Last call for submissions to PhilPop Songwriting Festival 2020
With #MusicBreakingBorders as its newest tagline, PhilPop is committed to celebrating and showcasing the diverse appeal of Filipino music through its Songwriting Festival.
This also serves as an opportunity to empower underrated music talents from the Philippines to harness their potential in the international music arena, and give them the necessary support to widen their reach and adapt to various challenges and trends in the industry.
The 2020 PhilPop Music Festival started accepting entries last April 25, 2020 from all over the country in five different clusters: Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, the National Capital Region.
More than a thousand entries have already been submitted, with original and unpublished compositions not restricted to any genre, and written in various languages—from English to Filipino, from Bicolano to Ilocano, from Cebuano to Waray, and more.
Submission of entries is ongoing until July 4, 2020.
Music breaking borders
National Artist and PhilPop Music Fest Foundation Board Member and Bootcamp Master Ryan Cayabyab puts into perspective the fascinating story and direction for original Pilipino music for which PhilPop dares to achieve.
“Filipino music and songs become more meaningful, more colorful and more diverse when we tear down the barriers that separate us. The color that each language brings, the unique stories that each music creator conjures or creates, and the diversity of possible creations to choose from makes for a more exciting direction for Philippine popular music to take.
“Hence, we in Philpop has adopted the theme Music Breaking Borders to achieve what we have set out. The other facet of Philpop’s #MusicBreakingBorders is, you probably have guessed – the task of Philippine pop music to break barriers in the international scene,” Ryan said in a statement.
PhilPop Boot Camp coach and folk singer Noel Cabangon emphasized the importance of giving voice to new, original Filipino pop songs from different parts of the country, and that an overwhelming number of aspiring songwriters outside Metropolitan Manila, have produced and written material that deserves to be heard on the mainstage.
“The idea of breaking borders is to somehow break the “monopoly’ of music emanating from the National Capital Region (NCR),” Cabangon said. “We have to admit that there is a diverse musical sound of diverse influences from the regions. Music has been one of the popular art forms that expresses the culture and way of life of the people from the region. I’m not just talking about indigenous sound and ideas but distinct people’s character and sensibility. #MusicBreakingBorders is also not just an accommodation of music from the other parts of the country, but the idea being inclusive, in the sense of original Filipino music. We somehow want to break the wall of confinement in the center and allow/open the arena, and create a broader stream. Somehow this broader stream can lead all of us to the sea and to the ocean, where borders are opening up to new ideas.”
To date, PhilPop has produced some of the biggest songs of the last two decades, including massive streaming and radio hits performed, composed and written by Ben&Ben, Thyro and Yumi, The Itchyworms, Sam Concepcion, Johnoy Danao, Kyla, and Joey Ayala—to name a few. Advice to aspiring composers Asked about his advice to songwriters, Ryan said, “The balance to be original and to be universal all at the same time is the key that anyone aspiring for global recognition needs to achieve. It also means that a careful balance between science and art should be the direction to take. This will entail a lot of observation and experimentation and a lot of creative spirit and practice to get to that point where one is ready to take flight! Like all types of experiments, there will be a lot of failures along the way, so we need to be prepared for the long haul: prepared physically, mentally and emotionally.”
Noel Cabangon encourages everyone to focus on honing the talent and turning the process into a habit. “Get inspired, keep on writing, open your ears and eyes to new ideas and transform and them into your own.”