Bawa't Hakbang is the P1M song at PhilPop

Bawa’t Hakbang, a song composed by KarI Vincent Villuga and interpreted by champion balladeer Mark Bautista with the Akafellas, won the P1M grand prize at the first Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop).

Simple but heartfelt, the song derived inspiration from the beautiful poem Footprints in the Sand. Karl said it was written during a personal crisis. He was able to convey how that felt and from what I have been hearing since, everybody agrees with the judges’ choice.

Bawa’t Hakbang was named top winner at the finals night of the PhilPop that was held last Saturday, July 14, at the Plenary Hall of the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City. I am happy to say that the evening was well-attended with lots of fans and celebrities present including the top execs of sponsors Maynilad, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company and Smart led by the big man himself, Manny V. Pangilinan. And in a rare show of solidarity, artists from rival television networks showed up to interpret the entries and perform those medleys of famous Filipino songs arranged by PhilPop executive director Ryan Cayabyab.

There were also other winners proclaimed from among the 14 finalists. Those songs were named the cream of the crop by panels of music industry professionals from the pack of nearly 3,000 entries from all over the country. Take note of that, 3,000 entries. That means 3,000 songs were written or refreshed from out of the bauls for this contest. There are now 3,000 songs out there just waiting to become hits and songwriters eager to write more. Songwriting is alive and well in the Philippines. 

The first runner-up which won a cash prize of P500,000 was Tayo Tayo Lang a pop-rock ballad about the lonely, bittersweet life of a performing artist written by Toto Sorioso and performed by Ebe Dancel.

Toto is the same guy who did the hit cover of Lisa Loeb’s Stay. The second runner-up was Kontrabida, a bouncy pop tune composed by Soc Villanueva about not being liked because of being different. Soc was the writer of the big hit Kung Ako Na Lang Sana popularized by Bituin Escalante. His Kontrabida was ably performed by Sam Concepcion, who I must say is growing up into a real looker.

There was also a People’s Choice Award for the most popular entry, which was decided by text votes. This went to Brown, a lighthearted ditty about liking girls with brown hair composed by James Leyte and Jezreel de Oca. The song was interpreted by the aptly named reggae band Brownman Revival with James himself singing along. All of the winners also got to bring home beautiful glass trophies created for the contest by the famous sculptor Ramon Orlina.

I love all the winners. I would have chosen them myself. But then I would have also been happy to see any of the other finalists get the prizes. Timothy Anjello Alfaro for Himig Ng Panahon; Trina Belamide for Bigtime; Noah Zuniga Cabalquinto for Dulo Ng Dila; John Kennard Eleazar Faraon for Slowdancing; Gary Granada for Minsa’y Isang Bansa; Edwin Marollano for Kesa; Kristofferson Melecio for Piso; Keiko Necesario for 3:AM; Byron Ricamara for Takusa; and Michael Angelo Villegas for Negastar.

The night was a triumph for Filipino music and how great to see people giving their time and truly important, cash to save the industry. Of course, there were problems. I cannot believe that there were entries presented as unpublished when these had already made the rounds of the Internet. I also cannot believe that there are people so angry over not being chosen that they wanted to punish those consistently good songwriters by keeping the veterans out of the contest.

But those are merely birth pains. Next year should be better with perhaps 5,000 entries! I hope that the public with the help of radio, TV and the local artists themselves, will soon wake to the beauty and importance of original Filipino music. I am not telling them not to enjoy the inanities of Nicki Minaj. I am just asking them to wake up to the homespun humor of Gary Granada as well.