FROM 80 entries down to three. The past year has been a trailblazing journey for local musicians and songwriters, as the first Visayan Pop Music Festival (VisPop) was finally realized.
The festival kicked off last year with a series of songwriting workshops held in various schools, and culminated with a songwriting competition last May 18 at the Benedicto College Artists Hall. As the name suggests, all songs were in Visayan of course.
The festival was organized by Artists & Musicians Marketing Cooperative (ArtistKo) led by core team members Ian Zafra, Cattski Espina, Jude Gitamondoc and Insoy Niñal, in cooperation with the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Filscap).
“I was alarmed at the realization that by default, local songwriters write in English.
I myself am guilty of that,” said Cattski. She said that when she finally wrote her first Visayan song, she felt fulfilled to have created something in her own language.
The essential goal of VisPop, she said, is to uplift the Visayan language and to change the widespread mindset of belittling anything in Visayan, including music.
It also aims to shy away from the notion that Visayan music is strictly either bisrock or of the comedic kind. VisPop wants to introduce a new Visayan sound, particularly pop.
At the finals night, Kyle Wong and Marianne Dungog’s Balay Ni Mayang landed third place, Lourdes Maglinte’s Laylay came in second, and Jewel and Joe Edward Villaflores’ Duyog was hailed grand winner.
Kyle and Marianne (a.k.a “Mayang”) easily got the inspiration for their entry from Kyle’s visits to Marianne’s house. In their piece, the couple sings in a duet backed by the sweet sounds of ukulele. Marianne is a mass communication student at St. Theresa’s College while Kyle (a member of the band The Wonggoys) is on his summer break from management studies at Northwood University.
Second placer Lourdes is an incoming business management freshman at the University of the Philippines Cebu College. Through the competition, she said, she realized how rewarding it is to write in one’s own language, and hopes to encourage more Cebuanos to follow suit.
As for the top winning entry, Duyog, it was written by Jewel when she was only 16.
Together with her brother Joe, they’ve been writing songs, from rock anthems to rap, since they were kids. Now at 20 years old, Jewel is fresh out of college and 19-year-old Joe is presently a physics major at the University of San Carlos.
The panel of judges for the finals night was composed of Department of Trade and Industry regional director Nelia Navarro, award-winning songstress Anna Fegi and Filscap board member and renowned songwriter Gary Granada.
More than just a competition, VisPop is a songwriting campaign—a call to bring in a new sound, and a new generation of Visayan artistry.