B Is for Budots: Arizona Brandy’s Arizona B Is a Mainstream Bop
Ever since Arizona Brandy strutted her way onto Drag Race Philippines season 2, the Filipina drag queen has built a reputation for her fun, funny, and confident personality, with her wit and comedy matching her love of the color orange. But following her run on Slaysian Royale, Arizona arguably reached new heights, not just with her strong performance on the season, but also with the release of the viral hit that is Arizona B. Drag queens are no strangers to releasing their own music, but with Arizona B, Arizona dropped a track that’s right up her alley and an earworm to boot.
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Arizona B, B Is for Budots
Arizona premiered Arizona B on the season finale of Slaysian Royale as her original song. Eschewing the typical pop sounds that one may expect, Arizona went on a different route by making a budots track that also samples Baby Shark halfway through the song. The lyrics, which were co-written by Arizona and Baus Rufo, reference the drag queen’s time on the show, her Lynn from Las Vegas impression from Snatch Game, and general Pinoy culture, such as traffic on EDSA, through an Arizona-meets-budots POV.
The high-energy song features Arizona’s camp, charm, and wit while giving it an energy to be expected from budots. It’s a blending of chaotic Filipino drag excellence with Filipino internet culture and kanal humor. The adoration for Filipino pop culture is evident with its fun references, jokes, and metaphors that only Filipinos would really understand, and electronic beats that activate the Pinoy senses.
What makes the moment better is the styling Arizona went for in the song’s official music video, as well as her subsequent performances of the track. Understandably, orange, her favorite color, was on the moodboard, but so too was iconography you’d find on jeepneys, colorful hairclips, a drag queen take on street fits appropriate for the barangay fiesta, and other Pinoy-coded fashion someone like Arizona B can pull off. Arizona B hits the way it does because it understands the joy and unpredictability of budots while being delivered by a queen who knows how to entertain and captivate through distinctly Filipino humor and drag camp.
Is it random? Yes. But that is the charm of budots, a Filipino dance genre initially made popular in Davao by DJ Love before becoming its own subculture in the Philippines. The track is as catchy as it is replayable. Arizona B wasn’t just another random Drag Race song, but a track you could hear on repeat again and again.
Drag Race Philippines, Will You Sing This With Me?
A viral hit is a viral hit, and Arizona B is exactly that. The song’s budots nature primed it for virality, but it entered the mainstream pop culture lexicon in a way few saw coming. As of this writing, the track has over 4.5 million streams on Spotify and over 5.5 million views on its music video on YouTube. On TikTok, the song has been used in over 1.1 million posts, translating to hundreds of millions of views on the platform, with some videos surpassing 1 million likes.
@saint.briel go baby ko #deadline_in_bulacan #jennie #fyp #blackpink #jennierubyjane ♬ original sound – Arizona Brandy
The song’s breakout success even led Arizona to perform the track on TV, with many commenting that the performance reminded them of a K-pop music show. And in true Filipino fashion, Arizona also dropped a clean Christmas version for the holiday season. From social media edits, viral dance challenges, playlist inclusions, and more, Arizona B is a certified Filipino earworm that permeated the cultural zeitgeist beyond the local drag scene. The track successfully captured Arizona’s brand while also speaking to a wider audience who may not even know what drag queens are and just stumbled upon the track because of how catchy it is.
For the longest time, drag and Filipino dance electronic music like budots have thrived in underground spaces, but Arizona B was a moment when these subcultures became mainstream, even if it was just for a viral dance trend. The song is an undeniable win for Arizona Brandy, and a reminder of how, when done right, Filipino culture will always have a space in the mainstream conversation. This opportunity was definitely for her.
Photos: ARIZONA BRANDY (via Instagram)
The post B Is for Budots: Arizona Brandy’s Arizona B Is a Mainstream Bop first appeared on MEGA.
B Is for Budots: Arizona Brandy’s Arizona B Is a Mainstream Bop
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