We’re still fighting our way through a pandemic, but thankfully, things are starting to look up especially for the music and events industries. As the world embraces the new normal, JIKAMARIE seizes this opportunity to share her music with the added push of her new family, Warner Music Philippines (WMP).
Despite the global health crisis, she managed to muster enough motivation to power through her new venture.
“I think this pandemic has not only affected me and my creativity — it has somehow prompted me to create more. The extra time I have in isolation gave me room to talk to myself more and I’ve discovered things about myself that I didn’t know I’ve thought or felt for a long time without noticing,” Jikamarie expressed.
Rising artist Jikamarie’s first single ‘Lutang’ was well-received when it came out two months ago, and since then, it has garnered consistent attention as a growing fanbase streamed Jikamarie’s song over two million times on Spotify and Youtube; the former showed further interest by adding it to Spotify-curated playlists.
“I believe it’s one of the reasons why I think people love it — they relate to it so much. I’ve gotten a lot of comments saying that I’ve voiced out their sentiments that they couldn’t put into words, which I’m half glad and half sad that my frustration is shared with so many young people like me,” Jikamarie said, sharing her thoughts on her instant fame.
Talking more about Lutang’s success, Jikamarie said, “I honestly did not think it would gain this much attention. I posted a demo of this song on my Tiktok, and my followers loved it, to the point of them begging me in all my comment sections to release the song. And that was my main reason for releasing it — so that my followers would be able to listen to it conveniently.
“I didn’t think more people other than my followers would discover it or even like the song. A million streams are a big deal. Every day that I wake up I still can’t believe that so many people listened to my song more than a million times.”
Blending electronic elements and dream pop, the new WMP signee floats into an air of disquiet on “Lutang.”
“I wrote ‘Lutang’ at 5 a.m., after I just finished a major architectural plate and I was so exhausted — physically, emotionally, mentally. I felt so defeated, like I had no choice but to do my tasks because I simply needed to — not because they made me happy doing them.
“This tiredness escalated into fatigue combined with anxiety, because aside from the academic career that demanded so much of my time and energy, I also wanted to pursue music –my childhood dream. Really badly. I was deciding whether I would continue with architecture or shift to a music-related career, maybe even drop out completely to work on my music.
“The pressure of deciding between the two very risky options triggered me to just want to, quite literally “float” instead of having the burden of deciding. When I made the demo, I showed it to my brother and him having the skills to produce music, I trusted the song to him.”
Jikamarie said in her email interview that she still hasn’t processed this turn of events completely especially her recent deal with WMP.
“It still feels surreal to be part of Warner Music — the label that seems so far and unreachable for me not even a month ago. I released ‘Lutang’ when I had no label yet, it had about 100,000 streams at the time, when the head of the A&R department, Sir Kelley, messaged me on Instagram saying he wants to help me boost my career.
“I was honored, also knowing the fact that my favorite local and international artists were working with Warner, and now they’re no longer just my favorite artists, they’re my colleagues! They were also the one to message me first among other labels! That alone was an honor. I am very happy and feeling very blessed that God gave me this opportunity to amplify the music I make for a million, maybe more people to hear. I’m excited to work with Warner, knowing how well they strengthen their artists to truly shine and flourish in the music industry.”
With her commanding online presence since day one, Jikamarie only proves on “Lutang” that she’s ready to do the work and stay. Lutang is out now and can be streamed everywhere. Her lyric video will also be available on Youtube soon.
