Rapper Ruby Ibarra reignites Filipino hip-hop on the global stage

THE TACLOBAN-BORN ARTIST TOURS THE U.S. AFTER WINNING THE 2025 NPR MUSIC TINY DESK CONTEST AND GEARS UP FOR HER NEXT ALBUM.

- By LÉ BALTAR

Sporting an "I Love Pinays" tee and a brushed-back ponytail in a room populated by a neat array of music and cultural paraphernalia, Filipino-American rapper Ruby Ibarra, alongside her all-Filipino band, including rock superstar June Millington, performed her Tiny Desk winning track, Bakunawa, at the NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. on May 29. A tattoo on her left wrist depicting an eight-rayed sun and three stars, known features of the Philippine flag, was visible whenever she'd raised her hand into a fist, invoking her Filipino roots on the world stage.

Though not captured by the camera, the performance was witnessed by an intimate crowd of Ibarra's family and friends. To the left of her was her mother, who couldn't contain her emotions and was passing around a box of tissues, even as she'd heard the song hundreds of times prior. It was a moment six years in the making since the rapper's first submission to the contest with the track Someday, which is part of her three-piece setlist for the NPR appearance, alongside 7000 Miles, a song grappling with her diasporic life.

Bakunawa, a multilingual track named after a moon-eating dragon from Filipino folklore, bested nearly 7,500 submissions from independent artists across the United States, a record-breaking figure in the annual competition's 11-year history.

Now, Ibarra and her crew are on a national summer tour, hitting ten cities across the country, with other Tiny Desk alums and emerging musicians. Three days before we spoke over Zoom, Ibarra just concluded the West Coast and Midwest legs of the tour, and had been gearing up for their next stop on the East Coast.