After overcoming hurdles, Nicole Asensio to finally release ‘Silong’

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Filipino singer-songwriter Nicole Asensio faced various obstacles on her way to releasing a song she has been working on for so long that she almost gave up on it many times. She even came to a point where she thought that maybe the song might not be meant to be shared with people, but she was wrong.

In a video she uploaded on YouTube on Tuesday, August 25, Asensio told the story behind the making of her song titled, “Silong,” starting off her narration by saying she nearly lost hope on the song because it “wouldn’t lend me an ending.”

Asensio shared that she first wrote the lyrics in English, but said the song was asking for a Tagalog version so she decided to make five drafts of it, however, she was not happy with what she did. She tried to reach out to some songwriters for collaboration and meetings, but none of these happened that’s why the singer thought that maybe it’s time for her to put the “Silong” out of sight.

When her father passed away, a lot of her unfinished works got buried, until the day she cleaned her old hard drive. She found all of these, including “Silong” which happened to be on the top of the list in her hard drive, so she decided to give that particular song another shot.

The difference this time was that Asensio made someone else take the lead on the lyrics, sending the melody to her friend, Itchie Montilla, who is a former member of the Philippine Madrigal Singers. Asensio made little edits on the Tagalog lyrics that Montilla sent to her and then called her “trusted band barkada (friends)” for the song arrangement.

Having these people to work with her on the song gave Asensio “a lightness that I hadn’t felt in a long time,” adding that she was grateful to have them around.

“The arrangement was overall a group effort, more of a band arrangement,” she said.

“Once we finally had the arrangement, we set a schedule to record. No plans to release yet, just record for fun,” she continued.

When it was done, Asensio stopped in the middle of the road as she questioned herself whether or not she will be able to sing the song.

The singer said she let her fears eat her up that she almost backed out again, but then she realized, “Sayang naman, nasimulan mo na eh. Kaya ko ba (It is a waste, you already started it. Can I do it)? Okay fine, I’ll do it. Bahala na si Lord (It’s up to the Lord).”

“I asked for the help of a seasoned producer and performer Moy Ortiz to help me out with my singing and he stuck it out with me ’til the end take and I finally felt, ‘hey, maybe, just maybe, the song would be finished finally,'” she said.

Asensio and her team were finally able to send the mix track of the song to London for mastering, but when everything was set for January 2020, the pandemic happened. Again, Asensio thought the song was not meant to be released.

She put the song aside again and wrote other songs while staying at home. She did about 20 quarantine music videos and several fundraiser shows, but “Silong,” she said, was “bugging” her.

Realizing that it is okay for people to start over something as many times as they need to, Asensio gave the song another chance again.

“In our darkest days, we choose faith over fear and take cover in His [God] promises,” she said.

With all that has happened, Asensio announced that she is finally dropping “Silong” on Friday, August 28, on all digital platforms.

“For the ones that don’t give up. For the ones that have been beaten down over and over again, and choose to rise up stronger each time… God has a plan…. if we choose FAITH over FEAR,” she wrote in a Facebook post, along with her announcement.