It’s still on soft-opening mode, but the newly built Hive Hotel in Quezon City (where the refurbished My Brother’s Mustache is located) recently hosted the media presentation of the interpreters of the 12 finalists of the 4th Philippine Popular Music Festival (Philpop).
We’ve visited My Brother’s Mustache in the past few months, but it’s our first time to see Hive’s ballroom, and with lots of musicians at that. There was no beer or wine that night, but what the heck, we felt great watching videos of the 12 new songs that were chosen from among thousands of entries, and the artists who will perform them at the finals on July 25 at Meralco Theater.
Philpop executive director Ryan Cayabyab arrived late and quickly took a selfie with the finalists. He looked very happy with the way this annual music tilt has been drawing aspiring young composers.
Earlier in a video, Cayabyab said that what he wanted Philpop to achieve is to inspire musicians “na mas magaling pa sa amin” to come out with their songs. (Philpop’s own inspiration is the Marcos-era Metropop, whose first winner was Cayabyab’s “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika.”)
In the same video, Philpop’s main proponent Manny Pangilinan expressed his wish for the competition to discover a song that would become as big as Freddie Aguilar’s “Anak.”
A close listen to the 2015 Philpop finalists would reveal that the judging committee (composed of the country’s prominent songwriters, music industry practitioners, journalists and critics) has allowed electronic dance music (EDM) to go head-to-head with the typical Pinoy pop, rock, soul and folk tunes that made the cut.
The involvement of the Viva Music Group as a collaborator in choosing the interpreters is crucial; we will see whether the participation of MTV Pinoy VJs Josh Padilla (son of Gino Padilla) and Yassi Pressman would push Johannes Garcia’s EDM-influenced “Edge of the World” to the top.
The rest of the finalists: Melvin Morallos’ “I Owe You My Heart” (interpreted by Anja Aguilar); Melchor Magno Jr.’s “Musikaw” (James Reid, Pio); Mark Villar’s “Sa Ibang Mundo” (Kean Cipriano, Nadine Lustre); Gino Cruz and Jeff Arcilla’s “Apat Na Buwang Pasko” (Jon Santos); Soc Villanueva’s “Kilig” (Jinky Vidal); Paul Armesin’s “Tanging Pag-Asa ko” (The CompanY).
Performing their own songs are Lara Maigue, “Nasaan”; Davey Langit, “Paratingin Mo Na Siya”; Ramiru Mataro and Donnalyn Bartolome, “Walang Hanggan”; Thyro Alfaro and Yumi Lacsamana with Jeric Medina, “Triangulo”; and Side A’s Ned Esguerra and the band, “For the Rest of My Life.”
Partying with Pia
Another new place, Green Sun in Makati, has a hotel, an art gallery, a fashion retail area, a bistro and café, as well as arts and events spaces. Its events space on the fourth floor was where we found ourselves recently—at a party hosted by PLDT Home and Smart to launch its new mobile app called iflix.
We spotted 2015 Binibining Pilipinas-Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach and celebrity Solenn Heussaff among the guests. Heather Morris of “Glee” fame was guest of honor.
In a short program, PLDT EVP and consumer business group head Ariel Fermin described iflix as “literally entertainment everywhere.” It is also dubbed “the country’s biggest library of video-on-demand content.”
It has gained rights to shows produced by Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, BBC Worldwide and Warner Bros., as well as thousands of film selections.
It is currently offering a P99 per-month package with a free 14-day trial. We downloaded it two weeks ago and will most likely get the package.
We only wish we had a phone with a bigger screen to enjoy iflix more.
Log on to iflix.com.
