Carmina Topacio —who became known as “Pinay YouTube sensation” was one of the first in the Philippines to gain traction on the platform and just the other day, she released a homemade music video for her latest song Awit ng Mithi, an original composition.
What makes the song and video special are that it was produced via exchanging files online due to the quarantine. Carmina shot and edited the video herself with her friends contributing additional scenes. By doing this, Carmina wishes to showcase her craft as an independent artist. At the same time, representing the essence of the song which is about an individual person wishing for love to return.
For “Awit ng Mithi”, the music and lyrics were done by Carmina Topacio, Music arrangement and guitars by Vinci Castelo, and Produced by Paolo Sevilla. What’s amazing is that they were able to pull it off despite the distance and not being able to see each other, more so with Paolo being in Australia.
Carmina became popular for making her own content since 2008, other than videos of her singing, she also made homemade music videos for her cover of “Eyes on Me” from the FF8 Soundtrack, and another one of her original songs “Guilt Stricken, released this year as well.
Carmina’s music was aired on the radio Jam 88.3 and she guested on Boys Night Out Magic 89.9 and StarFM Bacolod. Her song “Guilt Stricken” was added to an Official Spotify Playlist: Fresh Finds Philippines and stayed there for 4 weeks.
She was also featured in several blogs and shows this year: When in Manila (one of the top blogs in the Philippines), Manila Concert Junkies, OO NA! with Oscar Oida (GMA News Reporter), “Letters and Music” NET25, IndieTV and many more.
“Awit ng Mithi talks about love fading over time. Because sometimes, feelings change, or at least for one person. It talks about longing for a relationship to go back to the start, when things were good.” said Carmina on the meaning of the song. “It talks about wishing for love to be found again from the partner who changed and does not seem to be around anymore. I hope that by sharing what I wrote, people would feel that they are not alone in this experience and that they can find comfort in knowing that.”
A truly sensational artist, Carmina started her YouTube channel at the age of 17. She started posting cover songs then eventually shared her original compositions.
She sealed her status with the success of her cover “Afterlife” by Avenged Sevenfold which has over 3 million views on YouTube and “Eyes on Me” by Faye Wong (in the style of a music video) with 1 million views. Her most popular original song was “I don’t want to love another” which was well-loved by her fans as several of them made their own covers of the hit song on YouTube. Other than that, you will see a couple of fan-made videos and pages for her.
Carmina was also awarded as #3 Most Subscribed Musician (Philippines) and #15 Most Viewed (Philippines) on YouTube and featured twice on the frontpage of Yahoo! Philippines back in 2010 and was one of the Top 10 Video Searches.
She performed and was interviewed at the famous radio show Boys Night Out Magic 89.9 with DJ Sam YG, Slick Rick, and Tony Toni and guested on Television at QTV with celebrity hosts Lucy Torres and Wilma Doesnt.
Not only is she known in the Philippines, but she also has a number of fans from Indonesia and other countries.
What makes Carmina truly stand out is her genuineness and kindness to her fans which is why she has loyal followers. On top of that, she creates all her own content: from songwriting to recording and editing her videos, promo photos, album artwork, blog posts, Mixtape series on Spotify, and even her own website. Everything is DIY and all for the love of music.
