Remembering the MetroPop 2000 Entry "Imbisibol" Performed by Michael V.

Besides the "Millennium Bug", 2000 was also the year of the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival or simply MetroPop 2000 where Michael V. performed "Imbisibol". Right off the bat I would like to apologize if I fail to recognize who is the creative genius behind the song "Imbisibol". I hope somebody would enlighten me with the composer's name later. I am a big fan of Filipino comic genius Micheal V. so even if I am not into music and the MetroPop songwriting and later star search competitions, I was eventually attracted to went seeing it back in 2000.



I was but a fledgling back then, and Michael V together with Janno Gibbs, Ogie Alcasid, Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon were the few local artists where I got my inspiration from when it come to humor. Micahel V (from the defunked ABC 5's Tropang Trumpo) was already in Bubble Gang back then, and was notorious (popular) on spoofing various local and international songs with his MTB (Musik Tagalog Bersyon) and MEV (Music English Version), so when Micahel V was announced to sing and perform one of the entries from the Metro Manila Popular Music Festival 2000, I was generally ecstatic to see how will GMA's comedic genius do. So did he delivered? The answer is a resounding yes. Too bad that there wasn't a single Youtube clipwhere Michael V performed "Imbisibol" on stage, nor any pictures taken from the competition. But luckily there is still a recording uploaded on Youtube of "Imbisibol"...



Check Out the MetroPop 2000 entry "Imbisibol" by Michael V.



"Imbisibol" is a song tells about a one way love or a crush where the man singing the song is completely invisible (thus "Imbisibol") to the eyes of the one he loves. Although he is not the kind of man that every girl would fall in love with, he is the type that can offer true love to a lucky woman who would only return and notice his love. Eventually there is no resolution in this song for the singer. "Imbisibol" is a song for those people who have crushes or secretly loves someone but ails to make that someone notice them... a song for the hopeless romantic.

Imbisibol borrows some popular tunes or themes from pop culture icons like the Batman and 90's X-Men the animated series which probably made me all geeky on this music performance. Imbisibol didn't make it to the top 3.

The top three winners for MetroPop 2000 were:

Forever And A Day, composer: Angelo Villegas, interpreter: Rachel Alejandro (Grand Winner)
Paano Na?, composer: Arnold Reyes, interpreter: Bituin Escalante (Second Prize)
Ganyan Ako, composer: Vehnee Saturno, interpreter: Jeremiah (Third Prize)

But even so, Imbisibol up to this day is one of the better songs that Michael V has performed. Even the hunt for it in various karaoke/videoke machines proves to be pretty challenging. I hope MetroPop can once again see the light of day to discover new artists and recognize brilliant composers.