Budots is a style of electronic dance music that developed in Davao City, in the southern Philippines, during the 2000s.
It grew out of street dance culture and the work of local music makers, and the word refers to both the music and the dance. Tracks commonly feature heavy basslines and whistle sound effects.
It has since been played at street parties, used in political campaign ads and shared in dance videos on TikTok.
Origins in Davao
The name Budots comes from a Visayan slang term meaning “slacker” or someone who idles around.
Sherwin Calumpang Tuna, better known as DJ Love, is widely credited with developing and popularizing the genre’s distinctive electronic sound. While managing an internet shop in Davao, he made remixes using Fruity Loops, a music production program, to accompany the dance.
He also created dance videos featuring local performers, which have been on YouTube since 2009.
The 2019 documentary "Budots: The Craze", directed by Jay Rosas and Mark Limbaga, explored the genre’s origins in Barangay Camus, Davao City, where DJ Love lives. The film centers on an interview with DJ Love about how and why he created the music.
In an interview with VICE, Rosas explained that the dance came before the electronic music now associated with it. Early dance crews, including CamusBoyz, initially performed to electronic dance music before DJ Love developed remixes tailored to the style.
Sound and Dance
Budots draws on electronic dance music, including house and techno, with influences from Eurotrance. Its sound commonly features heavy basslines, repetitive percussion, high-pitched synthesizer hooks and samples drawn from everyday life.
In a 2025 report, The Washington Post described how DJ Love drew inspiration from the sounds of Davao, where vehicle horns, engines and other noises of daily urban life became part of the music. The Washington Post reported that DJ Love’s mix titled "Papap Dol" references the ‘pap pap’ sound of passing vehicles honking
Dancers bend their knees, swing their hips and move freely to the beat, often in a low squat. The dance is performed at local gatherings and shared in online videos.
Television, Politics and TikTok
Budots spread through neighborhood gatherings, street performances and locally produced dance videos before reaching a national audience.
In 2008, Ruben Gonzaga danced to Budots on Pinoy Big Brother and went on to win the show’s Celebrity Edition 2, according to CNN. In 2015, a video of Rodrigo Duterte, then mayor of Davao City and a presidential candidate, dancing Budots with local teenagers circulated online.
Many of you may have heard or seen this before, when in 2019 senatorial candidate Bong Revilla Jr. featured the dance in a campaign advertisement. DJ Love told NME that Revilla’s campaign never paid, credited or contacted him about using one of his original tracks.
In April 2023, DJ Love headlined a Budots showcase organized by Manila Community Radio in collaboration with Boiler Room. The event introduced the Davao born genre to a wider international dance music audience and was later covered by NME.
Budots producers remix familiar international songs, adding samples, whistles, sirens and other sound effects.
DJ Johnrey’s “Emergency Budots” which samples “Dr. Beat” by Miami Sound Machine, was released in December 2023 and gained traction on TikTok in March 2024 through dance videos. Outfit transition videos, including ones made by creators outside the Philippines, followed.
Although the track was released in December 2023, it gained traction on TikTok in March 2024 through dance videos and later spread through outfit transition videos, including those made by creators outside the Philippines.
Budots Today
Budots has faced criticism from some music commentators for its repetitive structure, rough production and deliberately cheap-sounding effects, according to Il Post.
Rosas told VICE in 2019 that Budots is a pop culture form that arose from the grassroots. He said Philippine pop culture is usually borrowed from the United States or the West.
DJ Love told The Washington Post in 2025 that he had no plans to leave Camus Street, the Davao City neighborhood where he lives.
