Due to the expiration of
ABS-CBN's
congressional franchise on May 4, 2020, the
National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and
Solicitor General Jose Calida issued a cease-and-desist order on the next day, demanding the network to immediately cease all of its free-to-air broadcast operations. With that, several Kapamilya actors and actresses expressed their dismay regarding the shutdown of the network through online livestreaming. One of those livestreams was the "Laban, Kapamilya!" event on May 8 through
Facebook Live sessions where Kim Chiu accidentally made a confusing comparison of the law and the ABS-CBN shutdown to classroom dynamics. English translation The next day, Chiu posted in her Instagram account that even she herself did not understand her "classroom" statement. Nonetheless, her statement snowballed into a massive deal. Different kinds of
internet memes were born, including the one with a beat created by Squammy Beats in which Chiu's statement was
auto-tuned. The version made by Squammy has been used heavily in several
TikTok videos. For several days, Chiu stayed away from social media as she became a laughingstock online. While friends checked up on Chiu at the height of the meme's spread, it was one stranger's open letter on Facebook that made a mark on the actress. The open letter came from Adrian Crisanto, a marketing professional. Crisanto suggested Chiu to record the "remix" of her video statement that had gone viral, spawning its own classical and rock covers, as well as a TikTok dance challenge. Eventually, Chiu, Crisanto, and original beat creator Squammy Beats collaborated for the "remix" became a full track. The full version of "Bawal Lumabas" premiered in Chiu's
YouTube account on May 18, 2020. After a week, the song was released to
Apple Music and
Spotify for
digital download and online streaming. ==Track listing==