Coachella

BINI’s latest single, “Shagidi,” is another modern-musical translation of Filipino tradition. Playful and upbeat, the track takes its cue from a children’s game in the Philippines called “Shagidi Shapopo” and reframes it as a pop hit — not so dissimilar from ROSÉ and Bruno Mars‘ massive “APT.,” which turned a Korean drinking game into a hook-heavy Billboard Hot 100 hit. Both songs are accessible cultural touchstones meant to connect new audiences with the singers themselves, but also their backgrounds.

A similarly personal ethos drove BINI Cosmetics. “Our beauty line is more than just colors; it’s our heart showing up,” the group adds. “We were involved in every step, choosing shades, designing packaging, even the naming of each product, because we wanted something that speaks to us and to every Bloom out there. We want people to feel seen, to feel confident doing their own thing, whether you wear makeup every day or just sometimes. It’s for everyone, no filters, no limitations.”

Below, members Jhoanna, Aiah, Gwen, Colet, Stacey, Maloi, Mikha, and Sheena walk us through late-night palette debates, as well as the pressure, joys and creative process behind their first U.S. concerts, and how these milestones fit into a larger plan to bring the Philippines’ pop sound — and Filipino creatives — to new stages around the world.

How did you feel about your first-ever U.S. show being in New York City?

 Sheena: Of course, we felt so blessed, so grateful, and so proud with our first stop in the U.S. in New York because,  honestly, this whole world tour and especially here in North America, was really us taking a risk. We know ourselves that we don’t have that many Blooms here compared to our families in the Philippines. But we have a saying that even if we’re performing in front of a thousand Blooms, hundreds or even just one Bloom, we will always give our best and show and excellence because that’s the show that our Blooms deserve.

It’s interesting that you call it a risk, given the big crowd you had at the Theater at MSG. What were your concerns?

Aiah:  When we learned about the venues, the capacity of each arena, we told our management, “Can we really feel this? Are you sure?” Or even just half of them, we were very doubtful. But like we said, we thought, “Let’s just take the risk,” you know? And perform for our Blooms.

Jhoanna:  And having a sold-out concert, that’s just a bonus for us.

Getting to see your concert showed me how crucial live vocals are to your show. Many times, you’re all singing the choruses, you get to show off some Christina Aguilera ad-libs moments. Why is the vocal aspect important to a BINI show?

Maloi:  I think that is what we trained for. Like we trained for almost — how many years? — two years. And we are still training now. So, I think it’s very important for us to show what we can really do.  Seeing people appreciate what we can do or what we have is so nice to see: to see their comments and even their constructive criticisms for us to be better performers. For me, I enjoy it more if I sing live and if I do make a mistake live, I think that’s the beauty of it — the rawness of our voices. You can hear the beats, the voice cracks and everything. It makes you feel more like, “I’m here and this is life.”

Stacey: Most of the time and most of the performances, we’ll have issues with the technical [aspects], with the sound, our in-ears, our microphones; but we are grateful for the sound engineers because they can fix everything fast.

Aiah: Every show is unpredictable and you won’t always get to have a perfect one. So, sometimes it really is a trial and error because we go to different stages, we have to rehearse it in ways to make sure it’s all good and we’re ready just in case things aren’t working. But when you perform, sometimes, even if you have rehearsed for it, anything can really happen.

Mikha: Especially with the clothes. We don’t wear the same clothes every concert and we don’t really have time to do dress rehearsals [with every outfit], so it’s kind of hectic backstage. We’ll get our sound engineers to help us out, also, even though it’s not their job to do it. People who aren’t supposed to help us or be assistant stylists become assistant stylists because of everything. But that’s good, you know? We’re all all-rounders now. [Laughs] I think people think that we’re a big team, but in reality, it’s so few. We just make it look like a whole crowd is working for us, but it’s really quite intimate and small.

Speaking of clothes, the fashion on tour was really stunning and something I hadn’t seen before. Do you get a say in what you wear?

Maloi: Of course, every time we go out on stage, we always make sure that we show our branding, our true selves like this. The [regular] clothes that we are wearing right now, this is who we are and another representation of who we are, how we style ourselves, and how we want to be perceived by other people. I think it’s love also because our stylist, our visual director at the Ica [Villanueva], is always there for us to make sure that we look good on stage and, as much as she can, wants to make every stage unique. So, we are just so grateful that we have these unique looks that are, at the same time, cohesive. Every girl is different, but cohesive at the same time.

 Colet: When it comes to outfits, our visual director, Ms. Ica, always aims for the top Filipino designers. So, we always have our go-tos like Marian Zara, Iñigo [Villegas], RAFA Worldwide, everyone is Filipino. The New York show included a Filipino designer from here.

Gwen: And  we even do upcycling now, actually. So we’ll use bottles of soda and soft drinks and we put that into our outfits.

There were videos in between concert sections where we saw some elaborate headdresses, gowns and other looks. Was that another way to show your culture?

 Mikha: That was Ms. Ica’s idea, of course. She wanted to add the headdresses because I think it was designed locally.

Maloi:  And it’s very eccentric which is very good. Because we really want to be unique in this industry, not just being the traditional Filipino look, but we want to be something more extra. I think it was  inspired from our Filipino farmer caps. But make it extra, make it fashion.

Mikha: They’re actually heavy, we were struggling. [Laughing] Our gowns were heavy too.

Jhoanna: The gowns were shipped from a province and each of the dresses came in a big, individual box. I think they weighed around, probably, more than two or three kilos [approximately 4.4-6.6 pounds] or something…

Group: More!

These all bring out so many cool messages, but I wonder from all these separate elements, what do you say is BINI’s larger message?

Gwen:  Just like the messages of our songs, we always want to inspire people to embrace their flaws, to be authentic, to love yourself and to celebrate each other’s uniqueness. We strongly believe that everybody is capable of inspiring, so we say let’s be a reason for someone’s confidence.

 How do you arrive at that message? Did you need to find that confidence within yourselves to share it with others?

Mikha:  I think it’s an everyday struggle. Yeah. You know, to be the best version of yourself and also accept your flaws. But I think I wouldn’t want to speak for everyone here, but for me personally, there are times that I don’t feel that great and that’s okay as long as you don’t really affect the people around you in a negative way.