The popularity of the term “hugot” may have seen its heyday in the mid-2010s, but Filipinos’ affinity for love and heartache endures. Just listen to any karaoke session; not a night will go by without at least one hugot song queued.
For singer-songwriter Maki, it’s all because Filipinos “love to love.”
Maki is no stranger to writing his own fair share of hugot. So much so that the running joke among his fans is that “sana laging basted si Maki para marami pa siyang masulat na kanta.” His latest single, “Habangbuhay Pansamantala,” fits the bill.
But it’s not that he goes out of his way to write about heartbreak—it just so happens that’s what he honestly wants to express. “I wrote this song genuinely because I felt it,” he says during an intimate gathering with the press.
“Para sakin, it’s okay to be in that position sometimes. Kaya nga nasulat ko na may mga taong ‘sapat magustuhan, ‘di sapat mapanindigan.’ And that’s okay,” he says. “Maybe hindi pa talaga right ‘yong person, hindi pa talaga right ‘yong time.”
The meaning of pink
Sharing more about the song’s creation, Maki admits that the feelings are deep-seated. “‘Yong words na ‘yan (habangbuhay pansamantala) have always been familiar in my life. Ever since I was a kid, mayro’ng moments where I feel I’m a temporary person,” he says.
“‘Habangbuhay Pansamantala’ [are] very contrasting words na ipagsama, but for me, it makes sense. It reflects ‘yong mga na-feel ko ever since.”
Calling back past themes and motifs has become a signature for Maki, too, especially in his “Kolorcoaster” era—his most recent concept album that revolves around colors and the roller coaster of emotions they may represent. Incidentally, while “Habangbuhay Pansamantala” bears no trace of color in its title or lyrics, it has been revealed as the long-hinted-at addition to the “Kolorcoaster” universe, representing pink.
“I describe pink as a color that’s not as bold as red, not as bright as yellow, not as nostalgic as kahel,” Maki says. “It’s soft, but also very vulnerable. Parang ‘yong hearts natin. Having a soft spot for a certain person can hurt sometimes. Kasi kahit anong gawin ng tao na ‘yon, for some reason, tiklop ka pa rin.”
“I describe pink as a color that’s not as bold as red, not as bright as yellow, not as nostalgic as kahel. It’s soft, but also very vulnerable. Parang ‘yong hearts natin”
But for all the clarity pink has taken on today, the “Dilaw” hitmaker admits it took a while to realize how pink could correlate to the feeling of his latest song.
“Malayo ‘yong journey ng song. Kasi I’ve always known na magsusulat ako ng color pink. Pero no’ng time na ‘yon, hindi ko pa gets ano ‘yong pink. But I [knew] na I’m gonna write a song about softness,” he tells Lifestyle Inquirer. “Hindi ko na-realize na ganito siya ka-contrasting. Hindi ko na-realize na magiging ‘Habangbuhay Pansamantala’ ‘yong masusulat ko. Akala ko super love song!”
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Maki’s initial impression of pink has always been connected to gentleness. “Pag nakakakita tayo ng naka-pink, ‘ay, ang cute mo naman!’ [‘yong reaction natin.] Pero pink is a very subtle but bold color, because not everyone wears pink,” he notes. “Soft people are a very gentle kind of people, but they’re very bold when expressing themselves. Para sakin, when I wrote this song, do’n ko na-realize na this is actually pink. I don’t need to put the color in the lyrics or on the title. It screams pink—very soft but very bold ‘yong song.”
“Pink is sometimes a very deceiving color; you don’t know if it’s gentle or bold,” he observes. Correlating it to the song, he adds, “You don’t know if it’s habangbuhay or pansamantala. Parang gano’n siya.”
A platform for advocacy
While the feeling of falling for someone who can’t quite reciprocate the energy is a universal experience, it manifests itself in myriad situations and contexts. Such is what the music video accompanying “Habangbuhay Pansamantala” also aims to present.
The music video is starkly dystopian (perhaps in a way symbolizing that devastating feeling of finding a love that still isn’t yours to keep forever?), showing Maki walking through scenes and encountering objects from the other “worlds” of his other “Kolorcoaster” songs.
In a key moment, he is bumped into by SB19’s Justin—an amalgamation of all the figures Maki from all these other worlds encountered. The moment to me represents that triggering instant when you’re suddenly reminded of someone who’s long left your life, and how, even through someone completely new or different, old memories resurface. The moment feelings come crashing right back in—a “relapse,” in today’s slang—no matter how much time you’ve spent “moving on” from it.
The scene then leads to an animation sequence, showing different scenarios of love and their parting. “All Filipino, no AI,” Maki proudly says of the art featured in his music video, adding that he was adamant about incorporating his advocacies into his projects.
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Thus, the different scenarios or interpretations of love seen in the video were intentional, he adds.
“I’m a big, big fan of films, [and] ‘yong ‘Everything, Everywhere, All at Once’ inspired me sa part na ‘yon. Na in every universe, pinagtagpo pa rin ‘yong dalawang tao,” Maki says. “Whether they are trees, bags, food—isang pink, isang yellow—kumbaga sa iba-ibang universe, merong dalawang person na laging pinagsasama pero pinaghihiwalay for some reason. They meet and they say goodbye. So iba-ibang interpretation.”
Each visual artist in the music video was scouted by Maki himself. “Some of them [were briefed about what to animate], some of them hindi ko talaga binrief,” he says. “No’ng unang una, nagbigay kami ng brief kung ano ‘yong ido-drawing nila: kung ano ‘yong nando’n, ano ‘yong nangyayari. Pero ‘yong characters mismo, hindi namin spinecify. Pero may mga certain artists kami na sinabi na kung ano dapat itsura ng characters.”
“‘Kolorcoaster’ is a very colorful album, and it would be a crime if I did not use the platform to tell other people how it’s so hard for minorities to live in a country like the Philippines during ‘yong dati pang panahon. Isipin mo, dalawang minority—babae ka na, tapos lesbian or bading ka pa,” Maki says of one of the animated interpretations of “Habangbuhay Pansamanatala.”
“Pinilit ko talaga. Sabi ko dapat babae ‘to eh. In a time na sobrang strikto ng lahat, in a time na homophobic lahat, in a time na walang usad ‘yong society natin, merong mga taong nag-e-exist ng ganito, kailangan nila itago at tanggapin na hindi sila para sa isa’t isa. And there’s a universe out there na gano’n pa rin hanggang ngayon.”
As “Habangbuhay Pansamantala” opens up universes of interpretations from his fans, Maki also teases that this “pink anthem” is far from the end of his “kolor boy” era.
