At this point, Manny Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez fight has started. If there’s another thing that people expect aside from this much-awaited fight, that would be the singing of the Philippine national anthem. Set to sing our “Lupang Hinirang” in today’s fight is Ciara Sotto, singer and actress daughter of Helen Gamboa and Tito Soto.

Prior to her, other local artists who sang our national anthem on previous fights are Kyla, Sarah Geronimo, Jennifer Bautista, and Geneva Cruz.

For sure, there’s much pressure on Ciara considering that her Dad was a former Philippine senator. Good enough, she made it.
What makes this event a must-watch? Remember how Geneva Cruz made her own rendition and put on her style while singing the national anthem. And who will not forget Jennifer Bautista’s stint while she dropped the musical notes? What about an embarrassing moment which Christian Bautista admitted when he forgot the lines of this very important song?

I now remember the day when our music teacher conducted this examination–we had to sing the anthem in front of the class one-by-one. It was worth zero or 100–a perfect score for no mistakes, or else you’ll get a failing mark. I failed even if I was in tune for just uttering a single wrong word.

Today, most common worse lines or words are: “sa didib mo’y buhay”, “sa simoy at sa langit mo’y buhay“, and “aming ligaya nang pag may mang-aapi”, among others.

On the other hand, some Filipinos will say “Bayang Magiliw” if asked what’s the title of our national anthem.

‘Lupang Hinirang’ should be the very first song we should know by heart. It deserves to be respected not to be ignored. It’s just too frustrating that each of us are guilty of this crime. Those bloopers may sound funny but this is an important issue we should work on with. If Julian Felipe is still alive, he could’ve gone mad to all of us.