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Saturday, August 06, 2005
Budoy’s Party Pipol
By Cattski Espina
Till the Cat lady sings
Late last year, my nephew Chuck came up to me and asked if I know Budoy.
This was after he saw an episode of Ismol Tym a few times on RCTV. He even managed to convince my family to watch the show and it didn’t take long for everybody, including my 74-year-old mother, to ask me who this Budoy character is.
As my family would put it, even if you don’t fully understand the humor, you just laugh. He’s simply comical, colorful, and he has these peculiarly crazy antics that simply make you giggle. Even the Junior Kilat band members would say, it’s hard not to laugh with Budoy.
I would laugh too, who wouldn’t? But I’m certain that Budoy is more than just a funny guy.
When you speak of Budoy, you can go ahead and laugh your lungs out but you also have to seriously consider the diversity of his fans. From my own observation, Budoy, both as the front-man for Junior Kilat and the Host for RCTV’s Ismol Tym, has crossed demographics and age brackets as evident in his cult following. Without too much effort, he could catch the attention of the most extreme of audiences.
His fans are made up of kids as young as 3 years old. They would come up to him for an autograph or a picture. I wouldn’t be surprised if the parents of these kids eventually become fans themselves. There are also the senior citizens who can relate to the familiar Visayan lyrics. And let’s not forget, the students, the workers, taxi drivers, street vendors and young professionals. He simply has this tremendous appeal to the masses.
On the other hand, Budoy can make heads from the elite group turn to him too.
I know of a few sosyal people from Manila, the kind that hang out in Greenbelt Makati, who would groove to his songs even if they remain clueless of what “Sigbin” means. What’s amazing is, foreigners also seem to carry a soft spot for Budoy. In fact, I have talked to a group of English environmentalists assigned in a rural area somewhere in Mindanao, who came to Cebu hungry for a Junior Kilat experience.
Apart from being a musician and a TV Host, Budoy is the spokesman for the thousands of passionate reggae fans and enthusiasts in Cebu and in the whole Visayas. I would say he is something of a “chief” who represent their spiritual beliefs and social convictions. He leads the Harambe community in organizing reggae events such as the Bob Marley Day that flock thousands, as well as the Christmas Concert-for-a-Cause event dubbed Rasta Clause where proceeds are given to the urban poor.
Clearly, Budoy’s icon status didn’t happen overnight. But it happened spontaneously, I’m sure. He didn’t plan on becoming what he is now. It just happened. He did it by being himself and by doing what he wants to do without any intention to gain approval from anyone other than himself. That’s as real as he could get - no pretenses there, not a single inch.
For me, Budoy is more than just an artist, he is a work of art. You are allowed to observe, to question, to understand, to wonder, to ignore and to marvel him on display. But he wouldn’t care about your reactions.
My good friend Gina Pestaño (Junior Kilat keyboardist), told me that the UP Fine Arts program must have something to do with Budoy’s unconventional exercise of artistry. She said this was the environment that she shared with him back in college, and it was in their culture to experiment, to dare to be different, and to be spontaneous. And this, indeed, is the very essence of Junior Kilat.
Junior Kilat’s music clearly does not belong to the mainstream scene, but they are collecting fans with mainstream influences nationwide - giving us a sense of hope that people can be open to something different and real. Also, this music does not serve a niche or a particular segment in the population. It’s for everybody who’s willing to celebrate the diversity of life.
No matter how different we are, in Budoy’s world, we are all party pipol!
log on to www.juniorkilat.com for more info. support the “Party Pipol Ur On Dub TV” album available in all popular record stores. email me cattski@cattski.net/cattskiespina@yahoo.com
(August 6, 2005 issue)
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