Filipinos and Jessica Sanchez: Pinoy Pride Does Not Convert to Music Sales

Filipinos never stop talking or posting about music or commenting on YouTube. You simply can’t get away from this “Pinoy pride” thing. But what does all this pride result in? Apparently not much when it comes to music sales.

Jessica Sanchez just took 2nd place on American Idol 11. Go on any Philip Phillips American Idol video on YouTube and read the comments and see the strangely high Dislikes. You know where they are coming from? No need to ask. Look at Jessica’s YouTube views. This “Pinoy pride” basically results in biased insults against anyone competing against a Filipino plus some rather inflated YouTube views that aren’t even worth that much, anyway. I run this website and know for a fact that one million views online really isn’t worth that much money. I constantly get one or two measly cents from Filipinos clicking on my Jessica ads. Those YouTube views you see are worth next to nothing because they are inflated numbers from other countries, where the advertisers are paying less due to geotargeting. The advertisers aren’t that stupid. They pay far less for traffic coming from the Philippines.

Pinoy Pride Doesn’t Exist Where It Counts The Most

For all this time these Filipinos spend putting down contestants like Philip Phillips or insulting little kids like Bianca Ryan with the trumped-up, nonexistent rivalry between Bianca and Charice, all that so-called pride and energy focused on a singer is not resulting in music sales. In the end, if Jessica just sold more music, that would be a lot better than winning some contest. And Charice’s album tanked, as well.

Let’s look at the iTunes singles chart the day after the American Idol 11 finale:

Singles:

1 Home (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
30 We’ve Got Tonight (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
33 Stand By Me (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
44 Volcano (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
54 Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) [American Idol Performance] – Phillip Phillips
74 Beggin’ (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
109 U Got It Bad (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
118 Disease (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
122 Have You Ever Seen the Rain (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
153 The Prayer (American Idol Performance) – Jessica Sanchez
165 Fat Bottomed Girls (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
189 Time of the Season (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
190 Superstition (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
210 The Stone (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
215 That’s All (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
225 Still Rainin’ (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
227 Change Nothing (American Idol Performance) – Jessica Sanchez
236 It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World (American Idol Performance) – Joshua Ledet
237 In the Midnight Hour (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
248 Give a Little More (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
258 The Letter (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
262 Hard to Handle (American Idol Performance) – Phillip Phillips
269 I Have Nothing (American Idol Performance) – Jessica Sanchez

So let me get this straight. Filipinos can sit around all day posting on Facebook and Twitter and commenting on YouTube videos, but they can’t come up with $1.29 once in a blue moon to support that same Filipino contestant? Sure, a lot of the people posting online don’t buy iTunes singles on the U.S. market. But there are millions of Filipinos in the United States. They are eligible for the green-card lottery and are 7th in terms of immigration numbers. Either “Pinoy pride” is all talk and no action when it comes to buying music, or the Filipinos living in the U.S. don’t buy into this Pinoy pride thing or don’t care enough to spend $1.29 every once in a while to support this cause.

There is nothing wrong with having pride in people with which you share a common heritage. But the level of hate and insults thrown at other contestants and their fans is completely uncalled for. I can only hope that the nastiness on YouTube is from mostly teenagers. Whoever they are, these people aren’t resulting in music sales for singers like Jessica Sanchez.