By JULES VIVAS

As of writing, there are over 12.9K tweets on #GiveCreditsToZildBenitez and 4K on #GiveCreditsToIVOfSpades. But what is the issue all about?

Let’s go back to the beginning of the end…

Two years ago, IV of Spades released their fourth single called “Mundo.” The song was such a huge hit that their live video performance on Metro Manila-based radio station Wish107.5‘s YouTube channel became the band’s highest viewed single on the streaming site. It currently has more than 124 million views, which is a very big number for a live performance.

From then on, IV of Spades won various awards from the New Artist of the Year, the MYX Bandarito Performance, to the Favorite New Group award at the 30th annual Awit Awards. On May 5 of the same year, however, the band announced that its lead vocalist Unique Salonga had left in order to pursue “personal endeavors.”

MAD MAD MAD!

On Feb. 7, 2020, singer Raphiel Shannon made a cover of “Mundo” as part of the film On Vodka, Beers and Regrets‘ official soundtrack. What provoked the fans of IV of Spades is the fact that Viva Records failed to credit bassist Zild Benitez as a co-writer of the hit song. Until now, the YouTube description of the cover states that “Mundo” was written solely by IV of Spades’ former vocalist Unique.

The whole controversy went viral after Spaders (supporters of the band) noticed a Change.org petition that revealed the situation.

Now, Twitter users are expressing their disappointments on the micro-blogging site:

https://twitter.com/lurvzild/status/1229355693016113152

Ang Pinagmulan

More news about IV of Spades: They just launched the official music video for their latest single “Ang Pinagmulan” yesterday. The music video, fitting of the recent hullabaloo, depicts the state of despair Zild is currently experiencing—or at least, what he’s being put into. The bassist-vocalist in the video is seen trapped and slowly drowning in a glass water tank. Among the notable lines of the song is “Sa ‘yong pagtingin, ang tanging hiling, sagipin mo ‘ko, nalulunod na ako.” Perhaps this is a cry for help? Maybe a message to Unique? We’ll just leave the video here for your interpretation.