A break-up can do something awesome for one-half of the former couple (or even for both of them).

Some showbiz-loving rascals are saying that breaking up with girlfriend Cassy Legaspi and writing a song about the resulting pain and sorrow are what Darren Espanto should pull off to make him re-overtake ex-friend Juan Karlos Labajo, who is now miles ahead of him in public adulation. Both began their showbiz lives as finalists in ABS-CBN's The Voice Kids in 2014.

Labajo's "Ere" is the pop anthem of 2023, even if it was released only in September. Before "Ere" kicked in, the stunning tisoy from Cebu was a half-forgotten singer who had become more known as an actor in the ABS-CBN series Senior High, where all cast members are practically overshadowed by the coltish Andrea Brillantes and her messed-up affair with the cager and occasional actor Ricci Rivero. 

But with "Ere," Labajo reclaimed his position in Pinoy pop music, years after his monster hit "Buwan." He grandiosely dramatizes in Ere's video on his Instagram the pain and sorrow he went through when he and model-host-beauty queen Maureen Wroblewitz broke up in 2022. Labajo unleashes in the video the theatrical energies of a street "senaculo" actor he must have become familiar with during his childhood years in Cebu. 

Sung lamentations 

"Ere" is but the launching single of an entire album of sung lamentations titled Sad Songs and Bullsh*ts Part 1. "Ere" has been irreversibly charting internationally since its release in September 2023. 

"The album started out as a compilation of all the love songs that I made for someone whom I gave so much of myself to," Labajo wrote on Instagram.