The Society of Honor by Joe America

Pilita Corrales performed in Las Vegas at a time when very few Filipino artists had that kind of international platform, making her presence there exceptional. Lea Salonga’s performances in the London West End, Broadway, and with Disney helped open the door for many Filipino performers.

BINI and SB19 may be opening the gates for Filipino music itself as an export product.

BINI is set to perform at Coachella in the coming days and will also appear at the Grammy Museum, while SB19 will perform at Lollapalooza and Summer Sonic in July and August.

Their way there can be best described as shaped by K-pop inspirations but rooted in OPM.

It has taken nearly 8 years for SB19 and almost 5 years for BINI since their official debuts – years spent honing their skills, developing their music, and building an audience – before reaching breakthrough moments in 2023 and 2024 and embarking on world tours in 2025.

From subcontractor to partner

For much of its modern economic history, the Philippines has operated as a provider of labor and services—from seafarers to overseas workers to BPO professionals. The music industry also followed this pattern: Filipino talent contributed to global entertainment but did not own the platforms or systems behind it.

What is changing now is a gradual shift toward co-creation and more equal partnership in how Filipino music reaches global audiences.

SB19’s global activities have been supported and amplified through partnerships, including with Sony, as seen in recent collaborations with artists like C-pop star Jolin Tsai and the Japanese group BE:FIRST. ABS-CBN, which manages BINI, worked with The Team (formerly Wasserman) for their world tour as well as in positioning them for Coachella. Cup of Joe, a Baguio-based band under Viva Music, also has an ongoing world tour. Viva Music since 2021 is 15% owned by Believe, a global digital music company based in Paris.

Cheering for champions

The cheers for Filipino music echo the national support seen for figures like Alex Eala or Manny Pacquiao. But just like athletes take time to reach the top level, industries take even more time. K-Pop took decades to get to where it is now, and the Filipino music industry is on a learning curve now.

One only has to hear the quality of Filipino music production and see the quality of Filipino music videos from ten years ago and today – it is a feeling like being halfway up a hill. Looking back at how far things have come can be motivating, especially when the climb ahead still looks steep.

So it should not be discouraging that Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You, with nearly 5 billion Spotify streams, outnumbers the combined totals of leading Filipino acts: Cup of Joe with 2.2B streams, BINI with 1.2B streams and SB19 with 1B streams. The global music industry is at another scale and maturity level.

Stars and factories

Admiration for stars coincides with periods of aspiration. Korea’s rise to world-class status in industries like automobiles had KPop as a cultural “cherry on top”. The upcoming biopic Michael has Michael Jackson’s father asking his sons if they want to work in the factory all their lives like him – highlighting the link between aspiration and opportunity. Berry Gordy notably applied lessons from the car industry in Detroit to pop music in order to form Motown groups like the Temptations and The Supremes, long before K-Pop.

The Philippines, for its part, has seen similar early promise without always sustaining it. Companies like Radiowealth, which built radios in the 1960s, show that the country had a head start in certain industries but has historically struggled to build lasting global champions. The leader of global girl group Katseye, also at Coachella, happens to be the great-granddaughter of Radiowealth’s founder Domingo Guevara.

1Z, which is SB19’s company and ABS-CBN which formed BINI both have the next gen of PPop trainees “in the works”. How they fare will prove whether the Filipino music industry has managed to create an efficient machinery like old Motown or present KPop. Or whether things will go the way of Radiowealth once more.

Hunger for more

There is a difference to Motown in the degree of precarity many Filipino talents come from. Even as BINI and SB19 members come from the classes that are neither totally rich nor totally poor in the PIDS classification, an interview with BINI members from 2024 shows the struggle most in the Philippines have.

BINI and SB19 were the first Filipino acts to fill the 55,000-seat Philippine Arena twice last year, an arena previously dominated by foreign acts preferred by those with greater spending power. Still, there is also a degree of vulnerability of the Filipino middle-class concert audience to economic shocks. Both BINI and SB19 now have over 100,000 members each on the fandom platform Weverse: numbers that roughly mirror the scale of their Philippine Arena audiences. With over 50,000 attendees each across the overseas legs of BINI and SB19’s world tours last year, one can see that export is clearly not optional for PPop. ABS-CBN also indicated that BINI (and Batang Quiapo) contributed to its improving financial position. PPop today reflects a different kind of urgency and hunger than Motown did. Will that translate into long-term success?

The Filipino music industry recently has more new live venues, music video production outfits and studios – contributing to job creation, even as broader industrialization of the country is a much bigger challenge.

On the road

BINI will be on the Coachella stage on two consecutive Fridays. The Philippines is, hopefully, on the road not only to a stronger presence on the world stage, but also to building more opportunities at home through industries like music – and maybe cars?

The Filipinos who cheer for their own often look for the fruits of hard work made visible. On that note, much success to BINI on their road, and to SB19.

Mabuhay ang musikang Pilipino.

(and Happy Easter to all)

The author lives in Germany and grew up in the Philippines.

Picture created using BING Image generator

Appendix 1: Coachella and Lollapalooza 2026 posters

Appendix 2: Excerpts from Joey Nguyen’s comments on KPop and the Korean car industry (links to the full comments are in the article)

Appendix 3: Cup of Joe: “Multo Extended Version” at the Cozy Cove. The Cozy Cove is a live venue in Baguio with a (small but top-tier) music studio attached to it that is often used by indie musicians and producers.