2025 has officially marked 25 years since the start of the millennium. Philippine pop (P-Pop) has been steadily blossoming in those years, though it wasn’t until idol groups like SB19 and BINI flourished in the 2020s that P-Pop attained significant global recognition.

I was born in 2001, in the Philippines’ Eastern Visayas region. Tito (Uncle) Jerald Dorado is a former band vocalist born in 1981; he helped me with this list, on a video call that lasted for over 5 hours and 30 minutes. Sure, I’m exactly 20 years younger than he is, and he’s had decades more experience as a musician. I now live in the UK. However, he pointed out that in those decades before I was born, his life was filled with music from the 20th century. I’m the one who was born in the 21st century, a bona fide Gen Z whose entire life has been defined by the P-Pop songs released in the past 20-something years so far.

This list was ultimately curated by me, after many months of research, listening, and analysis. Don’t hate me if you don’t see your favourites here; my goal is not to dictate anyone’s preferences, but to honour these amazing 21st century P-Pop songs. Thus, I aim to introduce some of the Philippines’ best modern music to non-Filipino readers, and hopefully, my analyses can help Filipino readers understand and appreciate these beautiful songs on a technical level.

Unranked 15: The 2000s

“Huwag Na Huwag Mong Sasabihin” – Kitchie Nadal (2004)

Kitchie Nadal was cited by one of our chart-topping Gen Z artists here in the UK, Beabadoobee, as one of her inspirations. It’s easy to see why, with Nadal gliding masterfully between tender, piano-driven sections and hard-hitting rock highlights in this intense track about asserting devotion to the one you love. At just 23, Nadal revolutionised the way that young Filipino women were allowed to express themselves, setting a precedent for generations of female singers to come.

“Sumayaw Sumunod” – Sexbomb Girls (2005)

“Sumayaw Sumunod” is an oddity in the Sexbomb Girls’ discography. It’s a far cry from much of the material that the group got, largely novelty songs with breathy talk-singing and questionable audio engineering. On the other hand, “Sumayaw Sumunod” gives the 80s hit of the same name a sleek house-music makeover. The vocals, harmonies, and instrumentals remain crisp-sounding to this day. 20 years later, it stands as the best version of the song, which has had many different iterations. Get-get-aw!

“Englisera” – Missing Filemon (2005)

BisRock (Bisaya rock) band Missing Filemon satirise the effects of US imperialism through this sunny, reggae-infused song, written in a mix of Cebuano and English. In “Englisera,” the narrator is infatuated with a girl obsessed with all things American, scoffing at her own native language and insisting on speaking English all the time. So the guy does his best to learn English and discard Cebuano, to the dismay of his grandpa, a magbabalak (someone who practices balak, a Cebuano literary art form). It’s not every day you get a razor-sharp satire about colonialism in such a catchy, radio-friendly package.

“Sumayaw Ka” – Gloc-9 (2007)

Note: A more pop version is available on YouTube here, but not on Spotify. I personally prefer the YouTube version, but both are great.

Tito credits Gloc-9 for leading Filipino hip-hop after the late Francis M brought it to the mainstream. This irresistible self-empowerment anthem — its title a literal command for you to bust a move — best illustrates how the Filipino rap icon became a crossover success. In “Sumayaw Ka,” Gloc-9 pairs his trademark lightning-fast verses with bouncy, catchy dance-pop hooks.

“Makita Kang Muli” – Sugarfree (2008)

Ballads in the Philippines tend to have relatively restrained accompaniments and place the singer’s voice far higher than anything else in the mix. Filipinos are known for our birit (belting) abilities, after all. On the other hand, Sugarfree’s emotional ballad about doing everything to see your loved one again shakes things up by allowing the listener to get swept up in the glorious orchestra (though then-frontman Ebe Dancel’s vocals here are awesome, it must be said).

The 2010s

“OMG” – Karylle (2010)

“OMG” by Karylle dares to ask a very important question: “What do you do when hot bachelor guy is a single lady who’s so much hotter than you?” (Girl, I don’t know. You tell us.) Tito isn’t a fan of the lyrics — which apparently took eleven people to write — and to be fair, they’re pretty strange. I still have no idea what “OMG” is about, exactly. My best guess is that it’s about a straight woman who fell for a drag queen. Regardless, the bass and synths go hard, and P-Pop has yet to replicate this level of maximalist, club/(pre-)hyperpop production ever since. Shakespeare could never.

