Breakout artist Jikamarie has just been announced as the local act opening Coldplay’s sold-out two-night Manila stop for their Music of the Spheres tour on Jan. 19 and 20, 2024, at the Philippine Arena. 

Jikamarie is the sensation behind the viral hit “lutang” which made waves on TikTok during the pandemic. Garnering over 80,000 creations on the platform and skyrocketing to the top of the local and global Spotify viral charts at no.1 in less than a month, the track became the young Architecture major’s serious foray into music. 

Raised in a musical family and already a longtime choir member, Jikamarie has always found comfort in songwriting as it helps her express and make sense of her feelings. “lutang” now with over 20 million streams, was written at the height of her emotions during the quarantine, wrestling with stress and exhaustion just like any other human most especially during that era. This is probably why it resonated so well with her equally young community.

Since the success of her debut track, she’s performed at the first TikTok Philippines awards, released a few more singles with upwards of hundreds of thousands to millions of streams, and collaborated with other local artists. Being chosen as the opening act for one of the biggest artists in the world today is another career-defining milestone for the 23-year-old creative. When she found out the opportunity, Jika recalls feeling ecstatic, “I could not believe it! This is a band I've been listening to since I was in elementary! I didn't have a phone then, so I'd wait for their music videos to play on MYX. I cried so hard to my family because I was excited when I found out.” Like many Filipinos, Jika is a huge Coldplay fan, citing “Fix You” as her favorite song of the band because of its timelessness. 

Jika has dropped a few more singles to add to her steadily growing repertoire of fresh R&B pop tunes in preparation for her turn at warming up other Filipino Coldplay fans next year. Beginning with “Hinahanap-Hanap,” she describes it as “a song that speaks about people who fall in love too fast and expect the same amount of obsession from the other person. I wanted to write a song that a lot of people experience—limerence and infatuation, and wondering if the person you like/love also thinks about you as often as you think about them.” 

Next up is a track called “lito”, an R&B trap song about a friend giving mixed signals. And slated for next year is yet another one called “bawi na lang sa next life” – the idea of which she got from the popular catchphrase said by Gen Zs when something unfortunate happens. To her, “this is one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in songwriting since I did it with my (TikTok) followers in real-time.” 

 Reflecting on her past year and what’s to come in the future, she takes inspiration from her successful debut - “The biggest thing I’ve learned from my entire career is always to take a chance. Had I not tried to release a song and let people hear it, I never would’ve known that I could do this – that I had a chance with my dream. I'm only just starting in my career and I'm excited to explore more of that with the people I love around me, and of course, majika (official fandom name)”. 

Get to know rising artist, Jikamarie by following her online bio.to/Jikamarie