Viral “TALA” by SARAH G on BILLBOARD’s WORLD DIGITAL Chart

Whether one prefers to sing its original lyrics as performed by Sarah Geronimo, or the parody lines used by Anne Curtis for the Jollibee commercial, the song “Tala” by the former, released way back in 2016, has once again been serving as the “backing music” of Filipino life following its resurgence as a viral meme late last year. Even into this first month of the New Year “Tala” has been making renewed waves as if it were only coming out for the first time. And perhaps as a result, Sarah G’s hit dance tune has actually found itself on Billboard.

The Philippine Star reports that the now-four-year-old (release-wise) song “Tala” by Sarah Geronimo from her album “The Great Unknown” has done an impressive debut at the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart for this week. And as proof of just how big this number that has been the center of a dance craze sweeping the Philippines has become again, its introductory sport for this week’s Billboard digital rank in in the Top 20, on the 12^th spot no less. This was the icing on the cake following “Tala” landing on the Global Viral Top 50 ranking of music streamer Spotify.

Debuts on this week's #WorldDigitalSongSales chart:

#1, Younha ft. RM "Winter Flower"
#6, @ATEEZofficial "Answer"
#12, @JustSarahG "Tala"
#14, @loonatheworld "Boy, Girl"
#18, @ATEEZofficial "Horizon"
#20, Baekhyun "My Love"

— Billboard Charts (@billboardcharts) January 16, 2020

To put it in perspective, the song sung by Sarah G from the composition and lyrics by Nica Del Rosario is the only OPM entry for this particular Top 20 digital chart of Billboard’s. For the most part she is surrounded on that part of the list by almost nothing but K-Pop acts: BTS, BLACKPINK, ATEEZ, Loona and more. In fact, the top-ranked song on the list this week is “Winter Flower” by K-Pop idol Younha with RM. “Tala” also must have plenty of help for having gotten regional exposure in Asia too, thanks to Geronimo having performed it at the ASEAN Japan Music Festival.

In appreciation for the new accolades for “Tala,” composer-lyricist Del Rosario noted to the Philippine Star in interview, “I’m grateful because OPM (Original Pilipino Music) is the new dance craze because before, the dance crazes were foreign like K-Pop. So I feel happy that we have penetrated the dance charts.”

Image courtesy of ABS-CBN – MYX