Pinoy Pop (P-Pop) Groups took all the buzz this 2021 as they continue to achieve local and international success and redefine what it means to be the country’s new pop sensations.
Pinoy Pop or Filipino Pop is a general term encompassing various song types such as ballads, novelty songs, and inspirational songs. Recently, the term became the talk of the town, with multiple media outlets calling the phenomenon “P-Pop resurgence.” Music Critic Ian Urrutia, in a CNN Philippines article, said that “P-Pop” describes the emerging Filipino pop groups that are paving their way towards the global music scene. These groups are all-rounders — they sing, dance, and even rap in Philippine languages.
If you missed what happened this 2021 and are curious about what made them buzzworthy, this recap is for you!
P-Pop Groups on the Rise
SB19 group photo during their anniversary concert from their Twitter account
Just recently, SB19, a popular five-member P-Pop boy group that debuted in 2018, consisting of members Josh, Pablo, Stell, Ken, and Justin, topped Billboard’s December 11-dated Weekly Hot Trending Songs Chart with their single Bazinga for the first time. The chart that tracks Twitter’s most-talked-about songs worldwide revealed that the empowering song amassed 1.5 million mentions from November 26 to December 2.
In April this year, SB19 was also nominated as Top Social Artist in Billboard Music Awards alongside BTS, Blackpink, Ariana Grande, and Seventeen — the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to do so. They were also nominated for Best Southeast Asian Act at MTV Europe Music Awards in October. Their single MAPA also touched listeners’ hearts and ranked No. 5 among Google’s most-searched songs this year.
In an interview, the group said that their goal was to raise the music industry in the country, which they are already doing as they prove that Filipino acts can also thrive on the global stage.
“In an interview, the group said that their goal was to raise the music industry in the country — something that they are already achieving as they prove that Filipino acts can also thrive on the world stage.”
The local popularity of P-Pop groups is also undeniable. In the 34th Awit Awards, SB19 took the People’s Voice Favorite Song with Hanggang sa Huli , while breakout artist BGYO won the People’s Voice Favorite Group Artist award. Further proving these groups’ social media strength, #alamat, #bgyo, #bini, #mnl48 and #sb19, were Philippine’s most tweeted music hashtags in 2021, with Twitter claiming that“the fan base for OPM continues to branch out to the new generation.
PH’s Most Tweeted Music Hashtags (2021) Photo from Twitter
If you’re curious about the Philippine’s first official idol group, it’s MNL48. They released their debut single Aitakatta “Gustong Makita'' in September 2018. Since then, their lineup went through a rotational system where fans vote for their “center girl” and for the groups’ next generation members. MNL48 won as the PPOP Girl Group of the Year at PPOP Awards 2021. Recently, MNL48’s sub-unit Baby Blue consisting of members Coleen, Jan and Amy released their new single Head Up.
MNL48 members in their River Music Video (2020)
Notably, lots of boy and girl groups took their first step into the music scene this 2021. Among those who officially debuted this year and wowed the audience, particularly on Twitter, are BGYO, Alamat, and BINI.
BGYO, a five-member boy group consisting of Akira, Gelo, JL, Mikki, and Nate, officially debuted in January 2021 with their single The Light. They also received the Best Theme Song in the Philippines for their He’s Into Her soundtrack at the Asian Academy Creative Awards 2021 and won the PPOP Boy Group of the Year at PPOP Awards 2021.
BGYO at One Dream Concert from their Facebook account.
Meanwhile, Alamat, consisting of members Taneo, Mo, Jao, Tomas, R-Ji, Valfer, Gami and Alas, is known as a multilingual boy group as they highlight regional languages in pop music. Their debut single kbye, released in February, used Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Bicolano, Waray-Waray, Hiligaynon and Bisaya and incorporated Filipino culture in their music video (MV). Their MV for kasmala also won the PPOP Music Video of the Year at PPOP Awards 2021.
Alamat group photo from their Facebook account
BINI, on the other hand, is an eight-member girl group consisting of Aiah, Colet, Maloi, Gwen, Stacey, Mikha, Jhoanna, and Sheena, who officially debuted on June 11 with their single Born to Win. BINI currently has 1 million and 300 thousand views in their debut MV and has 466 thousand views in their latest release, Golden Arrow, proving their talents and strong mass appeal.
BINI for Golden Arrow from their Facebook account
These new groups only show that we have a lot of promising homegrown acts the industry can mold and Filipinos can embrace as our own.
“These new groups only show that we have a lot of promising homegrown acts the industry can mold and Filipinos can embrace as our own.”
P-Pop Groups’ Perfect Harmony for Success
It seems that the P-Pop groups today have the perfect “harmony” for success.
They are relatively given a more systematic training for them to showcase refined performances once they debut. For SB19, they were trained for three years under ShowBT, a Korean-owned and operated management.
Laurenti Dyogi also said that the K-Pop phenomenon was the inspiration for the creation of BINI and BGYO. Since the beginning, P-Pop groups were criticized for only imitating other cultures. However, Luis Zuriel Domingo, a historian and lecturer at the University of the Philippines Baguio, claims that “the advancement of K-pop culture in the Philippines in recent history does not threaten Filipino cultural identity. Rather, it absorbs what it can learn from K-pop and then produces frameworks from it that are suitable for Filipinos to make use of.” Despite this outside influence, these teams strive to present dynamic Filipino cultures through their performances, songs, and other outputs.
From SB19’s A’tin, MNL48’s MNLoves, BGYO’s ACEs, Alamat’s Magiliw, to BINI’s Blooms — these P-Pop groups are also backed by their growing number of listeners and supporters who aim to be with them in their road to success.
Indeed, these groups are taking the music industry by storm through quality performances, with growing fan bases behind them, and giving Filipinos songs that we can call ‘ours.’
The rise of these P-Pop groups this 2021 is just the beginning for Filipino artists to prove themselves both in the local and international music scene. Quoting SB19’s hit song What?, “Nagsimula na pero wala na ‘kong balak na tapusin.” These P-Pop groups just started, and they are not going anywhere. They’re here to rise some more!
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