P-pop, or Pinoy pop, may not have achieved quite the same global status as its Pacific cousins K-pop or J-pop, at least not yet, but if the adoring crowds packed into Expo 2020 Dubai’s DEC Arena for Filipino boy band SB19’s show on Wednesday night are any indication, it may be not too far behind.
For much of the 1990s and early 2000s, the Filipino music scene was largely dominated at one end of the spectrum by gnarly, in-your-face rock outfits, as any frequent visitor to Bur Dubai’s sadly missed Music Room venue could confirm, and at the other by schmaltzy love songs performed by the latest “love team” sensation from the movies.
Over the past decade or so, however, as K-pop and J-pop have become increasingly popular across the Philippines and rapid economic growth has allowed for better production and glossier stars, Pinoy pop has undergone something of a metamorphosis, shaking off many of the western influences that had underpinned its musical output for so long in place of something distinctly Asian, but also unmistakably Filipino.
Here are some of the key players in what may come to be looked back upon as something of a golden era for Pinoy pop.
SB19
SB19 are perhaps the most obviously K-pop-influenced of the current crop of Pinoy stars. The band were created by the newly formed Philippines branch of Korean entertainment agency ShowBT after an extensive talent search in 2016 – their name comes from the SB of their agency, and subtracting the Philippine’s international dialling code, +63, from Korea’s +82.
In finest K-pop fashion, once selected Josh, Pablo, Stell, Ken, and Justin were then put through almost three years of rigorous training in how to be the perfect pop stars by their mentor agency and were connected with Korean writers and producers before being unleashed on the world with their debut single Tilaluha at the end of 2018.
It was with the 2019 follow-up, Go Up, that things really took off though. A K-pop fan account using the handle @BAE_Sodu tweeted a video of the group practising the dance to the single in September, 2019 and the clip picked up almost 4.5m views.
The official music video has also amassed more that 11 million views on YouTube. The band have since achieved both Billboard Chart and award success, last year picking up an MTV Europe Music Awards nomination, and in January this year surpassing the six-week record of BTS’s Butter in the Billboard Hot Trending Songs chart, when new single Bazinga notched up its seventh week.
Zack Tabudlo
Bazinga may have set the Billboard charts on fire, but SB19 can only dream of their fellow Filipino Zack Tabudlo’s numbers on Spotify.
When the streaming platform released its annual Wrapped report for 2021, Tabudlo’s single Binibini was revealed to be the most-streamed song of the year in the Philippines. It has amassed almost 84 million streams, dwarfing the 6.4 million achieved by SB19’s Billboard-topping effort.
The track’s video, with more than 35 million views on YouTube, makes SB19 look like indie underdogs, too, and his canny recent technique of releasing collaborations with stars such as Thailand's Billkin, and Filipino heavyweights James Reid and Moira Dela Torre, suggests his fan base is only going to grow.
Ben&Ben
This list is, probably unsurprisingly, fairly pop-heavy, but it’s not only polished boy bands and perfect pop princesses who are riding the current wave of Filipino musical success. Nine-piece folk rockers Ben&Ben (who also dropped by Expo 2020 Dubai earlier in March) topped that same 2021 Spotify wrap as the most-streamed artist in the Philippines for the second year in a row.
Their single Kathang Isip alone has achieved 181 million streams, while their total streams as a band have already soared past the one billion mark, making them the most-streamed Filipino act of all time on the platform.
Sarah Geronimo
Sarah Geronimo, 33, seems like something of a wisened veteran next to some of the young upstarts on our list, but there’s no denying that the star of screen, stage and catwalk is one of the Philippines’ biggest exports ever. She even shared a stage with Pope Francis on his historic 2019 visit to Abu Dhabi.
She certainly has the respect of her P-pop peers. At a 2019 press conference in Quezon City, the SB19 boys almost unanimously identified her not only as the artist they’d most like to collaborate with, but also as their biggest showbiz crush.
MNL48
If you thought the S Club 7/S Club Juniors transformation was a cynical exercise in popsploitation, you might need to sit down. MNL48 (the MNL stands for Manila) are the fourth instalment of a pan-Asian pop steamroller that also includes Japanese originals AKB48 (Akihabara, Tokyo), JKT48 (Jakarta) and BNK48 (Bangkok) before them, and has since expanded to include Delhi, Taipei, Shanghai and further domestic sister groups in Japan, Thailand and China – so far.
There are 48 members, who must be aged between 15 and 20, and they’re selected through a TV elimination process that has older members eliminated and new blood taking their place on an annual basis.
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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GROUPS
Group Gustavo Kuerten
Novak Djokovic (x1)
Alexander Zverev (x3)
Marin Cilic (x5)
John Isner (x8)
Group Lleyton Hewitt
Roger Federer (x2)
Kevin Anderson (x4)
Dominic Thiem (x6)
Kei Nishikori (x7)
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Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: seven-speed auto
Power: 420 bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: from Dh293,200
On sale: now
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (rated 95-108) US$125,000 2000m (Dirt).
Winner: Don’t Give Up, Gerald Mosse (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer).
7.05pm: Handicap (95 ) $160,000 2810m (Turf).
Winner: Los Barbados, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
7.40pm: Handicap (80-89) $60,000 1600m (D).
Winner: Claim The Roses, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (Div-1) Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D)
Winner: Gold Town, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Cape Verdi Group 2 $200,000 1600m (T).
Winner: Promising Run, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.25pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D).
Winner: El Chapo, Luke Morris, Fawzi Nass.
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE