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"Salamin, Salamin" (lit.'Mirror, Mirror') is a song recorded by Filipino girl group Bini. It was released as the third single of their debut extended play (EP) Talaarawan on March 8, 2024.
Background and release
After promoting "Karera" and the sleeper hit "Pantropiko" as pre-release singles for their upcoming EP, Bini dropped Talaarawan together with its lead single "Salamin, Salamin" on March 8, 2024, International Women's Day, to align with the group's advocacy on women empowerment.[1] An accompanying music video was posted on YouTube on the same day; it garnered over one million views by March 27, within nearly three weeks of its release.[2]
Composition
"Salamin, Salamin" has been described as a bubblegum pop song that "perfectly captured the butterflies you get when gushing over a crush".[3] The track was produced by Mat Olavides and Bojam and composed by John Michael Conchada, Paula Rose Alcasid, and Paulo Miguel Rañeses.[4]
Reception
"Salamin, Salamin" has been regarded in a review on Rappler as reminiscent of the upbeat charm and nostalgic themes espoused in Talaarawan's preceding single, "Pantropiko".[5] The phrase "eyyy", which was included in the song's lyrics, also became popular in Filipino parlance and became associated with Bini member Sheena.[6]
A few months after the song was released, a Christian content creator claimed that "Salamin Salamin" was a witchcraft song. The creator's post linked the song's lyrics to a book titled "Mirror Magic (Scrying, Spells, Curses and Other Witch Crafts)" by Viivi James, among other things. The Bini members firmly denied the claims, calling them "funny" and "fake news".[7][8]
Commercial performance
Coupled with the viral success of Bini's previous single "Pantropiko" on TikTok,[9] "Salamin, Salamin" and Talaarawan led the girl group to become Spotify's highest-streamed OPM female artist, as well as the Filipino P-pop group with the most monthly listeners on the platform.[10][11]
"Salamin, Salamin" entered the BillboardPhilippines Songs chart at number 10 on the issue of April 20, 2024.[12] This, along with "Pantropiko" reaching a new peak of number five,[13] made Bini both the first P-pop group to have multiple entries on the chart[14] and the first P-pop group to have entries within the top 10.[15] Three months after its release, "Salamin, Salamin" peaked at the top of the chart on the issue of June 8, dethroning the previous week's chart-topper "Pantropiko" and scoring the girl group their second Billboard number one hit.[16][17]
In December, "Salamin Salamin" was recognized as the top music video of 2024 on YouTube in the Philippines, with its lyrics video placing eighth.[18] That same year, Google ranked it as the seventh most searched song in the country.[19] The track was also featured in Billboard Philippines' list of The 50 Best Songs of 2024 and The 50 Best Music Videos of 2024.[20][21]
Adaptations
A remake of the song performed by Bini was used in an advertisement for the online shopping app Shopee, coinciding with the group's official endorsement of the brand.[22] A parody of the song, titled "Salarin, Salarin" (Culprit, Culprit), was released on the comedy show Bubble Gang on September 29, 2024.[23]
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