By Mike Baños
An iconic Visayan hit song’s festival remix is gaining an even wider audience in the digital music service Spotify.
The song Ipanumpa Ko by Oh! Caraga previously featured on the band’s live radio performance at Wish 107.5 after making it as one of the finalists in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC) in the World Category in 2020, has registered over four million streams on Spotify.
When Ipanumpa Ko went viral, XYNTHESIZE (born Xavier Yates Dedeles) saw its potential to become an even bigger hit and started working on the remix project last August 2022.
The original song, written by Kenneth Corvera, Adam Corvera, and Sherwin Fugoso, dwells on a higher kind of love – a love that transcends boundaries, changes and disrupts societies, and tests one’s dedication.
Jude Gatimondoc, Kadasig label manager and one of the founders of the Visayan Pop Music Festival (Vispop), commissioned the remix by XYNTHESIZE as an anthem/soundtrack for the post-festival documentary of the 2023 Vispop Music Festival, headlined by local artists Kurt Fick, TJ Monterde, and Ferdinand Aragon, held January 11, 2023 at The Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu.
Vispop is a Cebuano national songwriting campaign and competition for pop music compositions launched in Cebu City, Philippines on 2012. The competition is under the auspice of Artists and Musicians Marketing Cooperative (Artist Ko). From 2013-2017, it was staged in cooperation with the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (FILSCAP).
Vispop’s winning entries became hits in various regional FM radio stations, even those in non-Cebuano speaking localities. Vispop later became a catch-all term for songs produced from the contest and contemporary Cebuano music.
XYNTHESIZE posted a video of his progress on social media which was immediately seen and encouraged by Oh! Caraga, motivating him further to finish the demo. Gatimondoc accepted the demo and provided the multi-tracks needed to complete the project.
XYNTHESIZE’s close friends L’Ray and Kelvin, assisted in giving the remix its final sound by adding and layering instruments and sounds. Larry of Big Foot Studios and Network Rome mastered the remix, and after the contract singing the remix was released last January 10.
Cebu’s contemporary hit radio, Y101 FM premiered the Ipanumpa Ko’s Festival Mix, and it was later featured and topped Spotify’s editorial playlist, New Music Friday Philippines.
When the remix was aired during the recent Sinulog Festival Week, it soared high on the city charts, peaking at #2 in Cebu, #3 in Cagayan de Oro, and #4 in Davao on Spotify’s Local Pulse.
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