Barbie Almalbis and Vincent Eco are heading to Music Lane Okinawa next year.

In early 2025, the two Filipino artists will be joining a diverse lineup of artists at the highly anticipated Japan-held music event, including those from Okinawa, the rest of Japan and Asia, and beyond. At the time of writing, they are the only two artists from the Philippines slated to perform at the forthcoming event.

What is Music Lane Okinawa?

Music Lane Okinawa is the premier music showcase and conference in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture that seeks to create a music network between Okinawa, the rest of Asia, and beyond. Artists who perform each year are selected through an open recruitment process from within both Japan as well as overseas, while some artists are personally booked by the event’s organizers themselves. The recruitment places emphasis on the quality of each artist’s music and their performances, while also taking into consideration their understanding of what a music showcase entails.

The event focuses on various live performances on the streets of Okinawa City or Koza, particularly at the Music Town Sound Market. It sees the attendance of various music festival organizers, promoters, label personnel, and media — called “delegates” — who are mainly invited from all across Asia. Alongside the live performances, Music Lane Okinawa also hosts one-on-one meetings as well as conferences with the performing artists and the invited delegates, opening new doors for all parties in establishing in-person networks as opposed to simply connecting online.

Last September, Music Lane Okinawa started officially revealing on their social media the lineup for its 2025 iteration, which is set to happen this January 17 to 19, 2025 alongside the Trans Asia Music Meeting 2025. In early October, among the newly announced artists set to join the event are pop rock icon Barbie Almalbis and Cebuano singer-songwriter Vincent Eco. The two follow in the footsteps of alternative pop/rock band SOS, R&B/soul singer-songwriter August Wahh, and hip-hop/R&B artist Alisson Shore who represented the country during the 2024 edition last January.

The Lineup

Next year, Barbie Almalbis and Vincent Eco will be sharing the stages with a growing lineup of artists from Okinawa, the rest of Japan and Asia, and beyond.

In Okinawa this includes AIMI, Aragaki Mutsumi, HELL型, KACHIMBA, KINAMI, KUNIKO, norké, ulma sound junction, Unmark Rabbit, YukinoInamine & Harikuyamaku, and 奢る舞けん茜. In addition, for the rest of Japan, the lineup includes Ai Kakihara, Blufog, Delicious Grapefruits Moon, GOOD BYE APRIL, illiomote, Johnnivan, Jun Futamata, Kingo (with The Vibrations), leift, MuchaMuchaM, RIS-707, snowy, SPENSR, sucola, THINGS, Tina Moon, and すずめのティアーズ.

Meanwhile, rounding everything off are artists from the rest of Asia, which include 艾密莉AMILI & Quanzo (Taiwan), Banana Jogging (Thailand), 林潔心ddkogi88 (Taiwan), DVY (Indonesia), Funky Brothers (Taiwan), FOLK9 (Thailand), HOA (South Korea), 鹿洐人Human Hart (Taiwan), Kader Tarhanine (Mali and Algeria), LAWIN (Thailand), MAKARA (Thailand), Nda Chi (Cameroon), SADOG (Taiwan), strawman&celine (Italy and Mongolia), SUNWICH (Indonesia), Uudee’s Swashbuckling Dandies (Mongolia), VEGA (Thailand), and ZY THE WAY 中庸 (TAIWAN).

Tickets are available for Music Lane Okinawa are now available here. Learn more about the event’s conference here.

Barbie Almalbis recently released “Happy Sad” — the latest single from her forthcoming fifth studio album, set to come out at the end of this year. It follows “Desperate Hours” and “Homeostasis,” released last July 5 and August 23 respectively. Meanwhile, Vincent Eco released “Baby” — the first single from his upcoming EP Sa May Baybayon — last September 6.

Listen to Barbie Almalbis’ “Happy Sad” and Vincent Eco’s “Baby” below: