Rico Blanco assures that ‘This Too Shall Pass’

FILIPINO singer Rico Blanco has returned after a four-year hiatus with the single, “This Too Shall Pass,” a song meant to “help [people] deal with the uncertainty of the times,” according to a release.

“My efforts are little in light of a pandemic like this. As big as my imagination is for this song, I also feel that it’s not enough. But it’s what I can do and contribute as a musician,” Mr. Blanco said in the release.

Rico Blanco is best known for having been the frontman of the rock band Rivermaya until 2007, when he embarked on a solo music career. His last solo single was “Wag Mong Aminin” in 2016.

The new pop tune is said to be Mr. Blanco’s most personal to date as it was written “from a place of discomfort and fear, witnessing how the much louder tremor of pandemic anxiety instantly changed our lives and left us with little time to mourn and move forward,” the release said.

The song took two weeks to finish and it was such a struggle that he admitted that he almost didn’t finish it.

“This song is real, inwards and also outwards; it’s something that I really want to tell every single person. I wasn’t able to give a message to the frontliners, and I feel very guilty about this. I needed to finish this, and I want them to hear this. I know each one of us is going through something. I wrote this song as my way to reach out,” he said, noting that that music, aside from being entertainment, also carries “the resilience of the human spirit.”

“This Too Shall Pass” combines European techno, hip-hop beats, Asian riffs, African chanting, sounds of a Pinoy fiesta, and Mr. Blanco’s nieces laughing.

“‘This Too Shall Pass’ is ambitious in scope and sound design, but its heart is for the people who need light and love,” the release said.

“Music is important — we all know this. But never more so than when we are faced with uncertainty, because it is then that the power of music becomes unquantifiable, almost limitless. Music can make you feel you’re not alone. Music can save you from despair. And so it is with a song like ‘This Too Shall Pass.’ It is so relevant to the times that it becomes a declaration, a prayer, a mantra — all rolled into one,” Roslyn Pineda, Sony Music Philippines’ general manager and vice-president for business development in Asia, said.

“This Shall Pass” is available in all digital platforms worldwide. A music video is in the works. — ZBC