In the early hours of Christmas Day 2024, the Internet buzzed over a series of screenshots and videos from R&B singer Denise Julia. The 22-year-old spoke out in defense of her team while also addressing her recent controversy. The issue stemmed from statements shared by celebrity photographer BJ Pascual on content creator Killa Kush's podcast.
And since everyone’s already here for the tea, let's break it down. Here's a quick recap of the Denise Julia and BJ Pascual situation—just the need-to-know stuff. There's been a lot posted by all sides, so we're keeping it short and sweet with just the main highlights.
What's the issue between BJ Pascual and Denise Julia?
December 20, 2024: The (Now Taken Down) Podcast
In case you're not yet up-to-date with all the BJ and DJ fiasco (we get it, it's the holiday szn after all), BJ got super candid about Denise Julia allegedly canceling their shoot literally a day before the scheduled date. According to BJ, Denise allegedly begged off from the shoot because she had no hairstylist.
BJ referred to the situation as "unprofessional" and mentioned that the planned shoot could be viewed as "charity work" from him and his colleagues from the creative industry. "Ang babayaran lang talaga nila dito is 'yung cost—cost ng material and the manpower. No talent fee na," BJ said during the podcast.
While BJ clarified that rescheduling the shoot wasn't a major issue, he emphasized that some costs, including studio rental and manpower fees for the four prepared set layouts, still needed to be settled. However, Denise Julia's team reportedly disputed these payments, stating that they hadn't officially confirmed the shoot date since the budget hadn't been finalized. This disagreement led to confusion between the two parties.
BJ mentioned that Denise Julia's team disputed the payment, asserting that the shoot date had not been confirmed due to ongoing budget discussions. After all that was said and done, BJ called up Sarah Lahbati instead to do the shoot and went through with the four layouts—just so nothing's wasted, he said.
The release of the podcast episode coincided with Denise Julia's social media break, which she announced on her Instagram Stories.
Denise Julia's response to BJ Pascual
December 23, 2024, 9:30 p.m.-ish: The Teaser
Yes, Denise Julia did a full-blown response to BJ's aired frustrations about the singer's team. But before that, she shared a teaser-like post, catching the public's attention. "Dec 25th on my ig stories! paused on the socmed break. i have to clear this up. :)" she wrote.
December 25, 2024, 1 a.m.: The Start Of Denise Julia's Christmas Day Statement
Denise Julia began her IG Story statement with, "I just wanted to take the time to address the issue that's been going around between me and BJ Pascual in his podcast with Killa Kush."
She first emphasized that she reached out to the celebrity photographer after hearing about his sentiments on Killa's podcast episode. It seems that at the time of Denise Julia's video recording, BJ hadn't yet responded to her messages.
Airing her side of the story, she posted a screenshot of her message to BJ which first read, "I want to sincerely apologize for my shortcomings as an artist and for the unprofessionalism you've experienced. [...] I'm surprised by how this unfolded but also determined to learn and grow from it."
The rising R&B star detailed a series of screenshots in her IG Stories allegedly showing exchanges between her manager and BJ's team about budget concerns for a planned shoot. Initially, she claimed that her team proposed a P650,000 budget, which included both a photoshoot and a music video. Denise noted that it was BJ who reportedly requested to also shoot a music video with her team.
"On July 18, which is the screenshot that I posted, my manager gave them a budget of P650,000 for all in all—for the music video and photoshoot...Initially, it was just a photoshoot that we planned, but BJ kind of insisted that he wanted to shoot a music video for the first time, which I would not be against," Denise Julia explained.
She pointed out that BJ's team allegedly did not provide feedback on their proposed budget despite follow-ups from her manager. "We can't really have a shoot date without us being sure if the budget is even feasible for them. 'Coz on our end, we understand if this is not something they can work with. We would've pulled back immediately from the start if they had only told us that this is not doable for them," she said.
Denise Julia stated that BJ's team responded three weeks later with a revised cost sheet of P1.2 million. "Since we had already given our budget beforehand, we still tried to stretch it to P800,000, 'coz we really wanted to do this," she said. The artist added that her team made efforts to meet BJ's team halfway. "My manager was trying to figure out ways to make it work," she stated, highlighting their commitment to the project despite the challenges.
