All about ‘Mambo Magsaysay,’ the first viral campaign jingle in the Philippines

Did you know that the first-ever presidential campaign jingle in the Philippines was released post-World War II in the '50s and was in the mambo genre?

“Mambo Magsaysay” was released in 1953 in the leadup to the Philippine presidential election in support of Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr., who became the seventh President of the Philippines after a landslide victory against Elpidio Quirino. 

The jingle’s composer? None other than the late former Senator and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Raul Manglapus, who was also known to have possessed musical talent.

“Howie Severino Presents” takes a deep dive into this timeless jingle in the pilot episode of its first season, “Howie Severino Presents: Moments in Election History.” 

The award-winning Kapuso journalist and documentarist sat down with the late senator and composer’s son, Francis Manglapus, to discuss the origins of “Mambo Magsaysay,” its impact during its time, and its lasting legacy.

To this very day, “Mambo Magsaysay” remains as one of the best-known campaign jingles in the Philippines. The song references the early 1950s, democracy, and even the voting manipulation in Lanao. 

Part of the jingle goes, “Mambo, mambo Magsaysay! Mabu, mabu, mabuhay! Our democracy will die kung wala si Magsaysay!"

“Mambo Magsaysay” became viral long before the days of social media and may be considered as one of the first media-based political campaigns. Television was still uncommon at the time, so the song was often played on the radio and a vinyl record was released. It was also translated into the regional languages like Ilokano and Bisaya and was played in provinces, where a machine and bullhorn blasted the song for crowds to hear. 

The jingle’s creation wouldn't be surprising if one looked at Manglapus’ proclivity for music, which began at an early age.

According to Francis, his father loved music since childhood and even took piano lessons. When Manglapus’ piano teacher would play a piece, he would immediately be able to play it after listening.

Francis shared the saying, “If you lose one sense, you gain it in the other.” And since his father had a weak eye, he gained a more sensitive hearing.

“That's why he could play music by ear. He would just hear it and he could play it. He ended up even composing,” he said.

Manglapus also never learned how to read music, but would hum melodies and then write them down. 

As he grew older, music became part of his public awareness and political stance.

“He always liked to do music for stuff that he was close to or believed in,” Francis said.

Manglapus’ first major piece was for his alma mater, Ateneo De Manila University. Before graduating, he composed “The Blue Eagle, The King,” which was played at basketball games and batch reunions.

“Music has always been part of his public career. He felt that, you know, you believe in something, you put all your talents into it. Since he was gifted with musical composing talent, he would always—it was always part of whatever cause that he was fighting for,” Francis said.

“During his school days, he wrote for the school. During the war years, he wrote songs as a guerrilla to help cheer up the guerrilla fighters, and during political campaigns particularly the one for Magsaysay.”

The request for the campaign jingle came close to election time, around 1952.

“There was a formal request by Magsaysay for my dad to participate in the campaign, actually, [to] head the Magsaysay for President Movement,” Francis told Severino.

He added his father remembers the day they met up because he was sick at home, and it was also the same day he bought his first-ever air-conditioner.

“So, he was home with the flu and his close friend from Ateneo and the war years, Manahan, came with Magsaysay to our house in San Juan and that's where Magsaysay formally asked him to head the Magsaysay for President Movement,” he said.

“Of course, my father readily agreed because early on already, everybody saw that [Magsaysay] was a rising star. He would be an excellent president.”

Francis revealed that his father had already composed “Mambo Magsaysay” in anticipation of Magsaysay's presidential run.

“He was already tinkering. May have not been final yet but he'd already done the basic structure of the song at that time.”

Manglapus was in his mid-30s when he was tapped by Magsaysay. The former was not yet a senior political leader, but was teaching constitutional law at the Ateneo.

“I think Magsaysay had a special appeal to the youth. He was very popular among the young people because of his anti-corruption crusade. And I think Magsaysay wanted to capture that particular voting block, solidify it, if he will,” Francis said.

Francis added that Magsaysay having a campaign led by young people “would give it a special character that he felt could be a shining [factor to] push the momentum for his campaign. That's why I think he approached my father to be part of it.”

“Mambo Magsaysay” has lyrics in Tagalog and English (or Taglish), and followed the mambo, a popular beat on the radio and in nightclubs in the ‘50s. According to Francis, his father wanted to experiment.

“Mambo was becoming the new thing at that time,” Francis said. “Very popular, very catchy and I think that's when he felt that ‘Let's try something different. Let's try to make it more modern, more upbeat to capture the new generation, to get the new generation into it.’"

It was noted in the episode that “Mambo Magsaysay” was also among the first songs written in Taglish.

“I don't think there were many songs written in Taglish at the time. It was either, you know, as we were trained when we were young, either you speak straight Tagalog or straight English,” Francis said.

“So it was a trailblazer song. I mean putting it in Taglish, again it was the market not only the youth but the masses and they felt they had to put it in a language that they could really connect and understand to, and Taglish was the vehicle that they felt would be the best, that he felt would be the best to connect.”

Additionally, Manglapus was able to rhyme Magsaysay with words like mabuhay and “Our democracy will die kung wala si Magsaysay!"

“My dad had a knack for rhyming. He was a, really, wordsmith. That was his first talent. Putting music is just the coating,” Francis said.

“He really likes to write stuff, songs, speeches. He always wrote his own speeches, he wrote his own songs.”

Aside from “Mambo Magsaysay,” Manglapus composed a more traditional campaign song, “We Want Magsaysay,” which was a marching song meant to lift the morale of soldiers. However, “Mambo Magsaysay” became a bigger hit among the masses because of its special appeal.

“He was listening to all kinds of music. He liked jazz, mambo, or Latin, so forth and so on,” Francis said. “It was the in-thing at that time.”

“What made it unique was [for] it to be used for a presidential jingle. And I think it was not only the music, it was also the message, it was also the lyrics, which was very catchy. He had the talent of not only providing the lyrics but also putting together the right words."

Looking back, Francis believes “Mambo Magsaysay” was a factor in Magsaysay’s landslide presidential win against Quirino.

“You can debate whether the song was done or not, he still would have won because he was very, very popular to begin with. And Quirino was very unpopular for whatever reason,” he said.

“This particular song just added more fuel to the landslide. It made it bigger because it just got people more excited to be part of the Magsaysay crusade.

According to Francis, this was the aim of boosting your supporters' morale.

“You need certain props, whether it is music or whatever. In this particular case, it was this song that really captured Magsaysay and what he was trying to do. Got the young people particularly really, really excited about supporting him and his message of change. I think it really, really worked,” he said.

Decades after Magsaysay’s time as the Philippine President, the song continued to be revived. During the People Power Revolution in 1986, people sang “Mambo Magsaysay” in the streets, and it was played on Radio Veritas to boost the morale of those demonstrating.

“There are elements in the song that resonated to what was going on, take away the Magsaysay thing but just the whole message was still the same,” he said.

Francis believes that “Mambo Magsaysay” still has a huge impact until today because it set “a standard that's very hard to duplicate.”

“There [have] been a lot of jingles over the years but I don't think any jingle has been able to duplicate how effective this particular piece was. Both in the message, both in the fact that it is an original,” he said.

“A lot of people take a song and they just change the lyrics. There are some originals out there but it still does not capture really the feeling and the message that this particular song did. It is really timeless in my view. So up to now, people hear it, it's catchy, they recognize it, they love the lyrics. In one package, it is all there.”

—Nika Roque/CDC, GMA Integrated News