Ben&Ben (formerly known as The Benjamins) is an indie folk/folk pop band in the Philippines. They consist of brothers, Paolo and Miguel Guico on acoustic guitars and vocals, Poch Barretto on electric guitar, Jam Villanueva on drums, Agnes Reoma on bass, Patricia Lasaten on keyboards, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano on percussions, and Keifer Cabugao on violin. The band has been known for their popular hits such as “Ride Home,” “Leaves,” “Maybe the Night,” “Pagtingin,” and the critically acclaimed “Kathang-Isip.”
Tropes associated with this band or their music include:
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: In "Pagtingin," the Tagalog word salita (emphasis on the last syllable) is sung as "sa-LI-ta" to rhyme it with muna.
- All Love Is Unrequited:
- “Kathang-Isip,” which is based on lead vocalist Paolo’s past unrequited love. The song does settle on an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy theme that has the narrator voluntarily leaving, and Paolo says his current girlfriend even knows about this past heartbreak.
- Not actually the case in the music video for “Pagtingin,” even though the female lead (played by Teen Idol Gabbi Garcia) is left under the impression her feelings for the guy are unrequited. The song and video, however, have inspired many of their listeners admitting their feelings for their crushes, to little avail.
top commenter: [in Tagalog] Because of this song, I admitted my romantic feelings to my best friend. Now, it's been 2 weeks since we stopped talking. Hahahahaha - Always Identical Twins: Averted by the two lead vocalists. They are twin brothers, but many have remarked they don’t look all that much alike.
- As Himself: The band members appear as themselves in the music videos starring Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos, as well as the subsequent Rom Com based on the songs.
- Band of Relatives: Lead vocalists Paolo and Miguel are twin brothers, which is incidentally where the band names “The Benjamins” and “Ben&Ben” stemmed from. (Their middle names are both Benjamin, and their former third member was named Ben.)
- Bilingual Bonus: Trilingual bonus, but that’s a given for an abundance of Filipino artists. Their album Limasawa Street is named such partly because it derives from masawa, a word meaning “light” in the minority language of Butuanon.
- Creator Thumbprint: They are best-known for their deeply emotional love songs, or “hugot” as they are locally termed. This readily goes hand-in-hand with Author Appeal, as Miguel is a self-professed hopeless romantic.
- Double-Meaning Title: Limasawa Street, named after the street that Paolo’s girlfriend Bea Lorenzo lives on and also used for its etymological root word masawa.
- Downer Ending: The music video for “Araw-Araw” confirms that Ramos’ character does, in fact, requite the love of Garcia’s character. However, he winds up alone.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Invoked for some of their songs, like “Kathang-Isip.” The band have said that, perhaps contrary to their reputation, they don't want to encourage their listeners to mope about unrequited love; hence, the protagonists moving on in their works that deal with the matter.
- Nerd Glasses: They are Reclusive Artists who often wear these. In one of their rare big-network interviews, a guesting on Gandang Gabi Vice, only two of nine members were not wearing glasses. It fluctuates, but the amount of people wearing Nerd Glasses during a Ben&Ben public appearance is often almost all of them◊.
- One True Love: The lyrical content of “Araw-Araw,” which — per the title, translating to every day in English — Miguel has said is about choosing the one you love every day, in spite of flaws and all.
- Silly Love Songs: Their trademark; love songs of unusually high caliber.
- Vocal Dissonance: Paolo and Miguel are Long-Haired Pretty Boys, but have very deep singing voices. Their speaking voices are considerably softer.
