Filipino R&B singer Denise Julia delivered a Christmas surprise by addressing the allegations made by renowned Filipino photographer BJ Pascual.
In a recent podcast episode with Killa Kush, Pascual reportedly accused Denise and her team of canceling their photoshoot project at the last minute.
On her Instagram account, Denise addressed the controversy by sharing screenshots of her messages with BJ, along with conversations between their respective managers.
The B.A.D singer shared that her team initiated contact with BJ for the photoshoot proposal. They even held two Zoom meetings, and BJ and Denise had several personal calls to exchange ideas.
BJ later suggested creating a music video, and while this wasn’t part of their original plan, Denise shared her enthusiasm for the idea.
Denise revealed that her manager proposed a total budget of PHP 650,000 for both the music video and the photoshoot. However, multiple follow-ups had to be made with BJ’s team regarding the budget, as their responses were often delayed—Denise said that it might be due to their busy schedules.
She also explained that they were open to not pursuing the project if it wasn’t feasible for BJ’s team, emphasizing that exceeding the budget would not be workable for Denise’s side.
“BJ’s team did not get back to us about this budget despite my manager checking in and following up to make sure that the budget is doable to begin with because we can’t really have a shoot date without us being sure if the budget is even feasible for them,” Denise shared.
“Because on our end, we understand if this is not something that they can work with. We would’ve pulled back immediately already from the start if they had only told us that this was not doable for them, and that’s not the price range that they could work with. We will respect that,” said Denise.
Three weeks after Denise’s team submitted the initial PHP 650k budget, BJ’s team sent an updated cost sheet of PHP 1.2 million, just three days before the scheduled shoot.
Determined to push through, Denise’s team tried stretching the budget to PHP 800,000, hoping to ensure everyone’s efforts wouldn’t go to waste. They also proposed shifting the focus from creating a music video to working on layouts instead, aiming to salvage the hard work both teams had already invested.
After increasing the budget to PHP 800,000, Denise shared that BJ’s team responded on August 12—just two days before the scheduled shoot—with a revised proposal amounting to PHP 1 million.
Denise revealed that her manager suggested postponing the shoot to a later date in an effort to make the project work.
“I know in the podcast they said I was the one who canceled on the shoot, but in reality, my manager was still trying to make it work. He suggested to push the shoot to a later date so that none of the team’s efforts go to waste and also so that cancellation fees don’t incur, but ultimately [in] the end, BJ’s team, not us, canceled the shoot, citing the differences in our production processes,” Denise said.
Denise, however, admitted that she did not reach out to Pascual soon after the incident. “It was because I didn’t know the extent of his frustrations until everything aired out on social media and it blew off of proportion. It is something that I will take with me as I move forward with work,” she said.
The Filipina singer shared that BJ reached out to her on Christmas Eve, asking to meet up personally to settle things out. Denise has also let BJ know that she will be addressing the controversy by sharing her perspective in public, including their conversations.