“Biglang Liko” – Ron Henley ft. Pow Chavez (2013)

FlipMusic’s Julius James “Jumbo” de Belen has a seemingly endless supply of chiptunes. Those squeaky synth riffs elevated Sugar High’s “Sugar Sugar” from generic teen boy band fare into something that endures in Filipino pop culture more than a decade later, for example. The prolific production house’s more recent work, such as BINI’s “Diyan Ka Lang” and their homegrown girl group VVINK’s debut single “Tulala” also has those addictive riffs. But de Belen apparently reserved his dreamiest ones for “Biglang Liko,” a hypnotic hip-hop/electropop fusion. This underrated gem also features a groovy bassline and honeyed vocals by Pow Chavez, a fellow member of FlipMusic.

“Diwata” – Abra ft. Chito Miranda (2014)

Note: This song is not available on Spotify.

I really, really wanted to put another Chito Miranda feature, “XGF” by Sponge Cola, in this song’s place. That one is pretty good too, packing a range of genre pastiches in a single track, while containing fun and witty lyrics about a guy telling his friend that he’s dating the latter’s ex-girlfriend. It also comes with one of my all-time favourite clips (the “awkward version“). But “Diwata” definitely deserves this spot. The track sings praises for a woman, whom the narrator compares to a beautiful diwata (fairy). It evokes old Tagalog courtship songs, kundiman, combining it with unmistakably modern elements. In the bridge, rapper Abra and vocalist Miranda swap roles in a clever, achingly tender moment too. Jonathan Ong’s pristine production prevents the many layers of instruments, which includes a xylophone and some woodwind, from sounding cluttered.

“Kilometro” – Sarah Geronimo (2014)

“Kilometro” showed a different side to one of the Philippines’ most iconic diva singers. The stripped-down piano intro will probably make you expect another ballad, like all the other ones that cemented Sarah Geronimo as a household name and A-list superstar years before she would even turn 30. But what you get is actually a hard-hitting, hip-hop-infused EDM love song that still shows off her insanely powerful voice.

“Buwan” – Juan Karlos (2018)

Back in Year 8 (Grade 7 in the Philippines), my cousin Leanne and I faithfully watched series 1 of The Voice Kids Philippines together. One of its finalists, born in the same year as us, was the nascent pop star Juan Karlos Labajo. Although he’d already proven to the nation that he had the vocal chops to pull off more traditional pop, Labajo later took on a more experimental sound as he was growing up. “Buwan,” a haunting, even unsettling, bluesy ballad, marked the singer’s artistic growth. At that point, he was 17 and had become the lead vocalist of his eponymous band Juan Karlos — still a kid, really, but with the ability to make sophisticated music like this.

The 2020s

“Tell Me” – Press Hit Play (2022)

Despite the disco ball on its cover art, “Tell Me” is not at all disco but instead an admirably committed 80s synth-pop throwback. With lyrics in a mix of Tagalog and English (and a few lovely Cebuano lines in the pre-choruses), the song almost sounds plucked straight out of the decade, though the superior engineering quality gives away that it’s from a far more recent time.

“Di Na” – Kurt Fick (2022)

Plenty of P-Pop songs flirt with the old-school R&B and soul sonic palette popularised by the likes of Silk Sonic, but never quite embrace it like “Di Na” by Kurt Fick. This beautiful Cebuano-language song is instrumentally and harmonically rich. Tito compared Fick’s vocal delivery to the style of Top Suzara, frontman of 90s-2000s Filipino band Freestyle. (I had to look him up; Suzara and Freestyle are real Tito deep cuts.)

“Dagundong” – ALAMAT (2023)

ALAMAT are often recognised for introducing the general public to native Southeast Asian sounds with their universally accessible songs. For example, their debut single “Kbye” was a relatable breakup song that incorporated seven(!) Philippine languages and ancient gongs in its glossy R&B/hip-hop/pop sound. Interestingly, the group toys with their usual style here. Programmed 808s imitate the gimbal, ceremonial drums of Indigenous ethnic groups such as the Mandaya. Its lyrics plainly discuss events in the Philippines’ colonial history, each of the group’s members sounding like a distinct character of his own on the track. My friend Monique Ocampo (a huge Broadway nerd and Hadestown enthusiast) and I agree that “Dagundong” has a musical theatre flair. If Hamilton had a Filipino version, this is what it’d sound like.

“Pa-Pa-Pa-Palaban” – G22 (2025)

G22 are known as the Female Alphas of P-Pop. “Pa-Pa-Pa-Palaban” is the kind of song I’d spent the past three years wishing for the trio: loud, fast, and abrasive. I mean all of that as a compliment, I really do. The instrumentals on their past songs may have been on the right track, but the topline in “Pa-Pa-Pa-Palaban” actually matches the busy beat’s liveliness this time. The chorus’ brass section, an increasingly under-utilised element in pop these days, also helps the song sound distinct. When I hear the phrase “Female Alphas of P-Pop,” this is exactly what I imagine.

