This Is the Price of Fame

What Cup of Joe and one Dabawenya influencer got badly wrong

A cancelled concert. A fractured fanbase. And all it took was a caption.

I was going to write about Cup of Joe’s concert cancellation which was obviously the result of some things they said and then that Katik girl saying she was in enemy territory but I put it off because I had more important things to deal with.

Like work…

And family time…

And then I read this post from Margie Serrano, and I thought “oh man… someone beat me to the punch…”

So I sulked and decided I would just let that topic go…

And then I realized it was a good thing she had written about the subject first as I don’t usually have a sounding board with my ideas and after reading through her very well thought out article, I thought “damn… she’s good and very insightful…”

So, here’s my take on the subject of the price of fame.

So yeah, you all probably know by now that Cup of Joe’s Davao concert got postponed. One of the biggest OPM acts right now… Top Artist of the Year on Billboard Philippines, Spotify, and Apple Music, 446 million streams on one song alone… and their Stardust Tour hits a wall in Mindanao.

And that’s not because they don’t have fans here.

There are plenty.

But because someone in the band thought a zombie apocalypse joke aimed at Davao supporters was a good idea to post publicly. “Swerte ng mga DDS kung sakali.”

And just like that, a concert that should have been a celebration of OPM in this city became a casualty of contempt.

Then there’s Katik.

A Dabawenya influencer who called Davao “enemy territory.”

Her own city.

Her own people.

Enemy territory.

I need to talk about this from a music angle because this is a music site and this directly affects our scene here.

But it’s bigger than one postponed concert.

This is about what fame costs and what some people clearly haven’t figured out yet.

· · ·

Being Famous Is a Responsibility

Look. I’m not saying artists shouldn’t have political opinions.

They should.

They’re Filipino citizens just like the rest of us and they have every right to their beliefs, their frustrations, their advocacies.

But, the argument is this: there is a massive difference between expressing a political belief and antagonizing a segment of your audience.

And when you are a public figure with fans across every region, every class, every political leaning… you don’t get to pick which fans matter and which ones you can mock.

When a random person posts something inflammatory online, it’s a hot take.

When a public figure does it, it becomes: “this person sees people like me this way.”

That’s a completely different thing and it has a very massive effect.

What Cup of Joe and Katik did wasn’t express a political opinion.

It was express contempt.

And audiences… even ones who politically disagree with each other… can usually handle disagreement.

What they cannot handle is being called stupid.

Being called the enemy.

Being treated like a punchline.

That’s what breaks the relationship.

Not the political difference.

The contempt.

Look at Ben & Ben

How You Do It Without Burning the Room Down

Ben & Ben are publicly known to be kakampinks.

They stand for what they believe in.

And yet they are welcomed in Davao.

And they continue to be supported here and across Mindanao.

Why?

Because they never called a region stupid.

They never framed their audience as the enemy.

They stood firm in their convictions without reducing the people who disagreed with them into caricatures.

They treated their audience, all of it, with basic respect.

That approach has more actual impact than antagonizing your fans ever will. Because you can’t change anyone’s mind by making them feel like garbage first.

That’s just not how people work.

It’s really not that complicated.

You can stand for something and still treat the people who disagree with you like human beings.

Treat people with respect and you’ll get it back.

Understand that everyone has their own opinion and mind about certain things.

Why Do I Have an Opinion About This

In a way, I know what that feels like to feel like you’re on top of the world. Untouchable. That you can’t seem to go wrong.

I’ve also been young and carefree.

And when you have a platform, like a stage, or an online page followed by hundred of thousands who seemingly agree with you, it can feel like a very heady experience.

I can’t say I’ve been on such a m assive stage though.

But I have enjoyed the adoration of at least a hundred people back in my time and I remember so many cringy moments that I do not ever want to recall because I said or did things I regret.

I’m glad I never became that big or that there was less of a social media presence back then.

I don’t think the guys from Cup of Joe or that Katik girl truly meant what they said. Or that if they did, at that time, I don’t think it’s a sustainable thought.

People do change over time.

Especially if the currency worshiped by the youth these days are numbers and engagements.

That would’ve probably estranged a number of their fans resulting in unfollows or something.

I hope in a way that it hurt them.

Hurt in a way that it becomes a learning experience for them.

For them to understand that there is a price of fame and that would be to rein those intrusive thoughts in and to grow up quickly so that theu become mature enough to realize you can’t just say what you want to say or act in a manner that alienates people.

Sorry, that is the price of fame.

Davao Ain’t Perfect

I came to Davao 15 eyars ago.

I had no plans of staying.

But within 2 weeks of being here, I fell in love with the place.

No traffic, beaches were nearby, trees everywhere.

So very different from my life in Manila.

Oh I tried my best to get away.

I went to Cebu, Zamboanga, Siocon, Tacloban City, back to Manila, but there was just something about Davao that told me that I should come back and try my luck here.

This city has come a long way.

From the “Big Blunt” I used to call it, because time just moved so slowly here after being so used to the fast pace in Manila, to it’s current pace right now where constructions are done everywhere. 

• The longest road tunnel in the Philippines.
• The Coastal Road.
• The Davao-Samal Bridge which is almost half done.
• Electric buses already running.
• 7.9% economic growth in 2025.

This is a city that went from one of the most dangerous places in the country to one of the safest.

Granted that during the time of PRRD’s presidency I cut off all my hair in fear of being viewed as a potential user or pusher and ending up as a casualty on the side of the road. Yes, I love Davao and fear it but love for the city outweighs everything else.

Even when I went to Singapore, I immediately compared it to Davao and one thing I noticed was that we had stricter smoking rules. Yey!

But Davao ain’t perfect.

Like any progressive city, there’s pollution, vandalism, crime… maybe not as much as other places but it is there. There’s also massive fires happening regularly and just recently, devastating flash floods.

Bad drivers on the road.

Bad parkers.

People who leave their grocery carts instead of bringing them back to the proper area where they aren’t a nuisance in the parking area.

Ugh…

But would I trade this place for any other?

Nope.

I love Davao the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Because there’s more good than bad here.

And the bad ain’t that bad if you compare it to others.

And the ugly… well, there’s always something being done to improve it.

Anyway… the point is this: Davao is not just a city. It is the people in it.

And for artists or influencers, the people of Davao are your audience.

And audiences are not obligations.

They are relationships.

And relationships break when contempt enters the equation.

For artists and influencers specifically… your fanbase will never all think the same way politically.

Not in the Philippines.

Not anywhere.

The question is whether you want a career that lasts or a moment that felt good to post. Because those two things are sometimes in conflict and you have to choose.

And for the rest of us watching this play out… we’re not going to fix anything as a country if we keep treating each other as enemies past the point of ever being able to work on actual shared problems together.

Political differences are fine.

Contempt that makes cooperation impossible is not.

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. You don’t have to like someone’s politics to treat them like a person.

And if you can’t do that… well.

The price of that attitude eventually shows up.

Sometimes it shows up as a postponed concert.

Sometimes it shows up as something worse.

The only consolation I can think of is this: mistakes are eventually forgotten with the passing of time and buried under the good we do moving forward. It’s still there. There’s still a chance that it will be uncovered. You will still be held accountable for your past mistakes but hopefully, when that time comes, you’ll have a lot of good things done to show to people that you are no longer that person who made that past mistake.

Here’s the original post that inspired me to write this: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BdkDMnipw/

You should go and  visit her page, she’s got so much great insights worth reading.