{"id":501224,"date":"2026-06-19T17:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501224\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T17:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T17:41:09","slug":"h-e-r-bini-lea-salonga-lead-forgotten-island-soundtrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501224\/","title":{"rendered":"H.E.R., Bini, Lea Salonga Lead ‘Forgotten Island’ Soundtrack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tH.E.R., Bini,<\/a> Lea Salonga and Katseye\u2019s Sophia Laforteza are among the artists leading the soundtrack on Dreamworks Animation<\/a>\u2019s \u201cForgotten Island<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, which is set to preview at next week\u2019s Annecy Animation Film Festival<\/a>, will open in theaters later this year. It follows H.E.R. and Liza Soberano as the voices of Jo and Raissa, two best friends who embark on one last adventure together. Their journey takes them into a night filled with shapeshifters, demons and witches, testing their friendship as they struggle to find their way out of a magical portal and return home.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe music in the film blends influences from the 1980s and \u201990s, particularly drawing inspiration from Filipino and Filipino-American musical culture.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Angela Leus, senior vice president of Film Music at Universal Pictures and a Filipina-American, first met with the film\u2019s directors \u2014 Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado \u2014 they agreed that the music in the film had to be rooted in authenticity. Having grown up in the Philippines and surrounded by the music her parents loved, Leus saw an opportunity to pay homage to the artists who influenced her life while also raising awareness of Filipino music and artists from both older and newer generations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom the very beginning, I said, \u2018I need to be aware of every Filipino music creator out there,\u2019 so it was a deep dive and a lot of reaching out to our community in the Philippines and here,\u201d Leus says. \u201cIt was about educating myself on who\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHot off wowing Coachella both weekends, P-Pop band Bini deliver a new song for the soundtrack, titled \u201cA Parallel World,\u201d produced by composer Nathan Matthew David and Shawn Wasabi. When it came to Bini, Leus already had them on her radar very early on. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJoel and Jan had a very creative understanding of what the music was going to be, so it was very easy to come to them and say, \u2018There\u2019s this group called Bini \u2014 they\u2019re amazing.\u2019 It was a no-brainer and easy to get to that point,\u201d she says. The song incorporates David\u2019s friendship theme for Jo and Raissa but reimagines it in a fresh way.<\/p>\n

\n\tSimilarly, the film features a remixed version of INXS\u2019 classic \u201cNever Tear Us Apart,\u201d sung by Katseye\u2019s Sophia Laforteza, for an emotional moment between the two friends.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeus explains that the INXS tune was important to the filmmakers and encapsulated the relationship between Jo and Raissa. \u201cIt was important for us to use the original INXS recording because it signified their friendship as young girls. But as you see them grow, that\u2019s where the idea to bring in Sophia Laforteza from Katseye \u2014 who\u2019s a badass \u2014 came from. She put a new twist on it to signify the evolution of their friendship,\u201d Leus says, adding: \u201cThe song parallels their friendship and captures the journey from where they were to what they become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s two female leads, H.E.R. and Soberano, are at the helm of the film\u2019s title track \u201cBRB.\u201d Their voices capture the nostalgia, warmth and joy that radiate from their characters and the movie as a whole. Leus says neither she nor the filmmakers wanted to assume that H.E.R. would create an original song. \u201cEverything needed to come from an organic place,\u201d Leus says. \u201cBut when H.E.R. saw the film, she was so inspired that she decided to write something \u2014 and she was even more inspired to bring in Liza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLeus adds, \u201cWe\u2019re so lucky to have that as the end result because it\u2019s a perfect representation of Jo and Raissa in the story, but also of two strong Filipinas.\u201d She further teases that \u201cwe wanted to make sure there\u2019s Tagalog in the song. As a Filipina, hearing that song, seeing it on screen, and hearing the Tagalog language on a global stage is incredibly special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd what would the soundtrack be without Salonga\u2019s vocals?<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen composing the music, David had the idea of having Salonga create vocalizations to bring musicality to the film<\/a>. Leus says, \u201cShe was able to bring that in a musical way while staying true to the story. Watching Lea Salonga work \u2014 she\u2019s such a pro and a badass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAside from original songs by SB19 and Ruby Ibarra, who sings \u201cSalbaha Ako,\u201d the soundtrack also includes DMX\u2019s \u201cParty Up\u201d and Baha Men\u2019s \u201cWho Let the Dogs Out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it came to composing the film\u2019s score, David knew it needed a nostalgic feeling. \u201cWe leaned heavily on analog synths from that era,\u201d he says. There are elements of \u201980s pop and hip-hop. But when the girls stumble into the mystical portal and end up on the island of Nakali, \u201cthe story evolves, and so does the sound,\u201d David says. He introduces music and instruments from indigenous Filipino tribes, utilizing traditional Filipino instruments like chanters, the Las Pi\u00f1as bamboo pipe organ, and a Filipino choir singing Tagalog phrases.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor David, the score wasn\u2019t just about incorporating unique sounds from the Philippines \u2014 it was about using them with intention. For Salonga\u2019s dreaded creature, he used the talking gong, known as the indigenous gandingan, a traditional instrument of the southern Philippines.<\/p>\n

\n\tCrawford and Mercado shared their excitement. Crawford said, \u201cWhat\u2019s been thrilling for us all along is giving a voice to Filipino culture and Filipino stories, and seeing how that has translated into this freshness in the music. Whether it\u2019s having Bini perform \u2014 who\u2019s sweeping the world with their talent \u2014 or having Sophia Laforteza bring a new perspective to a classic song like \u2018Never Tear Us Apart,\u2019 all these voices, which people may already be aware of, are now getting a center stage. It\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added, \u201cMany amazingly talented Filipino artists have come together to create this unified experience. We couldn\u2019t have imagined it coming together this perfectly.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"H.E.R., Bini, Lea Salonga and Katseye\u2019s Sophia Laforteza are among the artists leading the soundtrack on Dreamworks Animation\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[225989,36217,146,173267,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-501224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-annecy-animation-festival","tag-dreamworks-animation","tag-entertainment","tag-forgotten-island","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}