We must all remember: “3 b’s + 3e’s + 2a’s + 2o’s + 1d = 1 uniquely grand performer named beabadoobee“
In the opening seconds of the “Glue Song” video, beabadoobee rushes to her grandmother and shows her respect with a “mano,” the Philippine custom of greeting where a younger person will lovingly grasp the hand of an older person and hold it to their own forehead in an ancient, time-honored gesture of warmth and family cohesion. This simple act happens many times every day all over the Philippines and Beabadoobee’s inclusion of it in her video shows her knowledge and respect for the culture and her connection to the country.
In another moment of the video, the grandmother shows beabadoobee (the artist was born in Iloilo City, Philippines and moved to London at age three) photos of herself as a toddler from an aging family photo album. Cross-generational photo sharing goes on all over the world, but there’s something uniquely and authentically Filipino in the tenderness with which this act is shown here in this video, knowing that beabadoobee is one of millions of “balikbayans” or Filipinos who have left the islands for economic reasons yet return frequently to keep family ties strong, and knowing that similarly happy photo reunions are repeated daily in real life family scenes for other balikbayans across the PI.
Comments
Pingback: beabadobee Comes to Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square for August 10 Show! - East Portland Blog