Bonnie Bailey is back in the Philippines, where ‘Ever After’ has never left
You don’t have to feel your age with this song because chances are, your uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews all know the lyrics by heart. And each has some of their happiest memories with it. Bonnie Bailey’s “Ever After” is a rare track, a Hedkandi club anthem that has been played through weng-weng-filled beach parties, late-night drives, wedding dance floors, and after-hour heart-to-hearts.
The anthem opens with a sound like water lapping against the shore. Then the snare comes in, crisp and buoyant. When she whispers, “You are my twisted sunshine,” you want to soar!
It’s a song Filipinos have long loved to dance to, but love to feel their heart out to even more. Just open a link to a YouTube music version of the song, and you’ll see comment after comment waxing nostalgic about their time listening to “Ever After” in Boracay or Cebu.
Filipinos have always loved electronic music, but not in the European sense of heavy, relentless techno. Here, it has to be melodic, emotional, and something you can sway to. In the mid-2000s, “Ever After” slipped like a glove into that space as a dance track for the club but also for the sentimental at heart.
Now on her 11th visit to the Philippines, Bailey is back, traveling between Manila, Bacolod, and Cebu, revisiting the country that unexpectedly embraced her music.
Speaking from South Cebu during a short break on tour, Bailey reflects on early beginnings, Filipino devotion, and new music arriving next summer.
A song that became a blessing
Clearly humble at heart, Bailey says it never gets old hearing how “Ever After” lives on in Filipino memories. “When you write lyrics, you have no idea what will transpire from it.” And she definitely did not expect what music history had in store for her.
When “Ever After” was released, Bailey was living and touring in the UK. Eventually, her song became a Top 30 Billboard hit. “I definitely did not have the Philippines on my radar,” she admits. It wasn’t until a DJ returned from Manila with surprising news. “He said, ‘Do you have any idea how big your song is in the Philippines?’ And I was like, ‘The Philippines? Really?’”
Her first show in the Philippines in 2005 changed everything. “It was like 10,000 people singing the lyrics,” she recalls. “It shocked me while I was on stage.” Hearing that song written alone in her living room, now sung back by thousands of voices halfway across the world, left her stunned. “There’s no feeling like that.”
She pauses and uses a word she returns to more than once: blessing. “The fact that ‘Ever After’ brings so much joy… that’s such a blessing for me.”
Bailey also reflects on how the song has changed tune in her own life. “I got married in 2020 during the pandemic,” she says. “When I sing it now, I think of my husband.”
In “Ever After,” she sings, “You made me believe in love, and not the perfect kind,” a line she echoes while telling me in our interview: “No relationship is perfect… but we are so solid with each other that nothing can come between us.”
Her songwriting now lives fully inside Bailey’s own life. “I really believe in ‘Ever After,’” she says. “Now that I’ve experienced what the true beauty of love actually is, it has enhanced those lyrics in such a different way.”
Singer and songwriter at heart
The singer-songwriter has come a long way since the early 2000s. “At 16 years old, I had written my first songs on a piano,” she recalls, sharing about her early life in Glen Oaks, Long Island. She reminisces about teaching herself the piano from a chordbook of Liberace, and recounts her family members, who all had a deep love for music.
After hearing rumors that major artists recorded nearby, she bravely knocked on a nearby studio door. “I knocked on the door and said, ‘My name is Bonnie Bailey, and I want to be a famous singer-songwriter.’”
Inside were platinum records from Celine Dion and Mariah Carey. Her hands shook as she played. Though these teenage songs weren’t hits, the producer heard something else. “You have such a unique-sounding voice,” he told her. “It’s like a fingerprint.”
From there, Bailey trained rigorously, operatically, technically, and emotionally, learning how to take criticism, shape stories through lyrics, and build musical moments listeners could step into.
Back in the archipelago
To understand why Bailey’s songs linger the way they do, you have to go back to her sense of storytelling. Another immersive song from her repertoire is “Kingdom of Pretty,” written mid-flight on the way to the Philippines on one of her tours.
“I definitely had a crush going on… but also I thought the Philippines is such a beautiful place,” Bailey explains. “I also think Filipino women are the most beautiful in the world. It’s not just outer beauty. There’s inner beauty, too.” Between the people, the ocean, and Boracay’s beaches, she found the title. “It’s the ‘Kingdom of Pretty,’” she says.
Today, this connection to the Philippines has brought her back once again. Now in the archipelago for the 11th time, it’s been non-stop since she arrived last Dec. 11. Her current visit has included shows across the country in Cebu and Bacolod, set to be capped by a guest appearance on the GMA New Year program.
She recounts how, so far, one of her most memorable moments wasn’t at a festival or a club, but at the wedding of Monica Concepcion Köle and Henry Köle. “That was the first wedding I ever performed at in my life,” she says. “It was really special to be a part of that.”
Bailey was also last in the Philippines just this summer, performing at the Hydro Festival in Boracay. “That was the first festival I’ve done here in the Philippines,” she says. “It was so much fun. My husband actually came, and he’s never seen me perform, so that was the first time.”
That return, she explains, was made possible by a team she connected with. “A wonderful team brought me back from Mabisa Entertainment. I loved working with them, so I’m excited to continue coming… I’ve loved every minute (of this trip),” she shares.
Eternal summer
At present, after stepping away from trends that didn’t leave room for storytelling, Bailey feels newly inspired. “For a very long time in the dance world, the lyrics didn’t really matter,” she says. “I’m first a singer-songwriter. I tell a story.”
That return to narrative is shaping her upcoming EP, slated for release next summer. “It’s definitely going to be geared as a beach type of vibe,” she shares, with music made for festivals, sun-soaked afternoons, chill remixes, and dance versions that still leave space for feeling.
“I feel inspired again,” she adds. “The doors are opening up.” And this seems to be the same sense of openness that has always been at the heart of “Ever After.”
When asked to finish the sentence, “‘Ever After’ is the song we play when…” Bailey doesn’t hesitate: “Ever After is the song we play when we want our spirits lifted.”
She’s seen it sung and danced to at the center of flood calamities, smiling to the lyrics, “Hands gripped together, eye to eye through the storm.” And it continues to be played, at weddings, through heartbreak, and in moments of pure elation. “It invites joy into our life,” she says.
Perhaps that’s why Filipinos will never let Bailey’s music go. Because “Ever After” has never been just a club song. It was, and still is, a feeling that lifts our spirits.
