Original Score by Emmy Award®-nominated composer Nathan Matthew David
Featuring songs by H.E.R., Liza Soberano, BINI, SB19, Sophia Laforteza and more
FORGOTTEN ISLAND OPENS IN THEATERS NATIONWIDE SEPTEMBER 25
LOS ANGELES, CA, September 18, 2026 – Back Lot Music announces the soundtrack release of DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island, featuring an original score by Emmy Award®-nominated composer Nathan Matthew David, and songs by H.E.R., Liza Soberano, BINI, SB19, Sophia Laforteza of KATSEYE, Ruby Ibarra, Carl Angelo, Guapdad 4000, P-Lo, and Lea Salonga.
Music plays a central role in Forgotten Island, quickly becoming one of the film’s defining emotional and cultural forces. From the beginning, filmmakers Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado and Mark Swift understood that the score would need to do more than heighten adventure or underline feeling. It had to transport audiences into Jo and Raissa’s world while honoring the history, texture and spirit of the Filipino influences at the heart of the film. To realize that vision, they turned to composer Nathan Matthew David, whose background and deep connection to Filipino artistry made him an essential collaborator.
A Los Angeles native born to Filipino parents, David spent much of the last decade studying with Filipino artists, and he approached Forgotten Island with a clear sense of both responsibility and possibility. “From our very first meeting, I immediately felt Joel and Januel’s excitement to pursue something unique and innovative, and that aligned with my desire to incorporate Indigenous Filipino instruments in the score, something that I do not think has been done on a film of this size,” David says. “I did not want it just to be an additive element that created ‘exoticism.’ I wanted the instruments to feel at home and intentional in the world of our story.”
Like the filmmakers, David traveled to the Philippines early in the process in search of inspiration. His journey took him to Lake Sebu to visit the T’boli tribe and to the Cordillera mountains to spend time with the Kalinga people. “The trip was truly life changing, and all of that infused into the music I was writing,” David says. “Once we go down the portal into Nakali, the sound world changes almost completely as we explore fantastical spaces with Indigenous Filipino elements, voice and orchestra.”
The film’s soundtrack includes a mix of original songs and covers that reflect the movie’s Filipino and Filipino American influences, along with the 1980s and 1990s pop culture that shapes Jo and Raissa’s world. Among the original songs are “A Parallel World,” recorded by David with Filipino pop group BINI and producer Shawn Wasabi; “Salbahe Ako,” performed by Ruby Ibarra and Carl Angelo and produced by Sweater Beats; “Double Up,” performed by Guapdad 4000 featuring P-Lo; and the end-title track “BRB,” performed by H.E.R. and Soberano and co-written and co-produced by H.E.R. and Ryan Tedder. The soundtrack also features Lea Salonga as a featured vocalist within David’s score, as well as covers, including a version of the INXS hit “Never Tear Us Apart,” performed by Sophia Laforteza of the girl group KATSEYE and produced by Mike Elizondo, whose credits include 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” and Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair”; SB19’s cover of “Mga Kababayan,” originally written and recorded by the seminal Filipino hip-hop pioneer Francis M.; and a selection of karaoke favorites and party classics woven throughout the film.
ABOUT NATHAN MATTHEW DAVID
Nathan Matthew David is a Peabody award-winning and Emmy-nominated composer for film and television. Born to Filipino immigrants, he explores combining indigenous Filipino instruments into his scores. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Scoring For Motion Pictures and Television Program. Shortly thereafter, he began collaborating with his mentors Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, Oppenheimer) and Theodore Shapiro (Severance, Ghostbusters).
Recent projects include original music for the Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) directed Lionsgate film Joy Ride; original score for the Disney film Chang Can Dunk; and original music for the Netflix series The Brothers Sun (starting Michelle Yeoh) as well as the acclaimed series, Chef’s Table. Past work includes original music for three seasons of the NBC show, Young Rock (starring Dwayne Johnson) and additional music for the second season of The Mandalorian, as well as synth work for the Christopher Nolan directed, Tenet. Recent accolades include a 2024 ASCAP award for his work on Disney’s Chang Can Dunk; a 2020 Peabody Award and an ASCAP award for his work on Surviving R. Kelly, as well as the 2020 Dean and Mary Kay ASCAP Foundation award. In 2021, he was nominated for a Sports Emmy for his work on the HBO documentary Under The Grapefruit Tree. Additionally, he is an avid photographer whose visual work primarily focuses on the Filipino-American experience, the diasporic experience in general, and his family and dogs.
ABOUT DREAMWORKS ANIMATION’S FORGOTTEN ISLAND
DreamWorks Animation, the studio that brought you unforgettable bonds between a boy and a dragon in How to Train Your Dragon, an ogre and a donkey in Shrek, and a robot and a gosling in The Wild Robot, now welcomes a dazzling and emotional story about two lifelong best friends who must come together before they drift apart in Forgotten Island.
The new original film is written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and is produced by Academy Award® nominee Mark Swift, the filmmaking team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Grammy and Academy Award® winning supernova H.E.R. and Liza Soberano (Lisa Frankenstein, Alone/Together) star as high school graduates Jo and Raissa, who have been best friends since grade school but are now about to embark on separate life paths.
While celebrating their last night together, Jo and Raissa stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with magical and mythological creatures they grew up hearing stories about from their Filipino families.
Some of these figures will become friends, some foes. Joined by well-meaning-but- hapless weredog Raww (Dave Franco) and a small-but-mighty pack of pals, Jo and Raissa must face The Dreaded Manananggal (Tony winning icon Lea Salonga), the most feared creature on the island. When they discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home, Jo and Raissa will race to find a way to leave the island before they forget each other forever.
The film’s all-star voice cast also includes Emmy nominee Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Dying for Sex), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick), BAFTA nominee Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness, Ghostlight), global comedy superstar Jo Koy (Haunted Mansion, Jo Koy: Live from Brooklyn) and Emmy winner Ronny Chieng (The Daily Show, M3GAN).
Get the Soundtrack Here: https://backlotmusic.ffm.to/forgottenisland
For more information, please contact:
Nikki Walsh, Back Lot Music
(818) 777-9151 | Nikki.Walsh@nbcuni.com