Despite the local music scene being hit hard by the pandemic, musicians from left and right are releasing hit singles, full-fledged albums, to viral and interactive content. And one of those artists who are enjoying their fair share of success is Warner Music Philippines’ seven-piece band Lola Amour with their breakthrough single “Fallen.”
A year after its release, “Fallen” is now at 25 million streams on Spotify and peaked at #11 last Saturday, Nov. 19 on Spotify Philippines' Top 50 chart. “Fallen” is a danceable tune with catchy trumpet hooks and lyrics that are easily relatable - how do you tell a person that you’ve fallen for them?
“Fallen has been getting a lot of great feedback and is continuously being streamed more times than we expected,” the band says. Apart from millions of streams, the hashtag #FallenStory took TikTok by storm, with people telling stories about their love life.
Lola Amour has been on the wild ride of their lives being one of the most sought-after bands in the country today. The band is composed of Pio Dumayas (vocals, guitar), Zoey Gonzales (guitar), Raymond King (bass), David Yuhico (keyboard), Angelo Mesina (trumpet), and two session musicians.
Naming themselves after Dumayas’ grandmother, they started making waves in the local music scene after winning Wanderband 2016, an annual competition by Wanderland Arts and Music Festival. Fusing pop, rock, and funk, Lola Amour’s music became an instant favorite among listeners, particularly the millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha.
The band has been on a non-stop musical journey since, from playing in multiple music festivals and fairs, collaborating with contemporaries such as Leanne & Naara, Clara Benin, and Al James, and numerous nominations from Wish Music Awards and Awit Awards.
From establishing a solid fanbase in the metro and online, they embarked on a journey across the country, playing music for jam-packed venues in partnership with Ayala Malls. The band’s Fallen Tour staged 10 shows in 9 major cities- Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Makati, Quezon City, Davao, Subic, Pampanga, and two shows in Cebu.
The tour housed over 30K attendees, with Davao having the largest crowd of 11K people. “As much as we’re happy that we were able to gain a lot of fans throughout the pandemic, performing live in front of an audience is a different experience,” they state after seeing a downpour of supporters on their socials and live shows.
The band also surprised the fans with a new single in the middle of the tour. Entitled “dahan-dahan,” the new single is far from the upbeat track "Fallen". The song is about two people who have fallen in and out of love multiple times. It’s familiar and anticipatory, all while feeling like the first time all over again. The song now boasts almost 335K streams on Spotify alone, with its lyric video on YouTube at 184K views.
As they take in the success they’re having now, the band is inspired to work on new music for the upcoming year. “We blocked off almost our entire January so that we can finish as many songs as we can.” Lola Amour hopes that they can finally deliver a full-length album after years of promising this to their fans.