“Hay Naku” – Kai Montinola (2025)

Young neophyte Kai Montinola’s voice sounds fresh and self-assured on this stylish track from her recent debut album, Kaileidoscope. Stabs of surprisingly aggressive synth, courtesy of producer Rox Santos, provide an interesting contrast to the otherwise dreamy accompaniments. With lyrics in a mix of English and Cebuano, “Hay Naku” is an exquisite R&B-pop cut and a reminder to give new artists a chance.

Honourable mentions: “Burnout” – Sugarfree (2003) • “Migraine” – Moonstar88 (2007) • “Tadhana” – Up Dharma Down (2012) • “Kakaibabe” – Donnalyn Bartolome (2014) • “Mr. Antipatiko” – Nadine Lustre (2016) • “Fools” – Lola Amour (2017) • “Asa Naman” – Maris Racal (2021) • “Stay N Play” – RAINA (2022) • “Matapang” – Vivoree Esclito (2023) • “RomCom” – Rob Deniel (2023) • “Bakit Papa?” – YARA (2023) • “Sugar n’ Spice” – Denise Julia (2023) • “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” – a!ka (2024) • “Cherry on Top” – BINI (2024) • “Multo” – Cup of Joe (2024) • “Bongga Ka Day” – Raya (2025) • “Dungka!” – SB19 (2025) • “Kahel Na Langit” – Maki (2025)

The Top 10 (Ranked):

10) “Walang Biruan” – KAIA (2024)

A sweet love song about sincerely confessing to your crush, “Walang Biruan” (translating to “No Joke” in English) maybe, probably shouldn’t work that well on paper. It’s repetitive, with a sparse accompaniment that, on its own, can’t stand out from every other trendy, watered-down UK garage beat that’s been ubiquitous in idol music these past few years.

The vocals also sit a lot higher than the nondescript backings. This might all spell disaster, if not for the song’s amazing main melodies. A common issue with P-Pop lately is that the producers have nice beats, but often neglect to add a strong vocal track on top of it. “Walang Biruan” illustrates the sheer power of thoughtful topline writing. Its bouncy melodies and tight harmonies are so irresistible that even Tito, whose music taste definitely leans different, really liked this one too when he listened to it for the first time on our video call.

9) “Hey Daydreamer” – Somedaydream (2011)

In a 2011 article for Philstar, the Filipino journalist Baby A. Gil identified a young guy who made all of his songs on his laptop as “what the local music industry needs for a kickstart into the digital age.” His name was Rez Toledo, better known as Somedaydream. The 20-year-old whipped up this absolute banger while juggling his Management Information Systems classes at the Ateneo de Manila University.

With its highly processed vocals and synth-heavy sound, the obvious comparison to make here is indietronica icon Owl City. But my friend Kate McCartney, who’s a lot older than me, pointed out that Somedaydream’s edgier style is reminiscent of the pop-punk bands they grew up loving. Owl City with a 90s/2000s punk edge? No wonder Toledo inspired new hope in the P-Pop industry.

8) “Jeepney Love Story” – Yeng Constantino (2009)

Yeng Constantino, known as the Philippines’ Pop-Rock Princess, was only 17 when she shot to stardom via the reality competition programme Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA). As her moniker suggests, she went against the super-cute sound and image that teen pop stars typically adhere to. Her discography is fantastic overall, but “Jeepney Love Story” is some of her finest work to date. Released just a few years after her PDA stint, the track features a 20-year-old Constantino singing about not wanting to get off a jeepney because a cute guy is sitting next to her.

Its wholesome lyrical content contrasts with the startlingly gritty guitars you can hear all throughout. “Jeepney Love Story” makes a simple story of youthful infatuation inside public transport sound epic. While it’s written well, Constantino’s excellent performance ultimately completes the song. Its build-up structure wouldn’t be so effective if not for her voice, which shifts from airy and soft, to whiny (thanks to well-timed uses of the cry technique), to rounded and strong when the song calls for it.

7) “Puhon” – TJ Monterde (2020)

Mainstream P-Pop songs tend to be in Tagalog (also known as “Filipino”). But every once in a while, songs in lesser-represented Philippine languages gain broader recognition. “Puhon” (roughly translating to “Someday” in English) is a good example, with TJ Monterde crooning pure, poetic Cebuano lyrics on a bed of chill, clean guitars and sparkly touches of marimba. Besides being a triumph for the Cebuano language, “Puhon” is also a triumph of human creativity, resilience, and passion in an era where such things are being threatened by soulless generative AI.

