This All-Girl Band From the Philippines Is Already on the World’s Radar
February 10, 2026 — If the Philippines is waiting for its next real shot at an international breakout, this might be it.
NEW LORE, an all-girl band from the Philippines, released their latest single “substack girl” last Friday, February 6, and the response has been immediate and impossible to ignore. Within its first day alone, the track pulled 24,000 Spotify streams, quickly positioning the band as one of the most globally resonant acts to come out of the local scene in years.
As of today, “substack girl” is sitting in 34 Spotify playlists worldwide, spanning continents, cultures, and listening habits.
Since its release, “substack girl” has landed on New Music Friday playlists across the Philippines, India, the UK, Japan, Indonesia, Denmark, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, Malaysia, Kenya, Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iceland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, alongside placements on major international editorial playlists including .ORG (Cover), Oyster, Indie Brandneu, Indie Pop & Chill, Indie Arrivals, Indie Highlights, Our Generation, Jasmine, we SEA you, Travailler en musique, poses (for Grief Cake), and tapioca. Locally, NEW LORE continues to receive strong editorial support with placements on OPM Rising, .ph (Cover) for both substack girl and Grief Cake, EQUAL Philippines for nariyan and paumanhin, and Relax Tayo for OH MATURITY. On top of this, the band currently holds cover placements on Spotify’s .ORG and .PH playlists, a rare and telling feat for an act still in its early years.
NEW LORE makes art you feel before you understand it. The kind that sneaks up on you, lingers, then refuses to let go.
They’re a fashionable all-girl band from the Philippines whose music lives between gallery walls and the dance floor, between chaos and confession. Glitchy synths hum beneath aching basslines. Lyrics arrive like thoughts you weren’t ready to say out loud but recognize instantly once you hear them. This is pop that doesn’t rush for approval. It sits with the feeling until it sharpens.
Their songs are for romantics with rage, loners with carefully built playlists, and kids who cry in the club then go home and sketch what it felt like. Emotional but intentional. Vulnerable but never careless. Poetry, disguised as pop.
Just a year into their existence, NEW LORE released their debut album Grief Cake, a cinematic body of work that quietly traveled beyond borders, landing on major Spotify editorial playlists across Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Since then, they’ve been building something slower and more dangerous than hype: a global audience that seems to understand them instinctively.
The Philippines might still be catching up.
The rest of the world already is.
Their latest single, “substack girl,” distills everything they do best. It’s a tender, self-aware love song about missing someone through the smallest details of who they are. Not grand gestures. Not dramatic goodbyes. Just the quiet wondering. The habits. The identities we attach to love and hope are still intact somewhere out there.
Built on hypnotic production and list-like lyrics, the song circles questions of growth, distance, and whether love survives in routine long after people drift apart. It feels like flipping through someone else’s life from afar and hoping they’re still choosing joy in the ways you remember them.
The lines that have listeners hitting replay feel almost too specific to be shared, and yet impossible not to claim as your own:
And are you still
A gig goer?
Art fair lover?
Film enjoyer?
Thrift store lover?
Vinyl seeker?
Poetry reader?
Soul admirer?
Joybaiter?
It’s intimate without being insular. Personal without being precious. Somehow universal.
Visually, NEW LORE continues to move with intention, leaning into their now unmistakable blue and green palette, pairing fashion-forward imagery with emotional storytelling. These girls in blue aren’t just marketing a song. They’re exporting a feeling. A culture. A point of view that travels well, because it’s honest.
And if this trajectory holds, NEW LORE isn’t just another promising act from the Philippines. They may be one of its strongest chances at a true worldwide crossover.
They are holding a FREE SHOW on Feb 15, 2026 at Felmans Place in Mandaluyong with front acts tuesday trinkets and Starri & The Moonchild. Register here to secure your spot! bit.ly/substackgirlparty
Follow NEW LORE on Instagram: @newloreworld
Website: www.newloremusic.com