While generations of Filipinos have sung of vegetables à la “ABC,” we lacked an anthem featuring the diversity of fruits in our archipelago. That …
While generations of Filipinos have sung of vegetables à la “ABC,” we lacked an anthem featuring the diversity of fruits in our archipelago. That ends with the contemporary folk song “Prutas Pilipinas.” The cheery song, now available for streaming on Spotify (rb.gy/yp1nc5), began with lyricist Noel Ferrer. Like the folk song “Bahay Kubo,” this jingle enumerates local fruits. We had to Google dayap, balimbing and a few other items the same way we would look up vegetables linga or kundol—something that does not work against “Prutas Pilipinas” and, we reckon, raises awareness of produce we tend to ignore. The lyrics allude to something bigger, noted Ferrer: “I thought that it would be a good opportunity to start from basic fruits and expand it to a collective push for a healthy nation—’para sa masigla, magaling at masayang Pilipinas.’” “Nature, music and science come together… what better way to celebrate life than to sing a song about our fruits that give us life,” exclaimed National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab.
