Needless to say, going viral is an artist’s dream. But the reality is, it’s hard to make things go viral, no matter how hard you try.
There’s a thread online that teaches denizens on how to make viral songs and how to prevent your campaign end up in the social media graveyard. It’s a thread long but the gist of the conversation was just for your content to be unique, creative and engaging.
Soulstice members may not have read the thread, but with the song “Ivana,” they were able to cover all those points. They have created a content that caught fire in an instant. They hit the bullseye with “Ivana,” the lyrical rap number dedicated to and inspired by fellow social media celeb Ivana Alawi.
Soulstice, the flash rap trio that’s taking social media a-couple-of-thousand-views-and-likes-per-day for their breakout debut single, is composed of Mscript (Rome Lagarde), Rowmee G (Jerome De Leon), and Seth (Ronald Abasta).
“We were thinking of a first track to release as a group, we were brainstorming in front of a PC, when we refreshed Facebook, Ivana Alawi’s face was there. And randomly, if you go online, she’s always there. Not that we are big fans of her YouTube channel, but she’s really popular and you can see her everywhere,” members of the two-month-old group Soulstice told Manila Standard in an interview at the Viva headquarters in Ortigas, Pasig City.
“We wanted to say a lot of things to her as her fans. Ivana helps other girls boost their confidence. As for the song, apart from her being the inspiration, it’s actually a song for the women in our lives. When you hear it, parang mahihiwagaan ka kay Ivana, at the same time, you can sing the song to any girl,” they added.
The crafty play on words manages to insert an otherwise western name of Ivana, into a series of couplets of pure adoration, hence “Ivana, nararamdaman ko / you’re the best girl I’ve ever seen / kapansin-pansin ang ‘iyong tingin.”
The result is this infectious rap song that local social media can’t seem to shake. “Ivana” topped Spotify’s Viral 50 Charts for a few weeks after its release as well as topping the Global Viral 50 Charts of Spotfiy.
Soultice is under Paolo Mercado’s Peso ProductionsP, a go-getting, hiphop, rap and urban music label, responsible for one of the most memorable rap acts in the land today including Allmo$t and rap unit the L.A. Goons.