Ever since its inception back in 2012, the PhilPop Foundation has always been about polishing and promoting local songwriters. According to National Artist and PhilPop Music Fest Foundation Board Member and Bootcamp Master, the foundation had consistently aimed to be the “primary champion of Filipino songwriters” through their many songwriting boot camps and festivals. Indeed, the foundation has time and time proven its ability to break borders and launch local songwriters into the limelight.
It is only fitting therefore that the festival now aims to break borders of a different kind. With its new tagline, #MusicBreakingBorders, PhilPop 2020’s songwriting festival is a collaborative project with Warner Music Philippines.
This year, judges will be choosing three entries from across the nation, namely Metro Manila, South Luzon, North Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. After they have been chosen, they will be working with Warner Music as they complete the final rounds by November 14. As Warner Music is an international label, it is the hope of the organizers that this festival will be able to spark international interest in our music.
From thousands of expected songs submitted, only three (3) songwriters will eventually represent each cluster through rigorous adjudication process spearheaded by Warner Music Philippines and PhilPop.The top 15 songs will have the chance to work with Warner Music Philippines and compete in the final rounds. Standout entries (Top 3) will be getting cash prizes from the MVP Group of Companies:
P1,000,000 for the Grand Champion
P500,000 for the 1st runner up
P250,000 for the 2nd runner up
Finals night will happen on November 14, 2020.
“We do have a network of A&R and marketing people all around the world,” shared Warner Music managing director Ian Monsod during PhilPop’s recent virtual presser via Zoom, “In terms of judging and production process, we’ll bring that unique value of this presence to the project. We share this ambition to elevate the Filipino artist to a global stage. It’s a difficult path, but I think with our partnership, we can improve the odds.”
In addition to bringing Filipino pop to the international stage, the foundation also wants to extend its reach outside of Metro Manila. As such, this year’s festival is welcoming entries written in different dialects, provided that they also include an English translation in their entries.
“When we had a major pivot in 2018, the first thing that we did is to make the festival biennial,” said PhilPop Music Fest Foundation executive director, Dinah Remolacio.
“In between those years, we mounted all these songwriting workshops in different parts of the country to empower other songwriters in the region, so that they could submit entries to PhilPop. We want to diversify the winning entries in every festival,” she added.
According to PhilPop Boot Camp coach and folk icon Noel Cabangon Noel Cabangon, this festival aims to “democratize” the music scene” rather than concentrating in the National Capital Region.
“We want to recognize that there are also good songwriters from other regions of the country. So we give more encouragement to these talented songwriters,” Cabangon pointed out.
“Our mantra is: ‘you write your songs in the way you want to express them.’ Each language has its own inflections, the sound becomes more unique and more interesting, We won’t force ourselves to copy international sounds, we always say, ‘Why should we copy them when we can make our own?’,” Cayabyab concluded.
PhilPop Songwriting Festival 2020 is an initiative of the PhilPop Music Foundation, chaired by Mr. Manny V. Pangilinan. This year’s PhilPop is co-presented by SMART, MERALCO, MAYNILAD and Warner Music Philippines.