TJ Monterde wrote and produced “Puhon” in the early days of COVID lockdown. He only had cheap equipment at home, so the recording process involved singing under a blanket, with pillows around his mic to avoid capturing noise. With a tiny team of just Monterde and a few friends sending the song’s stems to each other online, they were able to create such a refined, studio-quality track. “Puhon” is incredibly romantic, as it was written about Monterde’s now-wife KZ Tandingan (who’s a great singer too), but it’s also a love letter to humanity as a whole. It has a lot of real heart, which even the most convincing bot-generated content can’t supplant. Ever.

6) “Ganda-Gandahan” – Dia Maté (2024)

There are still many amazingly talented Filipino soloists out there, but their producers often give them lacklustre or forgettable songs. It’s been a while since we’ve had a pop girl like 23-year-old Dia Maté, who has both the chops and the bops. Although her songs are consistently solid, “Ganda-Gandahan” is her best yet. With Taglish lyrics written by Maté and her frequent collaborator Dom Guyot (both of whom are openly queer), the track encourages self-love with cheeky lines like “I don’t need no money / I can pay it with my face!”

Over the song’s retro disco beat, she glides between her cool mid-range to literal shrieking. My friend Kelly, a bona fide disco aficionado, adores it all. Its bridge — culminating in Maté’s monster of a scream (a sustained F♯/G♭6, for anyone curious) paired with a killer guitar riff — is a perfect climax for the unflinchingly fun track. “Ganda-Gandahan” is like a great Dua Lipa song infused with Filipino camp. Maté, a beauty pageant titleholder, obviously has no need to worry about her face card declining. But beyond her lovely appearance, the young star is also a shining example of how a soloist can stand out in an era dominated by group acts.

5) “Love Team” – The Itchyworms (2005)

Okay, so imagine two actors. They portray each other’s love interest in their new movie/TV programme, so they do flirty fanservice on their press tour. Nothing new, right? It’s familiar even to Brits. But imagine if the public pressured them to portray each other’s love interest in every single film and TV project. Imagine if their fans attacked every person of the opposite sex who breathed next to them. Then you’ve got a “love team,” a uniquely Filipino pop culture phenomenon.

What if one half of the love team falls for the other, who couldn’t care less about them behind the scenes? (In real life, many such cases have been documented.) The song explores the potential torture of this PR-relationship-on-steroids system, where two people are contractually obligated to pretend they’re happily in love for many years, regardless of the reality. “This is the song I wish I’d written,” Tito told me. Besides its unique, potent subject matter, “Love Team” is catchy. The track uses classic rock band elements, but adds dreamy sounds like a glockenspiel to further build the atmosphere of yearning.

Note: The following two songs are tied for 3rd place.

3) “Mapa” – SB19 (2021) *TIED*

For many idol groups, ballads are an excuse to deliver absolute snoozefests that exist simply to appeal to their fans’ emotions. On the other hand, “Mapa” is sonically and lyrically rich. It’s a nimble but heartfelt track about the narrator’s love for his parents, which Tito pointed out is a pretty unusual topic in pop songs. The “lataratara” melody comes from a lullaby that SB19 member/prolific songwriter Pablo’s mum liked to sing to him when he was younger.

The song’s sincere emotions shine through numerous layers of strings and percussion. Pablo and producer Simon Servida achieved all of this just by communicating through Instagram during lockdown, yet another testament to the power of human passion and creativity that AI can’t replace.

Tito praised Pablo’s sharp-witted lyricism, recognising the satisfying cadence of each intricately crafted line. Each of the members’ distinct vocal tones are also used well here, from Ken’s husky low notes to Stell and Pablo’s soulful ad-libs. With “Mapa,” the trailblazing boy group proves that ballads don’t need to be boring at all. It’s a tour de force of songwriting and singing alike.

3) “Lagi” – BINI (2022) *TIED*

A lot of people don’t realise it, but BINI are rock stars in the making. While “Huwag Muna Tayong Umuwi” wouldn’t sound out of place in a 70s/80s glam rock album, “Lagi” is a perfect union between old-school pop-rock and sparkly electropop. It’s one of the songs that Tito and I agreed on the most. For someone his age, it’s immediately nostalgic; he said that the intro notes remind him of 8-bit games. Noting that the song “started strong and ended strong,” he also praised its “satisfying” crescendo.

