justin

Quick Facts

Photo: justin – “dahon” (Official Music Video)

About justin

A Malabon Kid With an Artist’s Eye

Long before he was a pop star, Justin de Dios was an art kid. Born on July 7, 1998, and raised in Malabon in Metro Manila, he grew up drawn to visuals as much as to music.

That passion became a credential. He earned a degree in Multimedia Arts from De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, graduating with honors in 2018, the same year his music career would take off.

His path into performing started on the dance floor. He danced in a crew alongside future bandmate, Josh, before attending a ShowBT workshop and auditioning his way into training.

That training was rigorous and Korean-style, blending vocals, dance, conditioning, and stage presence, all while he was still finishing his degree. It was a demanding balancing act that set the tone for the multi-hyphenate he would become.

Rising With SB19

Justin is the youngest, or maknae, of SB19, the pioneering P-pop group that debuted in October 2018 and helped kick open the door for Filipino pop on the world stage.

Within the group he is a sub-vocalist and its main visual, but his fingerprints reach far beyond his own parts, growing into a full creative director role for SB19.

Alongside his bandmates, including FELIP (SB19 Ken), he has experienced SB19 grow from a struggling rookie act into record-breaking, arena-filling trailblazers, the first Filipino act nominated at the Billboard Music Awards.

Behind the Camera: SB19’s Creative Director

Justin’s Multimedia Arts training never sat on a shelf. As SB19’s creative director, he has shaped the visual world of the group’s biggest eras, frequently stepping behind the camera himself.

He wrote and directed the animated video for “Hanggang sa Huli” (2020), storyboarded and directed “What?” (2021), then went on to direct “WYAT (Where You At)” (2022) and took co-creative director duties for the viral juggernaut “Gento” (2023). He also directed the group’s 2021 online concert Back in the Zone, where he slipped in a solo cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist.”

In 2024 he conceptualized and served as creative director for SB19’s summer single music video “Moonlight,” the group’s team-up with international producers Ian Asher and Terry Zhong. “The song has euphoric undertones lyrics-wise, so I wanted to play around with that concept and inject a little bit of craziness and out-of-this-world treatment,” he said of the video.

His vision travels outside SB19, too. He served as co-creative director on bandmate Stell’s solo debut “Room” (2024) and directed Cup of Joe‘s “Misteryoso” (2024), a playful office-romance video starring BINI’s Jhoanna. Away from music videos, he founded Visar Society, a community of visual artists, and has mounted his own art showcase, Lunan.

“It was such a great experience to be in the room where it happens,” he has said of building those visuals, “building ideas from scratch, connecting the minds of our team members and collaborators, and bringing them to actuality… I would always do it in a heartbeat.”

Going Solo as “justin”

In February 2024, Justin stepped out on his own, stylizing his solo name in soft lowercase: justin. His debut single “surreal” arrived on February 29, a soft pop ballad about dreams, coincidence, and improbable love.

He wrote “surreal” himself, reportedly years before its release, and recorded it with guest vocals from Gelou and production from Radkidz, the studio duo of his SB19 bandmate Pablo and Pablo’s brother, Josue. Naturally, he co-directed the video too, alongside Xi-Anne Avanceña, filming in the Philippines and South Korea.

Going solo let him finally merge his two loves. “To be able to fuse those two worlds now, I am very much happy to use my creativity alongside music,” he has said, “and that I get to do what I love to do as work.”

He followed “surreal” with a gentle cover of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” then returned that September with “kaibigan” (“friend”) – another self-directed video, this time a bittersweet story of two people caught somewhere between friendship and something more.

Across these releases, a signature emerged: hushed, cottagecore-tinged soft pop, the kind of sleepy, pastel sound he describes as his “pastel forest.” Going solo, he has said, gives him full creative control, even if performing alone is a different kind of challenge than sharing a stage with four bandmates.

Turning a New Leaf

Justin kept branching out in 2025, teaming with folk-pop artist dwta on “Sampung Mga Daliri,” a collaboration that would go on to be named Folk Song of the Year at the Filipino Music Awards.

