The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 1

The Press Launch

Filipino recording artists and their local releases have been featured here in my blog since I really want to show my support to the local industry. So many quality albums and songs have been largely ignored due to the greater focus of the media and a lot of listeners to foreign material. That’s why I do what I can to spread the word about Filipino recording artists and their latest albums. They do get major points from me whenever they come out with new and original material.

That’s why when I first heard about the Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop), a songwriting competition with Ryan Cayabyab, an icon in the local music industry as its executive director, I got excited and decided to totally support this endeavor 100%. Local television has been flooded by numerous talent competitions looking for new recording artists, dancers, models and even chefs. And it’s long overdue for another songwriting tilt to discover not just new songs but possibly new songwriters as well.

Ryan Cayabyab

PhilPop is a songwriting competition open to all amateur and professional Filipino composers.  The submission of entries online via www.philpop.com.ph already started last March 1, 2012 and will continue on until May 10, 2012. Song entries are required to be in MP3 format and there will be no strict genre, form or structure. Lyrics could be in Filipino, English, any Filipino dialect or any combination of said languages. The only limitation is the duration of the song entry which must not exceed four minutes. A individual can either submit an entry as the lone composer or in collaboration with another but one can only submit a maximum of two entries. The complete set of rules are found on the competition website.

There will be three levels of screenings and during the semi-finals; the judges will choose the top 14 finalists. The final performance and competition night will be held on July 14, 2012 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). The grand prize winner will receive P1 million in cash and a trophy. The second and third runners up will each receive a trophy and P500,000 and P250,000 in cash respectively. All non-winning finalists will receive P50,000. A People’s Choice award will also be given to the entry with the most number of online and text votes. The winner will receive P200,000 and a trophy.

Ryan Cayabyab, Ely Buendia, Ogie Alcasid and Noel Cabangon

Some songwriters whose work are still unpublished might feel that there should be a separate category for someone like them that is separate from the professionals with published work but I think that having just one category encourages everybody to put on their A-game and submit their very best for this competition. The prizes are great and one million is still one million. But I think that the most important reward of all is to have the winning songs be recorded, receive some radio airplay and eventually be part of the Philippine popular music literature.

I strongly suggest to those interested in joining to follow Ryan Cayabyab’s twitter account since he regularly posts tips and other words of wisdom. PhilPop also has a facebook page where people can check for updates, clarifications and other stuff related to the competition. I’ve had a great time during the launch of this competition wherein Ryan Cayabyab himself put into music some silly lyrics that I wrote as part of a game during the event. I am very tempted to try my luck in this competition but I still have a lot to learn about songwriting. Whether I join or not, I am still interested to hear the songs that will end up as finalists and will guess from there which I think will be my bets to win the top prizes.

Ogie Alcasid

“I'm so happy that a prestigious songwriting competition such as the Philippine Popular Music Festival is being launched! We in the OPM are supporting this show 100%! Mabuhay ang musikang Pilipino!” - Ogie Alcasid, songwriter, multi-media artist, president of OPM

Noel Cabangon

“It’s more fun in the Philippines! The 1st Philippine Popular Music Festival is an awaited competition that will draw the creativity of Filipino composers, old and new. This competition is a welcome endeavor to propel original Pilipino music to be known and recognized globally.” - Noel Cabangon, songwriter and president of FILSCAP

Trina Belamide

“It's been almost a decade since the last Metropop Song Festival.  About time another prestigious songwriting contest was held. This will be very exciting.” - Trina Belamide, songwriter, past president of KATHA

The Philippine Popular Music Festival is jointly presented by Maynilad, Meralco, PLDT, Smart Communications, Sun Cellular, PICC, TV5, DDB Philippines and official press launch food provider, Via Mare.

The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 2
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 3
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 4
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 5
The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 6