Release Date: July 11, 2024
Track Listing
- Cherry On Top
Review
BINI is an eight-member Filipino girl group formed through ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt Academy program in 2019. The group’s name is taken from the Filipino word “binibini,” which means “young lady” in English.
Since their debut they have become “The Nation’s Girl Group” in the Philippines. Some of their accomplishments include:
- The first Filipino pop group to have the most monthly listeners on Spotify.
- The first Filipino artist to enter the Top Artist Global Chart on Spotify at 193rd place.
- The first Filipino pop act to perform at KCON.
They debuted on June 11, 2021, with their single Born to Win. Their discography comprises of eleven singles, three non-album singles, one EP and two studio albums.
What I’ll be looking at for this review is their fourteenth (and third non-album) single Cherry On Top.
For total transparency, I don’t listen to the pop music of my motherland, the Philippines. The Filipino pop I have been exposed to has been either Temu/Wish versions of American pop and R&B or excruciatingly dull ballads. This was back in 2006, and I had not bothered to go back to Filipino pop since.
I haven’t been wholly sheltered from Filipino pop. Thanks to J-Pop and the 48 groups, I knew of the atrocity that is MNL48. When it comes to BINI, I became of aware of their existence randomly through social media.
Still, that wasn’t enough to get me to pay attention to them. It was only when when I heard they were appearing at KCON Los Angeles 2024 that I reconsidered investing some time in them. Their inclusion in KCON was intriguing since the group is not Korean and has no Korean members. So, they must have some decent material to be part of such an event.
Having never heard Cherry on Topor viewed its music video, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Its Y2K-era R&B/Pop sound caught my attention right away. So that was a good sign. I also expected the lyrics to be in Tagalog, but instead, it was a full English-language song. The lyrical content isn’t groundbreaking or mind-blowing, but it’s perfect for a bubblegum pop song.
The combination of the catchy instrumental and the lovey-dovey “You’re lucky to have me as your girl” lyrics made for a fun (albeit too short) track. I had to give it a few extra spins to be sure what I heard from my speakers was real.Given my experience with Filipino pop (as mentioned earlier), I had a very low bar set for this song.
Cherry On Top went way above that bar and had me thinking that my bias against pop music from the Philippines should probably be reviewed. Lots has changed and evolved since then, as Cherry On Top has proven.