He has expanded onto the screen as an actor, too, making his debut as Jared in the series Senior High (2024) and taking a special role as Ec’naad in Encantadia Chronicles: Sang’gre (2025).

In June 2026 he unveiled “dahon,” a tender ballad written for him by singer-songwriter Maki that likens enduring love to a deep-rooted tree weathering the seasons. Its four-and-a-half-minute music video, set in a dreamy forest, threads in an animated story of its own.

Leaf by leaf, justin keeps carving out a lane that is unmistakably his: soft-spoken, image-rich, and quietly ambitious, equal parts songwriter and director.

Videos

Singles

• surreal (2024)
• kaibigan (2024)
• dahon (2026)

Song Collaborations

• Sampung Mga Daliri (dwta – 2025)

TV

• Senior High (2024) – acting debut as Jared
• Encantadia Chronicles: Sang’gre (2025) – as Ec’naad

Awards

Myx Music Awards

• Mellow Video of the Year (surreal – 2024)

Awit Awards

• Favorite Music Video of the Year (surreal – 2025)
• Favorite Record of the Year (kaibigan – 2025)

Filipino Music Awards

• Folk Song of the Year (Sampung Mga Daliri, with dwta – 2025)

PPOP Awards

• Pop Main Visual of the Year (2022)
• Best Visual of the Year (2022)

TAG Awards Chicago

• TAG 25 Under 25 (2023)

Nominations

P-pop Music Awards

• Music Video of the Year (surreal – 2024)

Village Pipol Choice Awards

• Male TikTok Face of the Year (2023)

Perspective

There’s a rare kind of confidence in making music this quiet. justin doesn’t reach for the big belted note or the arena-sized hook – he leans into hush, mood, and imagery, trusting a whispered melody to do the heavy lifting. Listening to him feels like flipping through a beautifully shot short film you didn’t know you needed: soft-lit, a little wistful, and lingering long after the last frame.

Praise for the Artist

justin and the team behind this music video was successful in making me feel something.

– Michelle Manzano
justin’s debut single ‘surreal’: a bittersweet lovesong
Popzine

What made this stand out was the storytelling… I think he and his team did such an incredible job.

– Liezel Regidor
The pain of unrequited love in the ‘kaibigan’ music video
Medium

A dahon, or leaf, often symbolizes growth, change, and new beginnings – ideas that seem fitting for an artist steadily carving out his own creative path.

– ZEEN Media
Justin Turns Over a New Leaf in Upcoming Single “Dahon”
ZEEN Media

Contact

• facebook.com/justintdedios
• x.com/justintdedios
• instagram.com/jahdedios
• youtube.com/@justintdedios
• tiktok.com/@justintdedios

Bookings

• Artist contact

Listen

• Spotify – justin
• Apple Music – justin

Apple Music

On Instagram

Trivia

• He’s a devoted cat dad, and his brood comes with a beloved fandom backstory: his cat Saoirse and bandmate FELIP’s black cat, Kuro (fans ship the pair as “Kurse”), became parents to a litter of five kittens – Ichi, Pichi, Maku, Menggay, and Timtim – several of whom, including Menggay and Timtim, now share Justin’s home with their mom.
• That whole cat family even became art: for Visar Society’s first anniversary, his design collective teamed up with Quiver Smiths on a “Royal Family” collection featuring Saoirse, Kuro, and their five kittens.
• Photography is his other lens, he keeps a dedicated film-photography account (@justfi7m) apart from his music.
• For all his behind-the-scenes confidence, he admitted to being “extremely nervous” about stepping out on his own when he launched “surreal” in 2024.
• His solo justin logo hides two symbols, “The Boot,” for the challenges he’s faced, and “The Sprout,” for his blossoming creativity.
• A proud Benildean, he returned to De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde to perform at the school’s NCAA centennial celebration in 2024.

Posted: July 2, 2026