Rico Blanco’s ‘This Too Shall Pass’ music video now on YouTube

Rico Blanco has finally dropped the official music video for “This Too Shall Pass,” his new solo single in four years. With various footage taken here and abroad, the visuals for the song take a closer look at how the pandemic has brought the entire world to a standstill.

Given the unprecedented uncertainty and challenges that new coronavirus (COVID-19) poses, the video doubles as a tribute to the unsung heroes and frontliners leading the fight against an invisible enemy. With frontliners risking their lives with little protection, people going hungry and the social order crumbling to pieces, Blanco felt powerless by the situation.

Intercut with scenes of the new normal from around the globe, the video also depicts the alt-rock icon performing the song at the confines of his home. While devoid of flashy production designs and envelope-pushing concepts, it is framed with an underlying message of resilience and hope.

“My efforts are little in light of a pandemic like this,” Blanco stated. “As big as my imagination is for this song, I also feel that it’s not enough but it’s what I can do and contribute as a musician.”

Two weeks earlier, “This Too Shall Pass” was released on all digital and streaming platforms worldwide under Sony Music. The massive anthem has received critical acclaim from various publications in the Philippines.

“This song is real, inwards and also outwards,” Blanco continued. “It’s something that I really want to tell every single person. I wasn’t able to give a message to the frontliners and I feel very guilty about this.”

“I needed to finish this and I want them to hear this,” the singer-songwriter added. “I know each one of us is going through something. I wrote this song as my way to reach out.”

To help fund the collective COVID-19 response in the country, Blanco is waiving his artist royalties for the music video of “This Too Shall Pass.” Sony Music Philippines will be donating 100 percent of the net global proceeds to Puhon for the first six months of release.

The site contains inspiring stories and messages of encouragement to people at the frontline of fighting the pandemic. Its name means “hopefully” in Visayan.

“Music is important, we all know this but never more so than when we are faced with uncertainty because it is then that the power of music becomes unquantifiable, almost limitless,” Sony Music’s general manager for Philippines and vice president for Business Development Asia Roslyn Pineda stated. “Music can make you feel you’re not alone. Music can save you from despair and so it is with a song like ‘This Too Shall Pass.’ It is so relevant to the times that it becomes a declaration, a prayer, a mantra, all rolled into one.”