28th Cebu Pop Music Festival unfolds tonight

Some of Cebu’s most promising and finest songwriters will go up against each other tonight for the grand showdown of the 28th Cebu Pop Music Festival, more popularly known as Cebu Pop, one of the main highlights of the Sinulog Festival.

Cebu Pop is an annual musical event and competition organized by the Cebu Arts Foundation Inc. (CAFI), which is spearheaded by First District Congressman Eduardo Gullas, with the intention of giving opportunity to Cebu’s homegrown composers, lyricists and singers to showcase their talents. Some of the established artists discovered via Cebu Pop included singers Vina Morales, Sheryn Regis, Raki Vega, and the now US-based composer Jimmy Borja, among others.  

The contestants will vie for the honor of having their composition adjudged as the grand winner at the New Cebu Coliseum tonight, while the singers will battle it out for the best interpreter plum.

The 12 original songs that made it to the finals are “I-Txt Ko Na Lang” (composer/lyricist: Jun Cabillar; performer: Jed Rosit); “Tuba” (composer/lyricist/performer: Jade Castro); “Sugbo Paraiso” (composer: Russel Alegado; lyricist: Yoojin Raye Anthony Burgos; performer: Emily Casquejo); “Sugilanon sa Hangin” (composer/lyricist: Nicanor Tampus, Jr.; performer Zandra Tan); “Mamalik Man Lang” (composer/lyricist: Engr. Bernardo Gocela; performer: Miles Carciller); “Kwarta” (composer: Dennis Martin; lyricist: Norms Tomada; performer: Dennis Borinaga); “Bisan Pa” (composer: Jude Gitamondoc; lyricist: Eugene Tan; performer: Arceli Bullo); “Ikaw Ang Bahandi” (composer: Fr. Ponce Jed Bellones; arranger: Nendel Edrina; performer: Robbie Bernadas); “Pagpakabana” (composer/lyricist: Fr. Ponce Jed Bellones; performer: Japril Yap); “Pasayloa Ako” (composer/lyricist: Jude Gitamondoc; performer: Elvis Somosot); “Karon” (composer/lyricist: Jun Cabillar; performer: Kim Sanchez); and “Magkahiusa” (composer/lyricist: Nino James Banares; lyricist: Rex Maribao; performer: Zenith Rivera).        

The selection of the finalists was grueling as organizers whittled down the more than 100 entries to only 12. The CD compilation of this year’s finalists produced by Soundtraxx Recording Studio will be commercially available at the contest venue. One noteworthy development in this year’s staging is that it received a grant from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) worth P211,000.