BINI’s Big Year: How The P-Pop Group Became Global Superstars

When BINI delivered their pre-debut performance on the Philippine television program "It's Showtime" in 2020, Jhoanna declared, "we hope to represent what the modern Filipina is."

The eight-member ensemble — composed of Jhoanna, Aiah, Colet, Gwen, Maloi, Mikha, Sheena, and Stacey — have done just that since their formation on Philippine network ABS-CBN's reality competition show "Star Hunt Academy" in 2018. They've exuded the confidence, fierceness and independence of a binibini, the Tagalog word for "young woman" from which their name derives. And now, they're some of the most prominent faces of P-Pop and Original Philippine Music (OPM).

Along with racking up more than 1 billion Spotify streams, over 700 million YouTube views and dozens of awards, BINI have taken over radio stations, TVs and billboards across their home country. While their catchy hooks, fun choreography and bubbly personalities have helped them become idols, the group's humility and relatability is what has helped them grow a massive fan base (known as Blooms) in the Philippines and beyond.

But BINI's rise to stardom wasn't something that happened overnight. While one may think the powerful vocals, dynamic choreography and relatable personalities (all while being backed by the leading network of the Philippines) would win the hearts in an instant, BINI didn't resonate with the masses right away. The group's first three years were a mental rollercoaster filled with highs, lows, twists, and turns all beyond their control — limited opportunities during the pandemic, the demise of ABS-CBN's free-to-broadcast franchise, and other personal matters.

Yet, BINI slowly gained momentum as they continued releasing music, including two albums and singles "I Feel Good" and "Lagi" that broke through on Philippine charts. That set the stage for what was to come in late 2023, when they released "Pantropiko" — the beginning of a domino effect of success.

A tropical jam with a lively beat, "Pantropiko" sparked a TikTok dance challenge that successfully infiltrated the masses, and even had its own rendition for Philippine fast food joint Jollibee. After that, BINI landed hit after hit (including "Karera" and "Salamin, Salamin"), sold out shows, and landed dozens of endorsements, hinting that they were on their way to superstardom. Their explosive rise ignited interest in P-pop around the world, alongside other acts including ALAMAT, AJAA, BGYO, KAIA, and the Kings of P-Pop, SB19.

BINI celebrated even bigger milestones in 2024, releasing their first international "Cherry On Top" and becoming the first Philippine act to perform at KCON LA in July. In November, the group held a three-night sold out show at the country's most iconic venue Araneta Coliseum; to close out the year, BINI nearly swept the PPOP Music Awards, winning eight titles including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Artist of the Year.

But 2025 may be the group's biggest year yet. After headlining a historic show at Philippine Arena and releasing their first all-English EP in February, BINI will bring the BINIverse World Tour 2025 to the US and Canada from May 31 to June 21. Ahead of their latest trek, Aiah, Colet, Gwen, Jhoanna, Maloi, Mikha, Sheena, and Stacey discuss their many her-storic events of the last 18 months.

Celebrating The First-Ever National Happy BINI Day

Maloi: It's [a celebration of] our anniversary… June 11.

Mikha: It's a day we're giving back to the Blooms. We also visited the first ever National BINI Day and there were so many things happening like booths, games, inflatables.

Jhoanna: But for this year, since we'll be on tour, we have a little — well, it's not little. We have a surprise for our Blooms. Big, big surprise for our anniversary.

Colet: Yeah! It's a big, big surprise. You need to subscribe to our website.

Mikha: So big! We teased it one time at a performance. But people won't know it was a tease.

Aiah: It's something different. We haven't released something like this. And we recently had Miniverse for our mini-Blooms. It's the first event that we have for kids. And it really is heartwarming to see all those kids dressed up as us and sing our songs and to be able to contribute to their core memories, especially knowing that they look up to us.

Becoming The First Filipino Act To Top The Spotify Philippines' Daily Top Artists Chart, Surpassing Taylor Swift

Mikha: I think we saw it on Twitter? We were all like, "That's crazy!" Then we saw a chart of the percentages and which country streams Taylor Swift the most, then we saw it went down in the Philippines last year. We came across a quote retweet on X saying something like, "Oh, sorry. It was because BINI came into the picture" or something.

Aiah: Sometimes we think of it as a prank, or if they're being real!

Jhoanna: Because even us, we're big fans of Taylor Swift.

Sheena: Especially her [points to Jhoanna].

Maloi: We used to see international artists and on the top of the list, and seeing us there, and a bunch of OPM artists too, and bands. We're just so glad it's OPM.

Becoming The First Filipino Pop Act To Perform At KCON LA

Stacey: We saw it from KCON LA's official account and we asked our managers, "Is this real? Are we going to perform in KCON LA?" And she said, "Oh! It's just a secret. You'll find out soon." And then boom, it was true!

We got so excited because, you know, KCON LA is only for K-Pop but we're grateful because we're the first Filipino act. We hope to perform in the main show and more songs next time!

Jhoanna: And to perform as eight! [Jhoanna had to miss the 2024 performance due to "unanticipated health issues."]

