Anak

Freddie Aguilar left home at 18 without finishing school. His father had hoped he would become a lawyer and was deeply disappointed. Aguilar wandered far from home with little more than his guitar, and with no one to guide him he fell into gambling. Five years later, regretting his mistakes, he wrote "Anak", which means child, as a song of remorse and apology to his parents. The song is built around Filipino family values, the bond between parents and a child who has strayed. Aguilar then went home and asked for forgiveness, and his parents welcomed him back with open arms. After his father read the words, the two were reconciled and grew much closer, though his father died not long after. The music scholar Felipe de Leon Jr. has noted that while the song is written in a Western style, it carries aspects of the pasyon tradition. In 1978 the song reached the finals of the inaugural Metropop Song Festival in Manila, and from there it spread across the Philippines and far beyond. Singers in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Germany, the Netherlands and Vietnam recorded their own versions, and it inspired a feature film in 2000. It is described as the best-selling single by a Filipino artist of all time. More than four decades on, it is still the song Filipinos turn to when they talk about family, regret and coming home.