A Silent Fan Gone Wild (My SB19 Escapades)
I just finished binged watching While You Were Sleeping, a Korean series. While I enjoyed it, it was the sound track that made an impact to me so I immediately went to browse YouTube for the series’ OST. While on it, one of the recommendations was a music video with thumbnail that shows Korean-looking couple but what intrigued me is that the title of the song is in Tagalog (Filipino) called Tilaluha. I thought maybe it is a cover but made into a Filipino version so I checked it out. That fated day on November 8, 2018, was the start of my SB19 fangirling journey.
My reaction, at the time, to Tilaluha was a confusion itself. I’m seeing Korean actors talking in Korean but the song playing in the background is Tagalog. But it was only for the first couple of seconds and my attention soon shifted to the song. Honestly, didn’t even watch the music video anymore but just listened to the music. It was eargasmic. The melody, the harmony, and the feels was just so good I can’t believe I just heard it just now. Still in disbelief that I missed this song, went immediately to the credits and checked. It was an introduction of the artist SB19. Apparently, the video was just released two days ago. Unfamiliar, I went on to search about SB19, not much to know about it aside from its company, ShowBT Entertainment, that it is a Filipino five-member male group who trained under a Korean System. My search didn’t stop there because my thoughts after googling them was, we have such very efficient boy group who can actually sing very well but we are promoting mainstream produced boy groups branded as singers selling albums but cannot even do a decent live performance. I was actually hoping that the group I just listened to already debuted mainstream but only to my dismay.
From thereon, I was a fan. Would discuss the song and the artist to my friends and officemates. They were polite enough to listen but were not really interested to get to know them more. That disinterest only made me more obsessed. Researching about SB19 didn’t give me much because of the very few resources and references but I was already tracking them with their Facebook page and YouTube page. My fangirl heart was in awe when they finally released Go Up but secretly hoping for them to release Love Goes too. Sadly, it didn’t rake well just like Tilaluha. Didn’t mind, I’m still happy that we have a Filipino group who can actually sing and dance efficiently, quite a rarity in the Philippine music industry. You have to know that I have never fangirled, not even for Taylor Swift (yes I’m a hard core Swiftie too), to blatantly put it, I was a silent fan.
September 2, 2019, when a KPOP fan tweeted about SB19′s dance practice of Go Up, everything went haywire when it got viral and SB19 was an instant sensation. I was so happy that they are already being recognized but it was also a rolling uphill battle. Filipinos are not very receptive of PPOP (not even a thing at the time) as we were very accustomed to the stereotypical Filipino artist. I will expound more on this later, and even extensively perhaps in the next articles.
While I converted my personal account into an SB19 promotional blog, this is also a documentation of why I decided to become an engaging fan. So while I aim to introduce SB19 to the world, I’m also sharing my journey as a fan girl. Let me just explain this briefly. There was a time when part of the promotional marketing of SB19 was to perform in schools in order for them to be introduced to college students, a demographic that is very receptive and active in the music and concert scene in the Philippines. It was during the PUP School Attack program that I finally decided to become an active fan. Why so? During that performance, Stell got injured but he nevertheless ignored it and continued performing. If it were not for Teacher Hong noticing and Tatang Robin pulling him out, he would have endured the pain and finish the performance dancing, nevertheless, he still belted and sang his part on the sideline. The members who were clearly worried just continued performing and gave the audience the performance they deserved. Since the show must go on, the group went on even if Pablo (who goes by Sejun back then) had to carry Stell and seated him center stage. That my friends, A’TIN, is what you call professionalism. When I got to watch a fan cam footage of that incident the night of that performance it sealed the deal. It made me very determined to support this group no matter what, hence, the onset of my fangirling journey.
But isn’t it late to do blogs now that there are already too many videos, write ups and references about SB19? Some may think so, but I have my reasons. I cannot do YouTube contents since I don’t have the time and resources, let’s leave that to the experts. I can’t do twitter either since I’m no fun in there. Let the big fanbases take charge of that. But Tumblr, this I could do since I can just freely write what I think in a page where I can control content and engagement. It is less anarchic here. Furthermore, this is one of the things I learned from Taylor Swift, how to promote her craft to her legion of supporters who are so in touch with her in this platform. I would like to take inspiration from that and perhaps introduced SB19 to the world and at least inch a little closer to the world domination we seek to attain. I hope and pray that non-locals (non-Filipino) music enthusiasts will soon become fans and welcome SB19 in their horizon. This is what I seek to achieve in my own small ways.
So if you are A’TIN or a casual music lover who is interested to get to know more about SB19, please share this content, follow this account and spread word to your family and friends. In the days to come, I will try my best to publish as many SB19 related contents as much as I can and as frequent as I can manage. However, please bear with me as I fact check details before publishing them and even ask for consent for materials to be used or cited. I hope this will be the beginning of your journey too.
P.S. More than promoting SB19, my fangirling is actually self serving. There is so much parallelism between SB19′s journey and my personal endeavors that made me identify with them. This I would like to share, maybe, in the not so distant future. For now, let’s focus on SB19 matters first.
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