Why Everyone Is Suddenly Playing “What If I Miss You” on Ukulele
by Jonas
·
6 min read
Janine Berdin's What If I Miss You for the Rest of My Life went from a live clip to a worldwide moment. Here is the story, what it takes to play it on ukulele and five OPM songs to learn next.
Every once in a while a song stops being a song and becomes a moment. Right now that moment belongs to Janine Berdin. One raw live performance of “What if I miss you for the rest of my life?” started doing rounds on TikTok, and within weeks the whole world seemed to know the chorus. The search traffic tells the same story: it is by far the most looked-up song on UkuTabs this month, and it is not even close.
So here is everything ukulele players keep asking me about it. Who she is, why this song exploded, what it actually takes to play it and what to learn when you are done.
Who is Janine Berdin?
Janine Berdin is a singer-songwriter from Cebu who won the second season of Tawag ng Tanghalan on It’s Showtime back in 2018, when she was still a teenager. For years she was mostly known in the Philippines. That changed in 2025 when she released her debut album Lab Songs ng mga Tanga, a collection of self-written songs that critics loved and fans quietly obsessed over.
“What if I miss you for the rest of my life?” is the standout track. She wrote it herself, and you can tell. It reads like a page from someone’s diary that was never meant to be published.
Why did the song go viral?
No label push, no dance trend. What travelled was a handful of live clips, most famously her unfiltered live renditions that started spreading far beyond the Philippines. The delivery is so bare that people kept sharing it just to say “you have to hear this”.
Then the big names piled on. Doechii reposted one of her performance clips, SZA liked another and suddenly a song written in Tagalog-flavoured English was being covered by bedroom musicians everywhere. The track blew past 14 million Spotify streams within months and kept climbing.
For ukulele players this is familiar territory. Stripped-back, emotional songs always find their way to the uke. This one was practically built for it.
What does it take to play it on ukulele?
Honest answer: a bit more than the average viral song. This is not a four-chord campfire strummer.
The UkuTabs sheet puts a capo on fret 2 and moves through six main chords, with a few colour chords on top:
- Gbadd9, the dreamy chord that opens the song and sets the whole mood
- Abm, Bbm and B, the climbing progression under the verses
- Db and Ebm, which carry the chorus
Flat keys look scarier than they are, but there is no way around it: a couple of these shapes need more than one finger doing real work. If you are comfortable with minor barre shapes you will have it down in an evening. Tap any chord in the sheet to see the diagram, cycle easier voicings and hear how it should sound.
The real trick is not the chords anyway. It is restraint. The song lives on space and soft dynamics, so strum less than you think you should. Fingerpicking the verses works beautifully too.
Can beginners play it?
As your very first song? I would not. Learn a few open-chord songs first, then come back. Two shortcuts if you cannot wait:
- Use the transposer on the song page to shift the key until you hit friendlier shapes, then put your capo wherever it needs to go to sing along.
- If barre chords are the wall, my bar chords guide breaks them down step by step.
And if you want songs that are kinder to fresh fingers, the easy ukulele songs collection is sorted for exactly that.
What should you play next? Five more OPM songs
If this song pulled you in, you have just discovered OPM, Original Pilipino Music, and you are in luck. It is one of the most ukulele-friendly genres there is. Five favourites to keep going:
- Lola Amour, Raining In Manila. The modern OPM anthem, laid-back and instantly singable.
- Cup of Joe, Multo. Another recent Filipino hit that translates perfectly to uke.
- MYMP, Tell Me Where It Hurts. An acoustic classic that players are rediscovering right now.
- Moira Dela Torre, Titibo-Tibo. Sweet, simple and made for a quiet evening.
- Eraserheads, With A Smile. The timeless one. Every OPM songbook starts here.
Want more? Browse all 61 OPM songs on UkuTabs, each with chord diagrams, a transposer and auto-scroll.
Frequently asked questions
Does “What if I miss you” need a capo on ukulele?
The UkuTabs arrangement uses a capo on fret 2 to match the original recording. No capo? Play the shapes as written and it simply sounds a whole step lower, which is fine for singing along by yourself.
Can I play it without barre chords?
Mostly, yes. Open the song page and use the transposer to shift the key until the shapes get friendlier, then move your capo to sing in the original key. Tapping any chord also shows easier voicings.
Is it a good first song for a beginner?
Not really. Six chords in a flat key is a lot for week one. Start with a few easy ukulele songs, get comfortable switching chords and come back to this one as your first real challenge.
Did Janine Berdin write the song herself?
Yes. It is a self-written track from her 2025 debut album Lab Songs ng mga Tanga, which is a big part of why the live versions feel so personal.
Where can I find the full chords for free?
Right here on UkuTabs: the complete chord sheet with diagrams, a transposer, auto-scroll and the play-along video. Free, like every song on the site.
Now go learn it before your feed moves on to the next thing. Although honestly, I do not think this one is going anywhere for a while.