Celebrating and supporting the creation of new music in the local scene.
After a rather long wait, on Saturday, March 22, the Philpop Himig Handog Songwriting Festival named its winners for the maiden fused edition of both entities.
Topping the competition is the winning song ‘Wag Paglaruan,’ which was interpreted by FANA along with Tiara Shaye, who is also the composer.
Declared as first runner-up was ‘Buhi‘ of composer Keith John Quito and sang by Ferdinand Aragon, while ‘Papahiram‘ of Rinz Ruiz and interpreted by Johnoy Danao, Moira Dela Torre was the second runner-up of the contest.
‘Kurba‘ of rising original Filipino music (OPM) star Maki and composer Alvin Serito bagged the MYX Choice Award for Best Music Video and Smart People’s Choice Award.
Aside from the four mentioned above, there are eight other entries that made it to the finals, which are the songs ‘ATM,’ ‘Dili Na Lang,’ ‘Ghostwriter,’ ‘Langit Lupa,’ ‘MHWG,’ ‘Salamat (Nga Wala Na Ta),’ ‘Taliwala,’ and ‘Tulala.’
Philpop Himig Handog Festival was formed in 2022 following a collaboration between the two long-running music songwriting competitions in the Philippines.
Himig Handog, the older of the two, was first organized by ABS-CBN in the early 2000s, with notable hits coming out of the past contests being the likes of ‘Tara Tena,’ ‘Kung Ako Na Lang Sana,’ ‘Nasa Iyo Na Ang Lahat,’ ‘Kahit Na,’ ‘Mahal Ko O Mahal Ako,’ ‘Akin Ka Na Lang,’ ‘Titibo-tibo,’ and ‘Mabagal,’ among others.
Meanwhile, the Philpop Music Festival of the MVP Group had its inaugural edition in 2012 and is where the hit songs like ‘Dati,’ ‘Di Na Muli,’ and ‘Triangulo‘ were first heard.