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Listen up, folks! Popular
Filipino love songs reveal
attitudes towards courtship,
romance and passion. Karl de
Mesa tunes in all the way from
the far north to the deep south
Raise your
kundiman
quotient
MINDANAO
Way down south in Mindanao, the heavy,
Castilian-based Chavacano language has
the same primacy of sadness in
No Te
Vayas de Zamboanga
(Don’t You Go to Far
Zamboanga). Composed by a Spaniard
who decided to stay in the city after the
exit of Spain, he later fell for and married a
local woman. But perhaps the song which
praises local beauty,
Zamboanga Hermosa,
more aptly puts that fantastic, daydream
quality back into courtship, as it is set
against the exotic vastness of the southern
Philippine islands.
THERE’S NO
shortage of songs that hail
love as the great unifier; but with eight
major languages, the Philippines certainly
takes the cake when it comes to romance
being a many-splendored thing. You may
not find any of these at your neighborhood
videoke bars, but knowing what the tunes
mean can reveal the heart of the people
you’re visiting.
ILOCOS
Songs like the traditional
Duayya ni Ayat
(Lullaby of Love) epitomize the Ilocano
serenade. More popular is the upbeat
Pamulinawen
and the playful
Manang
Biday
, which espouse precise courtship
rituals and old school values. Likewise, the
famous Pangasinan love song,
Malinac Lay
Labi
(Misty Night), has a frisky and lively
vibe to it. Take the lyrics of
Manang Biday
:
they’re all about a young man courting an
older woman (the titular Biday). Prickly
and reluctant, she asks him to do almost-
impossible tasks just to prove his love. Talk
about an Ilocana that’s tough to crack.
CENTRAL LUZON
The central plains of Luzon are occupied
by the Kapampangans. Their
Atin Cu
Pung Sing Sing
(I’ve Got a Ring) recounts
the story of a girl who’s just lost her very
precious bauble. She says out loud that she
will marry whoever can find the said ring,
likely making the song partly responsible
for the idea that Pampanga’s women are
some of the most ardent ladies around.
METRO MANILA
Likely the most representative of the
Tagalog love songs from Luzon’s NCR are
the
harana
and
kundiman,
characterized
by meditative lyrics, come-hither
sentimentality, and a propensity to be
used at marriage proposals and open-thy-
window serenades. The wildly popular,
classic love song
Dahil Sa’yo
(Because of
You) has probably had more interpretations
than you can shake a stick at.
VISAYAS
The love songs further south, like the
Bisaya ballads
Matud Nila
(What People
Say) and
Usahay
(Sometimes), bear the
same tinge of sorrow and pain of loneliness
while carrying an assurance of fidelity.
Matud Nila
is about as sad as they come
— it’s about a woman lamenting the fact
that people deem her unworthy of her
lover — which is probably why pop singers
like Pilita Corales and Max Surban have
made hit interpretations of it.
Usahay,
on
the other hand, tells of an intense pining for
someone and unrequited love.
BICOL
In Bicol,
Sarung Banggi
(One Night)
tells the story of a forlorn man who
spent one night achingly waiting for his
beloved. Composed by an Albay native,
the song was written in much the same
circumstances: at night, to the chirping of
birds and the rustle of leaves. There’s just
something about that idyllic Bicol night that
sets a melancholy mood, making the song
a troubadour’s favourite.
No one makes
a sad love song
like a Pinoy!
09LKH Smile
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