AS PART OF the Pista ng Sto. Nino sa San Beda 2026 festivities, Hale and Rob Deniel are set to take center stage alongside OPM acts Waiian, Jireh Lim, Shirebound, and Fitterkarma in “Sinagtala: Diwa ng Bedista sa Himig ng Musika,” a concert for a cause on January 31 at the University Football Field.

The concert is being held in partnership with Plan International, a non-government organization aimed at championing children’s rights and gender equality worldwide.

The lineup has been uncovered by the CAS Student Council through thematic short films accompanied by the genre of the guest artists’ hit songs, featuring two artists daily starting on January 18, in the given order: Hale, Rob Deniel, Waiian, Jireh Lim, Shirebound, and Fitterkarma.

Formed in the early 2000s, Hale is a popular Filipino alternative rock band that brought their mainstream success through their hit songs “The Day You Said Goodnight” and “Kung Wala Ka,” with 328,916,341 plays on Spotify today. The band remains active and recently just released their new album, Panatag, in 2024, and a single in 2025 named So Far Away (And Out of Sight).

Rob Deniel is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Laguna. His hits, “Ulap,” “Miss Miss,” and “Gabi,” feature bedroom pop vibes as he self-produces some of his songs using his phone and an app called GarageBand, and was later signed with Viva Records.

From Makati City, hip-hop artist Waiian offers his signature genre of artistry that breaks music boundaries. His song entitled “MAN IN THE MERROR” ranked 11 in Spotify PH Viral Songs chart a month after the song was published. In October, he launched his single featuring La Mave called “Kahit Umulan,” which topped with 2,853,791 plays.

Jireh Lim, a Filipino singer-songwriter and guitarist, earned widespread recognition on YouTube in the 2010s with his songs “Buko” and “Magkabilang Mundo.” The singer-songwriter is still active and continuously releasing collaborations and singles such as “Joaquin” and “Iingatan Kita” with Nik Makino.

From the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), Shirebound & Busking is an indie-folk band of singer-songwriter Iego Tan. They are  known for a modern, minstrel-like style that focuses on themes of romantic yearning, heartbreak, and acceptance.  Listeners relate to their viral songs such as “Pahintulot,” featured in the movie “I’m Drunk, I Love You,” and “Waltz of Four Left Feet.”

Blending with indie rock, art rock, and alternative rock, Fitterkarma incorporates Philippine folklore and dark romance through their lyrics. The band’s viral success, “Pag-Ibig Ay Kanibalismo II,” was declared as part of Billboard Philippines’ Hot 100 with 63,490,559 plays.

Bedans are expected to hear them live on stage on the second day of the Pista, as the annual event is to held from January 31 to February 1.