Dahil Sa Iyo

"Dahil sa Iyo", Because of You, first reached audiences in 1938 in the film Bituing Marikit, sung by Rogelio de la Rosa. It is credited to Mike Velarde Jr., although notes by one of its English lyricists, Tom Spinosa, say it was actually written in 1936 by Velarde's father, also named Mike. Either way, it became one of the best-loved examples of the kundiman, the Filipino art of the romantic song, and a standard for generations of singers, among them Ruben Tagalog, the baritone later remembered as the Father of Kundiman. The song's composer guarded its identity closely. Velarde recalled that around 1960 a famous American singer visiting Manila offered him a five-figure contract to record it in the United States, on condition that the title be changed to an English one. He turned it down, saying the song's merit lay in its identity. Nat King Cole performed it at the Araneta Coliseum in 1961, and an English-Tagalog version recorded in 1964 became a hit in the United States. The song also gathered political baggage. Imelda Marcos made it her signature, singing it during Ferdinand Marcos's 1965 presidential campaign and later in duets with him; as late as 2008, hotel musicians in Manila reportedly struck it up when she walked in. Yet it has outlived those associations. It has been translated into English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and other Philippine languages, and some Filipinos have even suggested it should replace the national anthem. For Filipino communities from Honolulu to Virginia, it remains the sound of an earlier, tender era.