Budots Pioneer DJ Love Beat Heart Failure. Now He's Playing London's Margins United

Fourteen months ago, DJ Love was in a hospital bed in Davao City with no diagnosis. This September, he is going back to London.

Three Weeks, No Answers

In February 2025, Sherwin Tuna — the Davao City producer known worldwide as DJ Love, and the man most credited with turning budots from a slang word for "slacker" into a genre, through the Camusboyz dance crew he cofounded in 2004 — was admitted to a public hospital in his hometown with heart failure. Bandwagon Asia reported he spent more than three weeks there with, in his collaborators' words, "no clear diagnosis or real progress." Doctors eventually determined he needed urgent, specialized care, including heart surgery, care his family couldn't cover alone.

Fellow Davao artist obese.dogma777 launched a GoGetFunding campaign with a ₱1.2 million target, roughly £16,500 at the time, to help pay for it. "Despite all the tests and evaluations, we remain without answers," one update read. "His condition remains uncertain."

Back on the Decks, in Hong Kong

Days later, Billboard Philippines confirmed DJ Love had been discharged, reporting a successful angioplasty for blocked arteries. Two months later, he flew to Hong Kong for a rescheduled Boiler Room date at the Wan Chai Harbourfront, sharing a bill with Soichi Terada, Poison Girlfriend, Thaiboy Digital and a run of local names. He posted the news himself on Facebook: "In God's will, sa awa ng Diyos, pag kaya ko na, sisiguraduhin mas masaya kesa dati. Budots to the world." (By His mercy, once I'm able, I'll make it happier than before.)

The Sound That Got Him There

None of this would matter to a London booker if the music hadn't already traveled. DJ Love's 2024 debut album for Eastern Margins, Budots World (Reloaded), is the record that carried the genre international — its opening track "Tiwtiw" alone has soundtracked more than 50,000 TikTok clips.

London Calls Again

That's the same label bringing him back to London this year. Eastern Margins signed budots to a London deal once already, and now DJ Love is on the bill for the third edition of Margins United, the label's day-to-night celebration of East and Southeast Asian music, art and food at Club 360. It isn't a comeback debut on this stage specifically — he played the 2024 edition too — just a returning name with a very different year behind him. He shares the September 26 lineup with headliner Yves, J-pop group f5ve, Chengdu cloud-rap artist jackzebra, and London-based collectives including KOMA and Haven.

If You Go

Margins United 2026 runs from mid-afternoon into a 4am rave at Club 360 in London on Saturday, September 26. Day and night sessions are ticketed separately, with a pass covering the full stretch also available.

Cover photo: Sherwin Tuna / Boiler Room, via Facebook.

Cover photo: DJ Love (Sherwin Tuna), from the Boiler Room Hong Kong lineup announcement, via Rolling Stone Philippines.