SINGER-songwriter jikamarie scores a major hit with the release of her debut single “Lutang” under Warner Music Philippines (WMP) garnering a whopping 10 millions consolidated streams on Spotify.
“Lutang” was well-received when it came out two months ago, and since then, it has garnered consistent attention as a growing fanbase streamed jikamarie’s song over two million times on Spotify and Youtube; the former showed further interest by adding it to Spotify-curated playlists. “I believe it’s one of the reasons why I think people love it—they relate to it so much. I’ve gotten a lot of comments saying that I’ve voiced out their sentiments that they couldn’t put into words, which I’m half glad and half sad that my frustration is shared with so many young people like me,” says jikamarie as she shares her thoughts on her instant fame.
Talking more about the success of “Lutang” jikamarie says, “I honestly did not think it would gain this much attention. I posted a demo of this song on my TikTok, and my followers loved it, to the point of them begging me in all my comment sections to release the song. And that was my main reason for releasing it—so that my followers would be able to listen to it conveniently. I didn’t think more people other than my followers would discover it or even like the song. A million streams are a big deal. Every day that I wake up I still can’t believe that so many people listened to my song more than a million times.”
Blending electronic elements and dream pop, the new WMP signee floats into an air of disquiet on “Lutang.” Speaking about the new single, jikamarie shares, “I wrote ‘Lutang’ at 5am, after I just finished a major architectural plate and I was so exhausted – physically, emotionally, and mentally. I felt so defeated, like I had no choice but to do my tasks because I simply needed to – not because they made me happy doing them. This tiredness escalated into fatigue combined with anxiety, because aside from the academic career that demanded so much of my time and energy, I also wanted to pursue music – my childhood dream. Really badly. I was deciding whether I would continue with architecture or shift to a music-related career, maybe even drop out completely to work on my music. The pressure of deciding between the two very risky options triggered me to just want to, quite literally ‘float’ instead of having the burden of deciding. When I made the demo, I showed it to my brother and him having the skills to produce music, I trusted the song to him.”
Thus far, “Lutang” was #1 on Viral 50 Philippines and held the 22nd spot on Philippines’ Top 200 on Spotify –
and the song’s success paved the way for a special mixed tape, that was recently launched last December 10, featuring producers such as Timothy Run, Squid 9, DJ Young, and LUSTBASS as well as special version of the single by another WMP recording artist and fellow viral sensation Paul Pablo who first collaborated with jikamarie on TikTok where they exchanged hit songs to the delight of their fans.
It should also be noted that each track on jikamarie’s mixtape have their own visualizers that are scheduled to be released on December 20, December 28, December 31, January 4, and January 10. Also, a set of three docuseries videos are scheduled to be released on her YouTube channel on January 7 and 14 leading to the official release of the “Lutang” music video on December 17 and the highly anticipated release of her follow-up single.