From their first Philippine appearance at Wanderland to filling the country’s largest concert venue, LANY’s journey in the Philippines has become one of the most compelling stories of international pop fandom.
There is a particular distinction in LANY’s touring history that deserves more attention: the Philippines was the first country where the band headlined an arena show. That happened in April 2018, when the American pop-rock group performed two sold-out nights at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, long before arena-sized productions became a regular feature of its international tours.
It was an early indication of what would become one of the band’s strongest international markets. Nearly nine years after first introducing itself to Filipino audiences, LANY returned to the country for the soft by LANY World Tour, this time staging their biggest concert to date.
LANY’s Philippine story began in March 2017, when the band performed at the Wanderland Music and Arts Festival. It was a festival appearance rather than a headline engagement, but the response was enough to encourage further visits, including mall shows later that year. These early performances brought the band closer to an audience that had already begun embracing its music through digital platforms. By April 2018, LANY was ready for a much bigger stage. Its two-night concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum became the band’s first arena headline shows anywhere in the world. What could have been a one-off milestone instead became the beginning of a pattern. In July 2019, the group returned for three consecutive sold-out nights at the Mall of Asia Arena as part of its Malibu Nights World Tour, making them the first foreign act to sell out three consecutive shows at the venue.
The band’s Philippine touring history continued into 2020 with an appearance at the Plus63 Music and Arts Festival in Cebu. After the interruption brought by the pandemic, LANY returned in November 2022 for an extraordinary five-night run at the Mall of Asia Arena, further establishing the Philippines as a major destination for the band, with demand extending beyond the usual single-night arena format. Then came October 2024, arguably the biggest milestone in LANY’s Philippine touring career at the time. On October 12, the band headlined the Philippine Arena, drawing its largest performance to date. The Philippine leg of the a beautiful blur tour continued in Cebu, where LANY played three consecutive nights at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino from October 13 to 15.
That progression, from a festival appearance and mall shows in 2017 to multiple arena engagements and a Philippine Arena production in 2024, is remarkable even by the standards of internationally touring acts. It also provides context for the band’s return in November 2026, when the soft by LANY World Tour brought it back to the Philippine Arena for two nights, alongside performances in Cebu.
During the show, frontman Paul Klein took a moment to acknowledge the country’s contribution to the band’s success. He thanked Filipino fans for helping make LANY one of the biggest bands in the Philippines and described the country as their favorite place to perform.
The country’s support has also been reflected in its music consumption figures. In 2018, Spotify named LANY the most-streamed artist in the Philippines, placing the band ahead of Moira Dela Torre, Ed Sheeran, BTS, and Maroon 5. It also topped the platform’s most-streamed groups category in the country. For an American band, the achievement was particularly notable: its popularity was not confined to concert attendance but had become part of the everyday listening habits of Filipino audiences.
That presence has endured. Following its October 2024 Philippine concerts, seven LANY songs appeared on the Billboard Philippines Hot 100. “‘Cause You Have To” entered at No. 22, followed by “Mean It” at No. 33, “13” at No. 36, “Malibu Nights” at No. 45, “ILYSB” at No. 60, “Super Far” at No. 93, and “dna” at No. 100. The chart performance was notable for the range of releases represented, spanning different periods of the band’s discography rather than depending exclusively on its latest material.
LANY’s catalogue has a particular familiarity among Filipino listeners, built around uncomplicated but affecting observations about love, uncertainty, separation, and the difficulty of moving forward. “ILYSB,” “Malibu Nights,” “Thru These Tears,” and “13” have become fixtures in playlists that often serve as personal records of relationships and experiences.
It is this catalogue that made the November 7 performance especially interesting. Rather than presenting Soft as an entirely separate chapter, the band incorporated its newer material into a setlist that moved across different stages of its career. Opening with “Soft,” LANY followed with “Why,” “Make Me Forget,” “you!,” “Thick and Thin,” and “Good Girls.” Newer selections such as “Prettiest Thing I’ve Ever Seen,” “Know You Naked,” “When Did You Stop Loving Me?,” and “Destiny” sat alongside familiar releases from earlier albums.
One of the evening’s notable moments came during “Stuck,” when Filipino singer-songwriter Moira Dela Torre joined the band onstage. The performance continued with “Sound of Rain,” “Let Me Know,” “cowboy in LA,” and a pairing of “Super Far” and “Mean It.” The latter portion of the set featured “Last Forever,” “Act My Age,” “13,” and “ILYSB,” followed by “Pink Skies,” “Alonica,” “Thru These Tears,” and “‘Cause You Have To.” For the encore, LANY returned with “Malibu Nights” and “XXL.”
The concert also featured Maisy Kay and Culture Wars as opening acts, setting the stage for LANY’s return. Culture Wars, who previously toured with the band, reunited with Filipino fans, adding another familiar name to an evening that celebrated both established favorites and emerging acts.
For a band that has spent years building its international profile, the Philippines offers an interesting measure of sustained audience loyalty. Its popularity here has outlasted individual album cycles and continued through changes in the live music landscape. More importantly, the audience that first welcomed LANY at Wanderland has helped create the conditions for increasingly ambitious performances, while newer listeners have continued to discover the band’s music along the way.
Klein’s remarks at the Philippine Arena were therefore more than a customary expression of gratitude. They recognized a market that had supported the band at several defining points in its career, including its first arena headline shows and its largest concert at the time. His description of the Philippines as the band’s favorite country to perform in also reflected a familiarity that has developed through repeated visits and years of shared musical experiences. The country was there when the band was still moving from festival stages to its first headline arenas, and it has remained a significant destination as those stages grew considerably larger.
Nearly a decade after that first Wanderland appearance, the Philippine Arena is no longer simply another venue on LANY’s itinerary. It is a marker of how far the band and its Filipino audience have come together. And with another successful return, the relationship that began with a growing crowd in 2017 continues to find new stages on which to unfold.
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