It’s been a while since I wrote a proper blog entry, and so much has happened the last few months since the lockdown started.
Let’s start with the biggest thing that’s been going on with me and it’s my YouTube channel. I made a decision exactly a year ago to revive my YouTube channel and in order to do that, I really took time to learn about filmmaking so that I could improve the quality of my videos. I think that’s the biggest thing that’s held me back from really expressing myself & making content that I could be proud of. That, and the fact that when I started on YouTube, I was super broke and couldn’t afford anything. Filmmaking can get very expensive.
Over the last year, I experimented with the kind of videos I could make that would be entertaining and provide value as well. I knew I wanted to continue making covers because that’s been my way of reaching music fans since the very beginning. I also knew that I wanted to be able to create music videos and visuals for my music, but that that would happen a little bit later as I get better. With that in mind, I felt like I needed to do a little bit more.
I looked at my YouTube channel and realized that, other than my music, there wasn’t anything that told viewers who I was. There was no personal connection. I thought about what I could do for people to get to know me better. I tried doing a talk show with my best friend and did a couple of covers, then around that time Taylor Swift’s album ‘Lover’ came out and my brother called and said:”You need to react to this album! Lots of people will be searching for that content.”
After much hesitation, I decided to go for it. To my surprise, the video got a good number of views and I decided to do another reaction for Lana Del Rey’s new album which came out a little while after ‘Lover’. That did well too. I did a series of reaction videos that were accompanied with a review and I titled the series ‘Honestly?’ because that was what I wrote on the thumbnail for the ‘Lover’ reaction video and it stuck. The reaction videos were doing well, but I was just “honestly” 😉 not very passionate about them. I realized why later.
During the lockdown, there weren’t any new albums coming out, so I got this idea to review older pop albums. The first video in this series (which I titled ‘Revisited’) was Madonna’s ‘Bedtime Stories’ album, and it was a review video, not a reaction. The reaction that video had was insane and I saw a level of engagement that I hadn’t seen before. That motivated me to review two other albums which were Britney’s ‘Blackout’ and Christina Aguilera’s ‘Bionic’. I found myself really enjoying making these videos and it hit me that I was revealing more of myself with them. These were albums that I grew up to. I was sharing my personal experience and revealing to my audience the kind of music that influenced my sound as an artist. It was a joy listening to these albums for the first time in years.
Just like that, I found my format. I’m crazy about pop music, especially pop from the 80s to the 2010s. That’s my passion and where my heart is. It’s where I feel most at home. I decided that I was going to upload a new ‘Revisited’ review on a weekly basis (every Tuesday at 11 am ET) and ‘Honestly’ reviews for new albums by artists that I love.
I’m also uploading covers and vlogs every week. Covers because I want to show my audience what I can do as an artist and vlogs to connect with people on a more personal level.
In other news, I’ve been recording songs for the new Qattana album. I have 2 songs left! I’m also rewriting the bridge for the final song for my album which I think will be the first single. I’m so excited for you guys to hear it! It’s about time I put out some new music, it’s been 4 years since RUSH came out. 😅
I’m going to upload a new vlog on Saturday and it’s going to be a Q&A. If you have a question, make sure you drop it in the ‘Community’ tab on my YouTube channel!
I hope you guys are doing well, I’ll catch you next time! ❤️