Twenty-eight aspiring Filipino Songwriters were picked out of more than a hundred applicants who submitted original songs for this year’s Taga-Alog 2019 Tampisawit Mini Songwriting Bootcamp by PhilPop, Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA). The chosen fellows (songwriters), at the end of the bootcamp are to come up with original advocacy songs for Ilog Pasig. The event aims to not only promote and raise awareness for Ilog Pasig, but to awaken Filipinos to be responsible citizens and encourage participation in efforts for Ilog Pasig’s rehabilitation.
Songwriting Bootcamp
The two-day Songwriting Workshop were led by acclaimed and award-winning industry professionals Noel Cabangon, Trina Belamide and Jungee Marcelo. They mentored the fellows starting with lectures on the songwriting process and creating melody and lyrics of songs, also giving a lot of insight from their experience in their many years working in the music industry and writing songs for artists. There were also many song writing exercises and activities that afternoon where fellows were able to showcase their creativity by applying what they learned from the talks. I and my other media friends even joined in on a few of them!
Talks about Ilog Pasig: Take Action!
To help the fellows come up with the message of their advocacy song, key personnel were also invited to give talks about the current situation in Ilog Pasig. Sally Aguinaldo from the Education Management Bureau, of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Kathleen Dorico from Marketing and Advocacy of Maynilad talked about the several wastes making their to Ilog Pasig. These continually pollute the waters because of Filipino’s lack of discipline in proper waste segregation. They mentioned that the mindset of Filipinos is “out of sight, out of mind”, when they throw out their trash, it isn’t their problem anymore. This is so not the case though. We have to realize that every item we discard will eventually go somewhere, especially waste like plastics, styrofoam, electronics etc. that take thousands of years to decompose. If we continue with this habit, there are dangerous consequences ahead. We have to take action now.
Mr. Raul Alfonso, Project Director of Taga-Alog 2019 also mentioned the many efforts of their campaign for Ilog Pasig. Aside from the songwriting workshop, they also had successful novel writing and film workshops the previous months. They will have a dance workshop next for this month of October. The Sulong Lusong Ilog Pasig Campaign wants to “Alog” or shake up Filipinos to take action and participate in movements for the restoration of Ilog Pasig. I encourage you guys to support this cause and for all those who are interested in participating in their workshops for the Ilog Pasig, you can learn more by visiting their Facebook page.
Advocacy Songwriting Contest
After day one, the fellows only had the entire night to write their original songs about Ilog Pasig, mixing everything they learned from the workshop and their own creative style. The day two of the workshop was dedicated for one-on-one coaching and mentoring from the Judges Noel, Trina and Jungee as the fellows worked closely with them on their own advocacy songs and the official songwriting contest. The 28 fellows presented their original songs one by one in front of the judges.
Congratulations to the Top 3 winners who received Sining Ipo Trophies. Their songs will also be recorded and produced by PhilPop.
I’m super thankful to have been present in this movement for Ilog Pasig and I really do salute everyone involved in making the Taga-Alog 2019 Songwriting Bootcamp successful. We were able to see the young fellows’ songwriting skills bloom just from the two-days we were there.
The several amazing talent showcased in this event is really note-worthy and I would also like to encourage people to support local music artists, Original Pilipino Music (OPM) and Indie music. I really felt genuine passion all around the room and creativity was always flourishing. More workshops and activities like this should be held and I would like everyone to sign up, participate and share your gifts. It’s not only super fun, but you also get to do it for a worthy cause.
To learn more about this event and watch the Top 5 performances of the night, you can also check out this article from What’s Up MNL: TAGA-ALOG 2019, Songwriting Mini Bootcamp by Marga Mingoa
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