Therese Marie Villarante and Davey Langit. | photo by Therese Marie Villarante
Cebu City, Philippines – A Cebuana s0ng-writer made it to the Top 12 of the Himig Handog 2019.
Therese Marie Villarante, 28, is the second song-writer from Cebu to make it to grand finals of the annual song-writing competition organized by ABS-CBN.
Villarante will be competitng with fellow Cebuano, Ferdinand Aragon, during the Himig Handog grand finals, the schedule of which is yet to be announced. Aragon wrote “Ingat” that will be performed by I Belong to the Zoo. He also won the first Visayan Music Awards held last month.
Read More: Freelance graphic, visual artist from Cebu City wins Visayan Music Awards 2019
The Talisay City native picked her friend Davey Langit, a singer, songwriter and instrumentalist who kicked off his music career in 2006 when he joined the Pinoy Dream Academy season, to interpret her song “Simula ng Dulo.”
Villarante admitted that Langit also helped her write the song that speaks of love that is universal.
She shared that “Simula ng Dulo” came to life after Langit released the song “Gitna,” one of the songs in the 2019 iWant series “Mga Batang Poz” that tells of the struggles of four teenagers who tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Villarante said that after the release of “Gitna,” Langit wanted to produce two more songs which he wanted to call “Simula” and “Dulo.”
Their collaboration resulted in the creation of the song “Simula ng Dulo” that speaks of how love makes a person vulnerable and the need to already let go.
“It is desperation and restlessness of wanting to be loved by the one you give your heart to,” Villarante says of her song.
With “Simula ng Dulo,” Villaranted wanted to bring her listeners “to that confusion and struggle of holding on to whatever is left of the relationship and a slow heartbreak.”
Villarente said that her song is also about letting go when “everything is seemingly unbearable.”
“You hold the door open for a person to leave, should they choose to, because at the end that is how you truly love them, ” she added.
Villarente said she decide to allow Langit to interprete the song because “our story is best with one perspective. It has less impact if duet.”
Before joining Himig Handog 2019, Villarante has also made her appearances in the 2018 and 2014 Philippine Popular Music Festival (PhilPop) where she sent as entries her songs “Unang Adlaw Na Wala Ka” and “Song on a Broken String.”
Villarante also became popular in Cebu after her song “Bok Love” finished third place in the Visayan Pop Music Festival in 2015.
She is also known for her songs “My Morena Girl,” “In Love Ra Kutob,” and “Kanang Kuan” co-written by Jude Gitamondoc. /dcb
