SunKissed Lola rocking it up at the Shang

SunKissed Lola

The band behind the Philippines' biggest hit of 2023, SunKissed Lola, rocked the Shangri-La Plaza once again performing their growing discography to a similarly increasing audience.

It was around this time last year, when Pasilyo, a wedding song in triple time with a catchy sing-a-long chorus of ikaw at ikaw started to make its presence felt on the radio and also at playlists everywhere.

Then it broke Spotify's daily and weekly streaming records for an OPM track and found its way on top of the Billboard Philippines Songs charts. The song showed some legs and staying power that it eventually ended up as the number one song in the country for 2023.

Composed of Alvin Serito (vocals, guitar), Dan Ombao (vocals, guitar), Laura Lacbain (vocals), Danj Quimson (bass guitar), Genson Viloria (drums), and Rodnie Resos (keyboards), SunKissed Lola performed all the songs that they have released so far namely Damag, Paki Sabi, White Toyota, their debut song Makalimutan Ka, HKP, their latest release Dal'wang Patinig, and of course Pasilyo. Tucked in the middle of the set was their take on Up Dharma Down's Tadhana.

With almost a full length album's worth of solidly crafted songs, the highlight for me was when Serito, Ombao, and Lacbain joined forces to showcase three part harmonies. Clearly, an indication to my fascination with homophonic textures in popular music.

Lacbain mentioned that taking on the Shang's Grand Atrium stage was a major upgrade for them compared to their previous performance in March 2023 at the smaller East Atrium located at the same mall.

The hour long set drew a large crowd, led by the band's fandom who dubbed themselves as the Dolores Family. Quite a number of mall goers stopped by to watch as well.

Alvin Serito

It is not everyday that one gets to follow up watching a Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra concert with dropping by a mall show by SunKissed Lola, one of the hottest indie bands on the country today.

Thanks to Shangri-La Plaza Mall for providing me more than just foreign language film festivals, Annie and Ayel Medina of A Medina Events and lastly, to Perry McDonald of Ditto Music for the opportunity to watch SunKissed Lola live that further expanded my music horizons beyond that of Brahms and Tchaikovsky (the composers from the previous night's PPO concert).

In the meantime, I will mix up my music playlist by including SunKissed Lola tracks amidst countless classical music albums.