Wednesday, June 06, 2012

The Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) Experience Part 3

The Top 14 Announcement

Ryan Cayabyab with the PhilPop finalists

After a not so long wait, the 14 finalists for the Philippine Popular Music Festival has finally been revealed during a recent press conference held at the Genting Club at Maxims Hotel in Resorts World, Manila. The 14 finalists emerged as the cream of the crop from the record breaking number of 3,000 entries coming not just from the Philippines but from other parts of the world as well. These songs will battle it out during the finals of PhilPop to be held this July 14, 2012 at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). An album featuring all these songs will be released soon.

The PhilPop finalists

The Top 14 are: Himig ng Panahon by Timothy Anjello Alfaro, Bigtime by Trina Belamide, Dulo ng Dila by Noah Zuñiga Cabalquinto, Slowdancing by John Kennard Eleazar Faraon, Minsa’y Isang Bansa by Gary Granada, Brown by James B. Leyte and Jezreel S. De Oca, Kesa by Edwin B. Marollano, Piso by Kristofferson B. Melecio, 3:00 AM by Keiko Necesario, Takusa by Byron Ricamara, Tayo Tayo Lang by Ronaldo Sorioso, Kontrabida by Soc Villanueva, Negastar by Michael Angelo Santos Villegas, and Bawat Hakbang by Karl Vincent Villuga.

Ryan Cayabyab

Now I can say that I’ve had a hand in the screening process since I was personally asked by PhilPop executive director Ryan Cayabyab to be an adjudicator. It was an honor and a very rewarding and yet exhausting experience to screen the entries for two rounds: the first round where the 3,000 were trimmed down to 1,000 and the round where the top 100 were further trimmed into the top 30. The adjudicators were made up of a very diverse group of people in the music industry from label executives, technical people, recording artists, music journalists, etc. and the top 14 did reflect that diversity. As expected, there were entries that I heard during the screening that I hoped would end up as finalists but they unfortunately didn’t make the cut. But some of the songs that really appealed to me did make it so it’s now really up to the judges in the finals to make that decision on what the winning songs will eventually be.

The winning song will bag P1 million in cash while the second and third placers will take home P500,000 and P250,000 respectively. A People’s Choice award will also be given to the most popular entry as decided by text votes.


The Philippine Popular Music Festival is jointly presented by Maynilad, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), and Smart.  Major sponsors are Meralco, Resorts World Manila and TV5.  Other sponsors are Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), Sun Cellular, First Pacific Leadership Academy (FPLA), Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), and Philex Mining Corporation.  Media partners are KBP, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star and Radio High.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

check this video about philpop controversy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oEghqdnMAk&feature=relmfu

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