Is Lola Amour feeling pressure to create another megahit after ‘Raining in Manila’?

Lola Amour’s “Raining in Manila” may have been released in June 2023, but it’s still stuck in everybody’s heads until now.

The catchy city-pop track instantly turned into a megahit in the local music scene and gave Lola Amour a larger fan following. Not only that, ENHYPEN, BamBam, and National Artist Ricky Lee are fans of the song.

The band even performed “Raining in Manila” with Coldplay during their sold-out concert at the Philippine Arena last January.

It’s safe to say that “Raining in Manila” is now an OPM classic. And with its massive success, is Lola Amour pressured to release another top hit?

“At the start, there was a lot of pressure,” saxophonist Jeff Abueg told the media at the band’s album listening party. “But eventually, we all just decided [and said], ‘Oh, let’s just create something that we enjoy doing.’ So we ended up doing that.”

Vocalist Pio Dumayas agreed that there was a lot of pressure at first.

“There was a time na parang everything we wrote or everything we pitched, it was like, ‘Ugh, it’s not “Raining in Manila,”‘ he said.

But Pio said, “that was a short phase” and that the band got past it.

“You just get back to it,” he said. “Sometimes you have these highlights in your career, but you just keep going or else there won’t be any other highlight.”

Pio added, “Now, we just wanna continue doing what we do.”

For bassist Raymond King, he said the pressure was more internal. “I want to make something that I can be proud of. S’yempre, ‘yung ‘Raining in Manila’ is something to be proud of,” he said.

“It was just hard to come up with something and masabi na, ‘Ay okay, I’m happy with it.’ But thankfully, happy with it,” Raymond added.

Lola Amour will be releasing their self-titled debut studio album on April 10. The nine-track compilation will include “Raining in Manila” and the band’s latest single, “Namimiss Ko Na.”

The band will have a two-stop album launch at Circuit Event Grounds on April 13, followed by a trip to Draft Punk, Cebu on April 27. Early bird are now on sale via lolaamour.helixpay.ph.

Lola Amour toured the Philippines in 2023 in support of “Raining in Manila.”

—MGP, GMA Integrated News