Popular Filipino Singer Hits Back At Viral Criticism For His BTS Cover

BTS J-Hope‘s last release was “Mona Lisa.”

BTS’s J-Hope | @uarmyhope/Instagram

After the video and track were released, it immediately became a hit.

Popular Filipino singer Darren Espanto has hit back at criticism that went viral following his cover.

Darren Espanto | @darrenespanto/Instagram

Darren performed “Mona Lisa” by J-Hope alongside fellow artists Kyle Echarri and Iñigo Pascual. A clip of Darren’s part went viral after a netizen criticized the vocals and compared it to J-Hope.

Dare I say… people who cant sing need to stop covering his songs. Seriously pic.twitter.com/oFTLSYbMrp

— cee (@sieeoun) May 14, 2025

Netizens quickly defended the popular singer, sharing that Darren’s voice is amazing, adding clips and context to hit back at the criticism. Many even shared that these performances are done without much rehearsal, so can’t be used to showcase Darren’s skills.

what others do not know as well is that asap performances like this are rehearsed for only hours in a day before sunday. its not that serious lol. yung mga idols nyo teenagers pa lang rehearsals at training na ang buhay but for some reason still cant sing for shit https://t.co/MfqqEBD47N

— K (@kimstark23) May 15, 2025

Even though I am a Kpop stan, Filipino singers are someone you cannot doubt about their singing abilities. Kpop and Ppop both have different techniques, but singing wise Ppop singers are POWERHOUSE singers and better than Kpop singers https://t.co/jRNVuhVCAB

— Riz 🐶 (@TzuuZiyu) May 16, 2025

darren can outsing your faves btw pic.twitter.com/5mzH9BvwUz https://t.co/mbV1h6jCRP

— ‏ً (@kunoyushii) May 16, 2025

In particular, following the tweet going viral, Darren Espanto hit back the criticism himself on X. In the post, the singer shared links to other performances, adding, “Cuz one thing I won’t take is someone telling me I “CAN’T SING””

Hi, @sieeoun. Please consider watching my other vocal performances cuz one thing I won’t take is someone telling me I “CAN’T SING” 😂 Attached here are a few of ‘em:https://t.co/3vjILznFm3https://t.co/L0mDmfi8Eghttps://t.co/Q9HvACRpr1 https://t.co/8l8mIzRDex

— Darren (@Espanto2001) May 16, 2025

BTS