December 25, 2024, 2 a.m.: DJ & BJ's Conversation
At around 2 a.m. on December 25 (we kinda missed a part of our noche buenas for this), Denise Julia shared another screenshot of BJ's presumed response to her first apology. In a succeeding message, Denise voiced out her desire to address the issue in public.
"I wanted to let you know that I plan to address these clarifications in a video—not to attack you, but to present the truth from my side. [...] I hope you'll understand that I'm taking the same opportunity to share my perspective publicly, including our conversation," she wrote.
Denise furthered, "I acknowledge where I went wrong. I also believe it's fair to hold someone accountable for the misinformation and the directed public escalation." She ended her message with an invitation for them to talk about the issue—which BJ agreed to do later on.
December 25, 2024, 11 a.m.: Killa Kush Speaks Up
Content creator Killa Kush also said her piece on the matter. Expressing her disappointment, she defended her podcast as well as her questions during the episode with BJ. She wrote in (another) IG Story, "As a host—my questions and comments on the podcast were never meant to shame anyone, rather open up the conversation on challenges in the creative industry. [...] My focus is to continue sparking meaningful conversations and challenging minds."
December 25, 2024, 6 p.m.: BJ Pascual's podcast episode with Killa Kush disappears from Killa's YouTube
Eagle-eyed netizens—probably those who were trying to keep up with the tea—noticed that BJ's podcast episode was nowhere to be seen on Killa's official YouTube channel. Someone posted about it on X (formerly Twitter), which Denise reposted with the caption, "damn at least delete mine and my best friend's too."
While the podcast episode on Youtube was taken down, it's still available to stream on Spotify as of writing.
BJ Pascual Responds To Denise Julia's Defense
December 25, 2024, 7 p.m.: BJ Pascual Sets The Record Straight
As people on the Internet went on to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones, some stayed tuned and updated with Denise Julia and BJ's situation—which actually became a series of screenshots of their conversations from their respective points of view.
Hours before Christmas ended, BJ clarified some things about the matter on his social media accounts because, he says, the R&B singer did not include everything that was discussed within their conversation. He said that "some claims and portions of the images she shared on her IG stories do not reflect the full context of what really transpired. [...] I am sharing screenshots of teams' discussions to set the record straight."
Contradicting what Denise Julia noted as BJ's team's P1.2 million budget, BJ claimed that their team tried their very best to lessen the cost and budget to P371,000, at least for the one-day shoot. "Our team made every effort to adjust the budget down to 371k for the one-day shoot, which was below industry standards. This was part of our effort to accommodate their budget and fit within their specific range, contrary to the original 1.2M amount that Denise shared in her IG story. A detail that was not fully addressed in her video."
BJ expounded on what he said on the podcast, tackling what supposedly happened before they completely canceled the shoot with Denise Julia. The celebrity photographer said that Denise Julia's manager told his team that their team was "not ready" due to not having a hairstylist for Denise Julia, asking to reschedule the shoot—nine hours before their supposed call time. In the podcast, he shared that their call time was 6 a.m.
BJ mentioned that they had arranged a glam team for Denise Julia, but despite securing a hair and makeup artist for the following day, Denise Julia's team felt the shoot was not ready to proceed. "Even though we had managed to secure a hair/makeup artist for the next day, they still felt unprepared," BJ said.
He continued, "According to JV [manager], he was in contact with Denise when the situation was happening, so it's confusing why they are now attributing the cancellation of the budget."
BJ also responded to Denise Julia's argument that there shouldn't be a locked-in date for the shoot since there was no budget agreed upon in the first place. In his December 25 statement, BJ said that Denise Julia's team was aware of the production team's progress and the details of the shoot. As a result, BJ's team believed that all parties had agreed on the arrangements.
"They were also informed that the production designer and her team, were already in the process of constructing the sets (standard practice to build sets, especially if they're big, the day before the shoot," BJ stated. "However, when the topic of rescheduling and the incurred cancelation fee came up, her team claimed there had been no confirmation, despite their earlier messages clearly indicating otherwise."
Moreover, BJ admitted to calling the cancelation of the shoot out of respect for everyone involved in the production of the shoot's supposed set. "At 11:27 PM, approximately 6.5 hours before the scheduled call time for the creative team, out of respect for the time of everyone involved, we decided to cancel the shoot. We promptly informed everyone, including the suppliers," BJ divulged.
BJ concluded his series of statements by expressing regret over the public attention the controversy surrounding their canceled shoot had received on Christmas day.