Releasing A Documentary, BINI Chapter 1 & 2 (And Filming Chapter 3, Coming Mid-June)

Jhoanna: I think with Chapter 1, it focuses on our point of view as performers, our relationship and dynamics with one another. Whereas Chapter 2 focuses on the point of view of others — our team, people who work with us, friends in the industry. Then with Chapter 3, it will focus on our achievements in the past [couple] years.

I think newcomers and fans who watch this should focus on our struggles as a group, and how we handle it off-cam.

Maloi: And how raw it is! We just tell what we feel at that moment, and we just tell what our hearts want to say. We're just so glad that documentaries humanize us even more, because they don't always see that. Blooms see us, or the people see us as our perfect selves [as idols]. But don't see how we are in reality.

Mikha: Some people might think that those backstage videos or behind the scenes videos are everything, but a lot of people don't know about what happens behind the scenes. So I hope they also realize this is maybe 10 percent of the reality of our reality.

Breaking Records With Performances In Their Native Philippines

Colet: When we were told we were going to have the Philippine Arena show, we thought, "Are we going to fill that space up?"

Jhoanna: We were coming from three nights at Araneta Coliseum and New Frontier Theater, we just weren't sure how we would fill the Philippine Arena in the same year. And we also had the Canada leg of the BINIverse Tour too.

Stacey: Everything was happening so quickly because it was just three months after Araneta Coliseum. We were doubting ourselves wondering if we would fill it up. It was too sudden. Surprisingly, it sold out, and we're so grateful.

Jhoanna: Actually, selling it out would be a bonus for us because it's such an enormous venue. But it was a blessing and risk we took.

For [the 2025] Aurora Music Festival, we actually found out we were performing and headlining through social media. We saw the festival's logo with a flower logo that looked like ours and then we sent it to our manager to confirm and ask her if it was true. Then we found out they were going to surprise us.

[The festival] never has the same headliner for two nights, so we were surprised that it could be done. The team behind the festival told us this was the first time [it] sold out the whole weekend. So that was 70,000-80,000 the first day, then reached around 90,000 people the second day. It's like the Coachella of the Philippines. And it's not just because of BINI, it's because of other great Filipino artists that were sharing the stage like Cup of Joe, Maki, TJ Monterde, Over October, Rico Blanco…

Maloi: The production team prepared eight LED screens for us. So it felt like the focus was really on us. Seeing that made me feel like we were going to headline Aurora.

Gwen: It was crazy!

Releasing Their First All-English EP, Biniverse

Maloi: Some of the songs are in archives. We recorded some of the songs two years ago and it had a different feel before. The final mix added some elements so it's way more different than what we recorded back then.

Colet: “Cherry on Top” was created when we went to a music camp. Maloi and I went to meet international producers in the summer of 2023.

Sheena: We actually recorded "Zero Pressure" around the same time we recorded "Cherry On Top." All of our songs on the EP right now were before "Pantropiko," "Salamin, Salamin" and "Cherry On Top," except for "Blink Twice."

Jhoanna: "Secrets" and "Out of My Head" were recorded two years ago. For "Secrets," the plan was to collaborate with an international artist, and we chose eaJ.

We actually met him when we were recording "Blink Twice" in L.A. He was so nice and so approachable. For "Out of My Head" we worked with the same songwriter who wrote our song "Golden Arrow."

"Zero Pressure" is our most challenging song to perform live since we spent time figuring out how to perform it and we're excited to show it because of the choreography and the vocal powers.

Embarking On Their First World Tour

Sheena: They finalized all the cities and the countries this year, but they told us last year, in December.

Gwen: We're very happy because the last time we went to Dubai was in 2021 and that was our first public performance outside of the Philippines. It [was] amazing to go back there and start our first world tour.

Aiah: Finally, this is our show, our time. Our own concert. I think fans and attendees should expect a show that's going to be full of energy and a lot of power, because we're going to be dancing the whole time—

Maloi: Full time! [Laughs.] With this tour, we're excited to try different foods, and there are a lot of cities that will be our first time to go as a group. So the new experiences is what we're looking forward to.

Jhoanna: And to see if we gained new Blooms!

Mikha: We're going to be performing songs that we haven't performed anywhere. That's all we're going to say for now. We don't want to spoil anything else!

Receiving Women Of The Year At Billboard Philippines Women In Music 2025

Mikha: I think it's definitely hard to accept as it comes with pressure, since we feel kind of new to this — to be recognized in the whole world and in the Philippines. I hope we just push harder and we live up to their expectations and just really spread the word of OPM. The last [Woman Of The Year honoree] was [Philippines pop star] Sarah Geromino and she is an amazing artist. She is an icon.

Jhoanna: And she achieved a lot!

Aiah: We've always been the type of people [who take] whatever that's been thrown at us [and] learn from it. [We] always try to choose the things that will make us be better people. In the process, it's never been easy, it's never been perfect, but we've always been aiming for growth. And that's what makes us BINI… we always want to keep growing.