R&B and hip-hop artist Illest Morena made her debut on the Billboard Philippines stage with her performance of “Sabik” (Eager) on Soundwave.
The episode, which premiered today (March 25), saw the artist sing the track live. She released “Sabik” in February of this year, and has already amassed over a million streams on Spotify. Her episode follows folk-pop artist Cesca, who performed her viral song “Lovesick – Pagmahalasakit” on last week’s episode.
Aside from “Sabik,” she is known for her other viral hits, “Faded (Raw),” “Lagabog,” “Slow Burn,” “Pick Up,” and more. She has over four million monthly listeners on the platform, and was included in Spotify’s RADAR Philippines Class of 2023. Last year, she released a remix of American R&B singer Summer Walker’s hit, “Girls Need Love.” The remix has over two million streams as of today.
She was also named as part of Spotify’s EQUAL campaign, which aims to give a platform to women and gender minorities who create music. She was featured on the Spotify EQUAL billboard in Times Square, New York, to which she wrote, “When I was a little girl, I’ve always imagined seeing my name in shining lights and my face plastered in billboards along the streets of EDSA. Today, I just got my first billboard appearance in [New York] Times Square. I always knew I was meant for great things.”
Watch Illest Morena perform “Sabik” on Billboard Philippines Soundwave here.