations in Spain and Italy that keep to themselves.. the UK Pinoys are less isolated from the mainstream.. now I have just named the three European countries with Jolibee.. and the occasional 1MX Festival or ASAP concert in London or Milan but that’s it as of now..
so true! eurovision’s voting is sort of crazy! the 1st tier of voting is almost emotive as participating countries are not allowed to vote for their own, so naturally, they give their votes to neighboring countries. usually, germans dont vote for jews, and vice versa yata. then comes the 2nd tier of voting: the un-emotive and professional votes of participating bandleaders, musicians and members of the orchesta, thus the crazy votes are evened out. from eurovision song contests come world hits like waterloo by sweden’s abba, england’s cliff richard’s, we are going on a summer holiday, and the one I like the most: save all your kisses for me.
australia is an oddity. it has the greatest greek population outside greece. aussies watched eurovision religiously with almost more than half of population tuning in year in and year out. naawa ang eurovision inc. and australia was invited to join in.
only original songs are allowed in eurovision song contest and singers must not be professional singers. okay for european countries to poach singers from other countries though, but singers must pass the rigors of audition before they can be entrant. by the time entrants mount the eurovision stage, they’re considered the best candidate a country has offered.
I think, it is only a matter of time before a filipino wins the eurovision song contest.
out of topic po ito:
these days, we have to be careful what we sing, and make sure it’s not so offensive. my kuya is no longer singing tom jones’ karaoke song delilah. na-woke si delilah and been banned sa wales, UK. kasi the song is misogynistic kuno glorifying a stalker and a murderer.
. . . ‘she stood there laughing’ . . . nervous laughter? delilah met her stalker face to face, the stalker carrying a knife!
. . . ‘and she laughed no more’, . . . there, nasaksak si delilah.
. . . ‘I cant take anymore; . . . delilah’s stalker was not remorseful, blamed the dead delilah instead for his inability to deal with rejection!
This is too juicy (even if OT) to pass up; for all the crypto dudes out there.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-08-17/crypto-text-message-scams-lead-back-to-cambodia-slave-labor
When I asked where she was, she replied with a selfie. It was edited so heavily that she looked like an anime character: a pretty young Asian woman with porcelain-smooth skin, a narrow chin and big round eyes with long lashes.
“Nice to meet you,” I wrote. “My name is Zeke Faux. I live in Brooklyn.”
“You have a very cool name,” she said. “I am 32 years old and a divorced woman.”
“…Hardly anyone knew what cryptocurrencies were for. Even supposed experts couldn’t explain them. It was unclear why many of them should be worth anything at all. I was told again and again that crypto was the future of finance, technology and art, but as I traveled to cryptocurrency hot spots from Manhattan to Miami, the Bahamas, El Salvador and the Philippines, pretty much all I saw was empty hype and scams.”
https://www.philstar.com/nation/2023/08/03/2285784/650-workers-held-pasay-pogo-raid
there were raids as regards scams in the philippines. apparently, some filipinos that were trafficked in cambodia ended up in the scam business once back home. I bet the experience from cambodia equip them well, lol!
in micha’s link above, the pretty young asian looks like the late abby choi, a hongkong socialite found murdered.
****
pbbm wanted philippines to be tech hub of the east and ended up attracting the wrong crowd: the gaggle of scammers.
the biggest scam is probly being played in broad daylight and right in front of our faces! biro nyo, pbbm has travelled 13x overseas already and racked up 400 million+ pesos in expenses. he cannot say no to invitations kasi for ‘fear of missing out’ (fomo); in desperate attempt yata to chase foreign investors. kaso, if he has sound economic policies and there is good governance in our country, chances are foreign investors will come knocking, no need to chase them here, there and everywhere. but if pbbm must chase, he can always send foreign affairs sec, and not debased himself more and appear desperate by doing all the chasing. siya na nga ang kumakanta, siya pa ang sasayaw.
world economists do talk to each other and keep their eyes open for opportunities. at the moment, mostly scammers are interested to establish themselves in our country, reaping billions and inflecting misery.
and ably aided by locals!
Trafficking also happens here,
Some kidnapped forognerset forced to call centers and troll farms doing unimiganibale stuff.
In this paperless world, we must submit less paper for inspection.
I thought that was what the National ID is for to simplify everythying instead it became whatever it became.
Human Traffic prevention led to Human traffic in the airport because of long queues.
ang mga matalik na kaibigan ni son of god, quiboloy, na may pending human trafficking court case sa estados unidos, si senator robin padilla among them ay talagang contra sa new travel guidelines. pinapahirapan daw ang mga mamayang filipino.
okay sa akin yang new travel guidelines. I have no qualms bringing extra travel docus. kasi, if not checked rito sa naia dahil mukhang mabait ako at hindi mukhang trafficked, sa port of embarkation naman sa ibang bansa ay baka duon ako sisitahin. high risk country kasi ang pilipinas and any traveler from our country attract undue attention.
OK point duly taken
doj sec boying remulla has put the new travel guidelines in the freezer! on hold muna until further notice.
incidentally, we have porous border in the south. sa southern mindanaw ay halos labas-pasok ang mga indonesians na halos walang papeles. ganon din ang mga pinoy, halos labas pasok sila sa indonesia’t malaysia na halos walang papeles. ang route na ‘to ay paborito yata ng mga human traffickers who have very fast speed boats and come in the middle of the night.
Even billionaires are spamming their fb friends with crypto stuff. I added Ricky Razon simply because he was a school mate LSGH, I still do not know if it kis a fake acct or not but i get tagged with binance posts and with no pretenses calling it a financing scheme. Still finding out if the account I added is legit.
karl, familiar ka ba dito sa Maharlika character? Dati daw syang Marcos supporter at bumaliktad; tawag nya ngayon kay Junior ay Kuting at kay Pers Leydi ay Ahas. Anyare sa kanya?