On Instagram, multi-instrumentalist Ramiru Mataro shared that he composed “Lagi” with dance coach Louie Canaria back in May 2017. Their goal was for the song to sound like a band’s song, but for it to also be danceable, hence the final product’s gorgeous blend of rock and pop sensibilities. It uses a traditional drum kit rather than just the delicate kicks you usually hear these days and incorporates Mataro’s basslines, but also features bright, sweet synths.

The BINI girls’ vocal performances are crucial to this song’s greatness, though. Despite its hyper-pink “bubblegum pop” branding (in my opinion, more of a marketing tactic than a real musical descriptor), “Lagi” has an extremely demanding vocal range of D♯3/E♭3 to E5, requiring the members to sing more than two whole octaves in just this one song. Fortunately, these young women have the skills to pull it off. Each and every single one of them delivers amazing vocals here.

Maloi and Jhoanna absolutely deserve the praise they get, especially for their melismatic bridge vocals. But the backbone of “Lagi” is Colet, who sadly gets overlooked by many fans despite her exceptional singing prowess. Her show-stopping final chorus in “Lagi” sounds like a key change, but unlike most key changes, the instrumentation for that part is exactly the same as the previous choruses. The main melody’s jump from the key of F♯/G♭ to B isn’t facilitated by any instrumental pitch shifts, but instead depends entirely on the rise in Colet’s supremely powerful voice — which sounds even stronger live, as I can attest to after attending the group’s concert recently. “Lagi” is a masterpiece on all fronts, from the clever songwriting to BINI’s performances.

2) “Day and Night” – ALAMAT (2023)

Many people use the term “bubblegum pop” as a shorthand for music that they perceive to be girly and frivolous. Basically, anything happy and bright is bubblegum pop. This is why, for instance, BINI’s discography gets oversimplified as just bubblegum pop, even though the girl group incorporates diverse genres such as pop-rock (see above), disco (“Karera”), funk (“Salamin, Salamin”), new jack swing (“Secrets”), and so forth.

This song by ALAMAT, a boy group who have released many “serious” songs, has suffered the same fate. It’s their most widely streamed release since “Maharani.” Yet “serious” publications in the Philippines rarely give this incredible track its flowers because it’s one of their most bubblegummy songs, ignoring it in favour of ALAMAT’s angstier ones.
“Day and Night,” originally titled “Adlaw ug Gabii” (its literal translation in Cebuano), has lyrics in a mix of English and the Philippine languages Cebuano and Tagalog. It was co-written by “Maharani” producer Thyro Alfaro. But it’s the writing and composition of Therese Villarante-Langit, a beacon of modern Cebuano literature and music, that really elevate this song. She adds poetic flair and authentic regional flavour to “Day and Night.”

The Cebuano lyrics in the chorus flow with buttery smoothness. It’s impossible to imagine “Oh, naghunahuna ko nimo… Gimingaw kaayo ko nimo” being translated into Tagalog or English. It helps that Alfaro and Martin Andrew Guevarra engineered “Day and Night” to perfection. The ALAMAT members’ voices sound crystalline over a blend of dancehall rhythms and indigenous Southeast Asian instruments such as the kudyapi (boat lute) and angklung (wooden idiophone).

1) “Sa Iyo” – Sarah Geronimo (2003)

At the time of this song’s release, Tito had spent a little over 20 years of his life so far listening to other music that wasn’t by Sarah Geronimo. He was completing his degree in university and playing with his band, unconcerned with the pop star, back then a fresh-faced, pigtail-wearing teenage girl. On the other hand, I was a toddler who would never know a world without Sarah Geronimo. Indeed, when I brought up this song, he confessed that it’s been years since he last heard it, while it’s been a constant fixture in my whole life.

When he did listen to it, however, he was immediately struck by Geronimo’s soulful vocals. She was just 15 and presented a cutesy image, a stark contrast to the reputation as a badass sing-and-dance powerhouse that she gained later in her career. Yet her voice already had depth and strength that made the song’s soaring belts seem effortless. She was undoubtedly the right artist for “Sa Iyo,” a love ditty that composer Serafin Murillo says was inspired by Christian worship songs.

Although I’m far from religious, the appeal of church music is hard to deny. There’s a sense of community and shared joy in it, which Geronimo and the production team absolutely capture here. “Sa Iyo” employs an ethereal-sounding choir for the background vocals and one of the most exuberant uses of violin, normally utilised for a melodramatic effect, that I’ve ever heard in pop. Even if you’re not in love with anyone, the song will make you feel the narrator’s happy feelings towards her crush too.

May Filipino artists continue to get opportunities to make music. May they achieve more recognition and support. Long live P-Pop!