By Aliya Janeo

There’s many special things about local school fairs—and one of them, in particular, is perhaps how they give performers the opportunity to entertain, and fairgoers the chance to finally see or discover more local talent.

Transcendent

IndAK

The fair not only gives performers the chance to show off their creativity and skill, but it also allows us Ateneans to represent ourselves and the school. That being said, the Ateneo Senior High School (ASHS) dance troupe, the Indayog ng Atenistang Kabataan, or more commonly known as IndAK, is set to perform in Transcendent—Elesina’s Student’s Night. Just this January, they brought home the second place trophy in the Kings division, and a fourth place ranking in the Queens division at the Dance Supremacy competition held at the Solaire theater. 

Poveda Enciende, Animove, VPeepz

Aside from our own dance troupe, Elesina welcomes a variety of talented groups from other schools. The first group is the Poveda Enciende, the varsity dance team of St. Pedro Poveda College. The next is Animove, De La Salle Manila Senior High’s dance troupe, who have training in streetdance, folk, and contemporary dance. Finally, VPeepz is a hip hop dance team that took the first place crown during the third season of NBC’s world of dance and bagged the second place spot at the 2023 Body Rock Junior dance competition. 

The Mny

The Mny was founded in 2020 and is composed of members Christian Paul Maris, Christian Vallejo, and Dan Jacob Manangan. They’re a growing synth pop rock band with songs like “Dahilan” with over 146,000 streams on Spotify, and “Sakali” with over 38,000.

KINDRED

Having debuted their single “Switch On U!” back in 2022, KINDRED is a 8-person band composed of Slomo Says, Cavill, dot.jaime, Vinced, Fern., Punzi, Pikunin, and Nouvul. Their debut album came out in November of 2023 and consists of hits such as “Lambing” featuring Kiyo and “Ligaw,” with over 773,000 and 322,000 streams on Spotify respectively.

Autotelic

Pop rock band Autotelic was founded in 2012 and is made up of members Josh Villena, Neil Tin, Timothy Vargas, EJ Edralin, and Gep Macadaeg. They debuted  their single, “Gising,” in 2016, and released their debut album, “Papunta Pabalik,” in the same year. The album consists of hits like “Laro,” “Languyin,” and “Gising,” with a combined number of over 35 million streams.

Additionally, for Nova: A Night of Stellar Brilliance, in- demand DJs Michiko and Marxx will be playing and gracing the stage with their presence. 

Mahika

ONE CLICK STRAIGHT

Hailing from Parañaque city and composed of members Joel Cartera as well as Sam, Toffer, and Tim Marquez, ONE CLICK STRAIGHT is a group that was founded in 2009 will be kicking off Elesina’s concert, Mahika. ONE CLICK STRAIGHT officially became a band in 2014, debuting in 2015 with their single, “Shakin’.” Moreover, their first album, “The Midnight Emotion,” came out in 2018 and consists of songs like “She” and “Honey.” Additionally, the group is known for hits such as “Paraiso” and “MRT,” with over 2 million and 1.6 million streams respectively. To this day, the band continues to put out indie pop and rock music, with their most recent release being a self-named album that came out in January of 2023.

Nameless Kids

Nameless Kids formed in 2019 and debuted in 2020. The group is composed of Nhiko Sabiniano, Kim Allen, Kyle Perry, Tati De Mesa, and Imay Alconaba. The indie and alternative band debuted their single, “Outlaws,” and amassed over 548,000 streams on Spotify.  Their debut album, “Manila in Bloom,” came out in September of 2023. The band has produced many hits including their most successful song at present, “Sa’yo (Ang Mundo),” which reached over 601,000 streams, as well as their newest release “Still So In Love” that came out late January of this year. Furthermore, within a year of debuting, the group was named as the ‘Best Performance of a New Group Recording Artist’ at the 34th Awit Awards, and have been featured in Nylon’s Big, Bold, Brave Awards and MYX Music Awards.

HEY JUNE!

2021 ended with the debut of HEY JUNE!, with their debut single, “Just A Hit,” being released on December 24, 2021. The group is made up of Jim Mase, Coey Ballesteros, Aci Fodra, and Earl Paglinawan. The band focuses on pop and rock music and are signed under Island Record Philippines. They were named the ‘2023 Breakthrough Artist’ at the 36th Awit Awards for popular hits like “Panahon” and “Lugar Kung S’an,” with over 828,000 and 431,000 streams on Spotify respectively. Following which, they released their debut album, “Curiosity Killed the Cat,” in November of 2023, consisting of some of their popular singles and some unreleased tracks.

PLAYERTWO

PLAYERTWO is a Davaoeño group that debuted in late January of 2022, and is composed of members Wave P, Luke April, Ivo Impreso, Ven Villariza, and DJ PUHKEN. They debuted with their single “TALK STRAIGHT”, with their debut album, HAPPY ACCIDENTS VOL. 1, coming out the year after. Furthemore, their discography consists of alternative hip-hop hits like their latest single “Pagdali” that came out early February of this year, and their trending song “THAT’S MY BABY” that has accumulated over 34 million streams on Spotify.

Maki

On December 17, 2021, R&B singer/songwriter, Maki debuted his single “Halaga” under Tarsier records. He’s known for trending hits such as “Saan?” which has accumulated over 55 million streams on Spotify, and “Bakit” with over 5.8 million streams. Both songs have made an appearance on the Top 100 Viral Songs in the Philippines. Additionally, he kicked off 2024 with the release of his single “HBD.”

Arthur Miguel

On New Year of 2020, pop artist Arthur Miguel released his singles, “Handa Na Ba?” featuring Caine, and “Bitaw.” A number of his singles have garnered millions of streams on Spotify, including “Lihim” with over 45 million streams, and “Ang Wakas” featuring Trisha Macapagal with over 52 million streams. Moreover, he’s signed under Warner Music Philippines and has around 3.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. His most recent release single is called “Bawat Taon” and came out December of last year.

The Ridleys

The Ridleys debuted in 2016 with the “Aphrodite EP.” The band is composed of Benny Manaligod, Jan De Vera, Joric Canlas, and Bryant Ayes. Their debut album Reflections on Moonlight & Poetry came out in 2019, containing their most viral hit to date: an album version of Aphrodite that has accumulated over 8.3 million streams on Spotify. Other hits in their discography consist of “Germany & Rome” from the aforementioned album with over 2.3 million streams; and their single “Meaningful Silence (Our Song)” with over 3.2 million.

Lola Amour

Mahika and Elesina as a whole will end with the performance of one of the biggest indie bands of our generation, Lola Amour. The band composed of Pio Dumayas, Raymond King, David Yuhico, Angelo Mesina, Zoe Gonzales, Jeff Abueg, and Raffy Perez, debuted in 2017 with their EP, “Don’t Look Back.” A nominee for the ‘Wish Group of the Year’ at the 2024 Wish Awards, the group has put out hits that have garnered over millions of streams, including “Fallen” with over 129 million streams, and “Raining In Manila” with over 109 million.