Jolianne isn’t letting numbers paralyze her
What are you supposed to do after a hit? Do you attempt to replicate the song’s identifiable features? Can it even be captured like lightning in a bottle? Or is it simply a matter of chance and unpredictable listening patterns?
It’s a question that’s stumped Filipino singer-songwriter Jolianne, following the release of the chart-topping “Palayo sa Mundo” with fellow Bisaya Arthur Nery. The song has over 78 million streams on Spotify alone as of writing—and it’s also her highest-performing track to date.
“It took me a long time to release a track after ‘Palayo sa Mundo’ because I wanted a song that would give me the same numbers that it did,” shares Jolianne during our recent interview. “But I learned throughout this process that I can’t keep trying to chase the same high. I had to stop trying to make music from the mindset of ‘I need to make a hit.’”
Love as a form of surrender
Instead of forcing out a copy of her hit, out came “Daanan,” a track whose approach is anything but formulaic. The track is the first Jolianne’s ever written solely by herself, wholly in Tagalog. Which sounds simple enough—until you realize that Tagalog is her third language.
You wouldn’t bet on that if you wanted a hit straight away. But it isn’t about the numbers for her at this point. “Writing in Filipino felt like entering an entirely new space. It made me feel like a beginner all over again. ‘Daanan’ challenged me to stretch beyond what I already knew, and I’m happy that I allowed myself to be a beginner again,” says Jolianne in a press release.
Similarly, the song’s lyrical content bears a similarity to this mental shift: that just like a hit, you also can’t expect love to always be ready-made and perfect from the get-go.
“Daanan,” according to her, is all about falling in love and allowing someone to walk you through your firsts. “I learned that love doesn’t always arrive fully formed. Sometimes, it’s something that simply develops over time,” she says.
“It’s not always this bolt of lightning. At times, it slowly creeps up on you, and it’s just a matter of being open to it and allowing someone to be a part of your life. It’s surrender, essentially.”
From China, with love
Aside from a newly released track, Jolianne is also coming from a successful but out-of-left-field China tour. Yes, earlier this July, she embarked on her first-ever tour in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and in Shenzhen, of all places. Though she describes it as a fun experience, it was one that “truly came out of nowhere.”
Before the tour, she knew that outside the Philippines, she had a considerable following in Thailand, Indonesia, and other regions in Southeast Asia. “China never really reflected on the statistics because they have their own set of streaming and social media platforms,” she adds.
So when she was asked to hold a tour in China, she was quite hesitant at first. “I told them, ‘I haven’t even done a tour in the Philippines, so maybe this isn’t a good idea.’”
However, she gained confidence to do the tour after being shown that her numbers in China paralleled those of hers here—the only difference being the parts of her discography that they enjoyed: her earlier English R&B releases. “My biggest song there is ‘I Can’t Sleep,’ which I don’t even include in my setlists here.”
“It’s a very interesting mix because this whole China thing only surfaced now when I’m trying to focus on releasing Tagalog music,” Jolianne adds.
Still, while she’s considering eventually releasing a song in Mandarin, even her fans in China aren’t too particular about languages. “I remember talking to my fans in China: They told me that it doesn’t matter so much what language you sing in because they’re mostly into the melody rather than the lyrics. So we’ll see where the tide takes us.”
What feels true
From the outside looking in, it feels as if Jolianne is being pulled in different directions: her greatest success so far in the form of a Filipino hit and an unexpected fanbase in China that puts into question her direction as an artist.
At this point, Jolianne is all about putting music out—regardless of demographics and chart-topping potential. Her goal? Music that feeds her soul.
“It’s so hard to be paralyzed by numbers or what I think is gonna do well, because there’s really no way of predicting a hit,” she explains. “I just wanna make music that feels like me. I’ll focus less on the numbers and write music that feels true to me.”
