SCUTTLEBUTT: BTS to release anthology album on June 10

Hello everyone! I am grateful to be back to an old, familiar world. This is your friendly, neighborhood Scuttlebutt signing on.  Cheers! 

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As every other BTS Army probably knows by now, this wonderful group of very talented and good-looking members, will be celebrating their ninth anniversary as a group on June 13.

And the bigger news is that BTS will be releasing their anthology album “Proof” on June 10. The music video for the carrier single “Yet to Come” will also come out on the same day at 1 p.m. KST.

“Proof” is BTS’s highly anticipated comeback worldwide after the explosion of the album “BE” in 2020 where “Permission to Dance” came from. The new release features the group’s iconic songs throughout their career in three discs, which makes it an absolute must-have.

Disc 1 starts with recorded version of fan-favorite “Born Singer” and ends with lead single “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life).” The other tracks are their popular singles.

Disc 2 includes songs handpicked by the members themselves, which include solos and unit tracks; with new song “Run BTS.”

Disc 3 is CD only (not released on streaming platforms), and includes previously unreleased tracks and demos of existing songs; with new song “For Youth” which will be available online.

I could almost imagine my youngest daughter Yeye shedding tears of joy for this because she has been a fan of the group since “You Never Walk Alone” in 2017 when BTS was still a “baby.”

While Yeye shares a birthday with Suga, I like giving this bit of trivia about her being “helped” by the song “Not Today” to finish her thesis many years ago while she was still a student in Ateneo. And her favorite members are Suga and RM.

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NO HARM, NO FOUL

Heart Evangelista was very candid, albeit too candid for comfort, when she gamely answered

that pointed question about her experiences of one-night stand, in a recent article I read about her.

My balloon thought while reading it was that “this should fall on the category of rhetorical interview questions. Meaning: the celebrity doesn’t really need to answer it because the interviewer may not really be seeking one.

It brought to mind a scene from a presscon of the Eraserheads years before where the members just gave back blank stares to a writer who asked them if they have had experience with a gay guy and everyone within hearing distance just laughed it off.

But the smart and quirky Heart, for some reason, opted to dignify the question without naming names. Do I think it was necessary? Not really. And then again, we didn’t hear any news of her quarrelling with her newly-proclaimed senator-husband because of it. So, no harm, no foul.

I have been a curious and interested onlooker of the beautiful Heart Evangelista for as long as I can remember. I admire her style, her classy demeanor, her decency, her down-to-earth friendliness (kahit mukha siyang super sosyal) and the way she has evolved and continues to do so as a person and as a woman.

Cest ‘la vie.

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IT WAS HER CHOICE TO GO THE WAY SHE DID

Death, especially of celebrities we only know from afar, affects us in surprising ways.

The passing of movie icon and queen of Philippine movies Ms. Susan Roces recently had me saturating every bit of news and tributes about her.

So much, that it now feels like I know more about her in death than in life.

From available anecdotes of her loved ones and those closest to her, I realized that there was so much more to the beautiful, modest, kind, soft-spoken and respectable lady that is Susan Roces, the queen opposite the king of Philippine movies Fernando Poe Jr.

We saw facets of her as a mother and Manang Inday -  the nurturing, loving and attentive mother to Grace and to her nephews and nieces. She was unafraid, feisty, authoritative and disciplinarian when she needed to be.  It was remarkable how she was able to keep her family together by stepping up to take the cudgels for those who needed her. Sen. Grace Poe summed it up in her eulogy, “Ikaw ang bayani namin. Dahil sa hirap at ginhawa itinaguyod mo ang aming pamilya.”

To the very end, the strength of the queen was apparent.  The senator narrated how her mother made the choice to go. Her mother told her and I quote, “I have been putting the feelings of other people before my own ever since. Im already 80 years old. I am ready. This time I will think of me.”

Our condolences to her family, friends, and fans.