Di ako sure kung me iba acct o marami sya kapareho ng narrative. parang nadinig ko na yung dating bbm supporter tapos nagising na lang at nag iba ang ihip ng hangin.
actress elizabeth oropesa ay ganun din po, nakalumutan raw ni pbbm once pbbm took office. the old supporters given the flick yata, new supporters are in the inner circle, taking offices and being appointed to better jobs. and sometimes, they got to travel with pbbm overseas!
I say, nakarma si maharlika, she used to be loud and obnoxious, a total heckler at sobra-sobrang naninigaw sa opposition. she had her 15 minutes of fame, and if she wants more – sorry, karma is bitch!
frenemies na yata sina raissa robles at maharlika!
Which still leaves the question, bakit bumaliktad si Maharlika? Hindi naambunan ng biyaya? Hinudas ni Pers Leydi? Hindi na appoint bilang special assistant to His Excellency, the royal highness, Prince Ferdinand?
na-itsapwera sa housekeeping, bad manners and foul mouthed kasi. kung yan lang ang offering niya, pbbm is better off without her, methink.
raissa robles got maharlike on the rebound, at kung ako si raissa, I’ll have a binding legal agreement similar to pre-nup; just in case. the future in uncertain kasi. if someday pbbm changes his mind and whistles for his lapdog to return, my bet is, lovesick puppy maharlika will probly come running back, leaving raissa in a lurch, their vlog in limbo. worse, maharlika could block out raissa from their joint vlog, denying access.
raissa is investigative journalist and presumably, she has eyes behind her head. a legal document would thrash out what is raissa’s and what is maharlika’s, their obligation to each other, who owns what, etc.
Buti ka pa nasubaybayan mo si Maharlika.
maharlika should be happy! pbbm named an investment fun after her, the maharlika investment fund, ha, ha, ha.
Hahaha
severely out of topic! https://politics.com.ph/2023/08/29/dagdag-kalbaryo-raffy-tulfo-opposes-iacats-anti-poor-travel-rules/
for once, I’m for the new travel guidelines for outgoing pinoys, though marami are against.
if raffy tulfo really wants to fight vs human trafficking, he ought to support the new guidelines and make it easier, smoother, and faster to lakad travel documents by registering all travel and immigration agents, giving true timeline of the procurement process, including expenses incurred. only legit outgoing travelers are allowed, rich and poor alike.
the new travel guidelines kick in sept 3rd. talagang mahirap yan for first-timers na maglalakad ng sariling documents. if availing the services of travel and immig agents, make sure legit sila at hindi peke.
Ayun tinigil muna ng DOJ
Traffic ng pila ng tso di human trafficking prevention ang nangyari
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1823169/vp-accused-of-spending-p125-m-funds-in-19-days
ayan, big spender itong vice president natin!
on national heroes day, sabi pa naman ni sara to taumbayan, be brave, be heroes . . . I hope inday is indeed very brave and explain to the whole sambayanan how she became houdini and made 125million pesos disappear in just 19 days!
Big spender ang butangerang VP. Sabi sasagutin nya raw ang mga tanong ni Rep. Castro sa budget briefing tapos bigla naging duwag at nagtago sa parliamentary courtesy ni Sandro Dragon Fruit.
Daan daan pa escor5s noon 2022
I’ve read somewhere that sara sabi, part of 125million pesos spent was used to investigate two incidences of child grooming at school. just the two!
ang alam ko, dept ed is mandated to report suspected child abuse, but cannot really investigate, not vested sila. trained detectives, polis, nbi, at doj can investigate crime against children. dep ed can only report, then child protection agency takes over.
I do hope dept ed sec knows the difference between reporting and investigating where one ends, the other starts.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/08/30/23/little-weird-to-hear-chot-getting-booed-says-clarkson
chot reyes is another houdini! he made the hopes, dreams and ambition of basketball loving pinoys disappear!
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2023/08/22/2290405/sara-its-final-leave-classroom-walls-bare
inday sara’s edict: the education sec wants classroom walls left bare. wall decorations distract pupils kuno. pictures of jesus christ, the virgin mary, and of pope francis all gone. ngayong mag-be-ber months na, no christmas decors, no nativity scenes! no merry christmas and happy and prosperous new, no seasons greetings, no parol? haha.
akala ko school children are distracted dahil ang feeding program nila is barely up and running, gutom sila at hindi masigla. as well, classrooms with 55 pupils to one teachers are noisy, siksikan at mainit! what’s on the walls are probly the least of their worries.
bare walls are boring and make school children sleepy!
What if your homeroom students made the country proud by winning a tournament instead of hanging a tarp in your classroom you just post a newspaper clip.
What if your posts visual aids to let the let the students memory like the multiplication table, national heroes, etc
pati yun bawal?
bawal lahat! classroom walls to be bare as baby’s bottom! yan ang gusto ni sara. kaso, she is not backed by empirical studies, and there is no peer reviewed articles yata that support her claim that classroom walls should be bare in order for schoolchildren to learn.
teachers these days are very skillful and know how to hold and attract children’s attention despite all the disruptions around. there is class exercise, song and dance and the most feared of all: the impromptu test on 1/8 piece of paper! makes all children sit up and immediately compliant.
Then Sara should step down as DEPED sec
agree! hindi pa nga tayo province of china, sara is already exercising coercive control.
Hi Gian, sent in a new article. thanks
Have to say that going international wasn’t new, as after EDSA the group Smokey Mountain had its moments for a few years in the international spotlight before the quartet went their separate ways.
That some Filipino rock and folk musicians have also seen momentary international exposure, partly due to their influence on the world music genre, and partly their work puts them on parity with their Western counterparts.