Teen Singer Recounts Her Life’s Challenging Times in Debut Single
News Article Article pages that do not meet specifications for other Trust Project Type of Work labels and also do not fit within the general news category.
When you hear Giuliana Calandrucci’s debut single, “Be Alright,” it’s not just the clarity of her voice but the growing beat of this heartfelt ballad that pulls the listener in.
The single will be released this Friday, Feb. 18, the first song the 17-year-old Calandrucci has ever written. A Somers High School senior, Calandrucci’s voice is well-known among her fellow students, regularly singing the national anthem at the school’s sporting events.
Calandrucci co-wrote the song with her close friend and fellow musician, Sean Kennedy, also a Somers senior.
“This is the first song I have written and it’s a new experience for me,” she said. “Sean figured out the melody line but he also helped me get my emotions out and down on paper.”
Early on, Calandrucci said she shared the song’s lyrics with a few friends.
“They told me it was so beautiful and they could relate to it,” recalled Calandrucci, who lives with her parents, older brother and younger sister. “It made me feel I wasn’t alone.”
The song looks at overcoming fear and anxiety by staying positive. Calandrucci tapped into those unpleasant memories from 2016, after moving to Somers from Mount Pleasant and finding it difficult to make friends.
“Middle school girls can be rough,” she recalled. “Part of the song is about that experience and it’s also about wanting to slowly get back to my lost faith, getting back to Christianity.”
Reflecting those feelings are in the lines “I’m feeling alone/Their faces of stone/And I cry out loud to heaven.”
Other lines in the song that reference a bad accident Calandrucci was in, which resulted in a broken leg and ankle, requiring extensive surgery.
“Could I end up just fine? Will I find my old self again?”
It was an emotional and trying time for her and the idea of putting her feelings into words and music started to percolate.
Kennedy masterfully arranged the background music, which slowly becomes a major component of the song. Starting softly, a simple piano line accompanies Calandrucci’s expressive voice. As her words grow more self-reflective, a harmonically rich orchestral background seamlessly joins together with a strong rhythm section, matching Calandrucci’s voice as she sings out forcibly with great emotion.
When she graduates high school this June, Calandrucci will enroll in culinary school, although she hasn’t yet decided which one she’ll attend. She is inspired by her father, Tommy, the co-owner and chef of Stone Fire, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Mount Kisco.
Inspired by music by Demi Lovato and Adele, Calandrucci said she plans to continue writing music, but it’s likely new songs would be different from “Be Alright.”
“I’d like to try more musical variety in the new songs,” she said. “I want to have some rock and more upbeat songs that are fun.”
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
