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| Photo screen-grabbed from Umaaligid music film on YouTube |
I’ll be honest—ever since Umaaligid dropped, it’s been living rent-free on my Spotify playlist. I was at the gym when it was released on YouTube, and as a long-time Popster, my world stopped for a moment. Sarah Geronimo teaming up with SB19 already felt like a once-in-a-lifetime collab, but what I got wasn’t just a song or a music video. It was a full-on ten-minute music film that left me feeling both thrilled and unsettled.
The music film kicks off with chaos: a destroyed house party, Victor’s lifeless body on the floor, and red sirens flashing against the walls. The camera shifts to the suspects—Sarah and the five members of SB19—standing in line at the police station. Each recounts their version of the night’s events. The twist? Every story is different, but each one quietly suggests, “Maybe I did it.”
As the story unfolds, I feel trapped in a swirl of conflicting flashbacks that never seem to fit together. Was it jealousy? Betrayal? Pride? With every retelling, the truth feels just a little further away. And while the mystery deepens, Sarah’s soaring vocals and SB19’s harmonies keep the whole thing glued together with tension you can actually feel.
"Seen through Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s 1922 short story “In a Grove,” the tale feels familiar. Akutagawa lets seven witnesses describe a samurai’s death, each version cancelling out the rest until the truth disappears. Umaaligid mirrors this structure with six pop-star testimonies and the same ending. Where the short story uses spare court records, the music film swaps in sleek flashbacks, strobing lights, and a rock beat, but the core question stays the same: can we ever know what happened?" - DB | Member of A'TIN OFFICIAL GROUP
By the time the final frame fades, we don’t really know who killed Victor. And that’s the point. The music film isn’t about giving us clean answers—it’s about making us sit with the mess: guilt, pride, rage, and the way memory can twist when emotions run high.
Watching Umaaligid is like being at a live concert, diving into a crime drama, and scrolling through a heated fan forum debate all at once. It’s a mix of performance, mystery, and a psychological game that challenges you to question: do we really crave the truth, or just the version that fits our understanding?
At the end of the day, Sarah Geronimo and SB19 didn’t just give us a collaboration. They gave us an experience. One that makes you press replay, not just for the music, but for the questions it leaves behind. And let me talk about the music—because wow. SB19’s intricate sound creates a haunting atmosphere, and then Sarah’s ad-libs just cut through everything like lightning. The tension, the emotion, the energy—it’s a performance that you feel as much as you hear. And honestly? That’s why it’s still sitting proudly on my Spotify playlist, on repeat.
"The latest track from both Filipino pop icons has just made an impressive debut on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart, positioning itself at No. 4 on the chart. This chart-breaking achievement from both Geronimo and SB19 was achieved with only two days of tracking on the chart, given that it was only released Wednesday, July 30, 2025." -Billboard PH
To close, as a longtime Sarah Geronimo fan, seeing her join forces with SB19 in something this ambitious feels special. It’s not just a collab—it’s a piece of art. One that shows how far OPM and P-pop can go when artists are bold enough to experiment.
YouTube link:
UMAALIGID - Sarah Geronimo & SB19 [Official Music Film]
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