Kiana V on repeat

It was to be Kiana Valenciano's big year. She was invited to be on the main stage of the South By Southwest convention (SXSW) – one of the biggest and most prestigious annual conglomerations of parallel film, interactive media and music festivals in Austin, Texas where she was chosen amongst thousands of applicants to do a full concert.

She had a full schedule for 2020, thanks to her Philippine team, Manila Genesis and Tarsier Records as well as her US team, the Zion Agency, and she was doing a concert tour, as well as projects organized to support her entrance into the global music marketplace. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 crisis happened and all her live events were cancelled.

That did not stop Kiana. She had produced and composed quite a number of songs the year before and was all set to work on them. She had co-written a song entitled “No Rush” co-produced by Fil-Australian music producer Young Billy and released it at the beginning of the year with a music video featuring the A-Team. She went on to do a remix of another of her compositions this time with producer Nick Pacoli, “Corners” collaborating with music producer Devin Lopez aka Subzylla. She recently performed this as a spot production number on "ASAP Natin ‘To."

Kiana busied herself during the third quarter by co-producing a song she composed with Felisha King and Bernard Harvey, “Safe Place,” which was a huge hit online in her first collaboration with the Asian-American media giant 88 Rising. As part of the Paradise Rising Philippine team, she was handpicked for a Grammy interview with Leila Alcasid and her Safe Place photo was splashed all over the Grammys.com Website and social media platforms to announce the launch of their Semi-Lucent EP. The song garnered over a million views on the YouTube site of 88 Rising which has over 5 million subscribers. The successful collaboration led to a contract for an entire album together with Tarsier Records and 88Rising to be launched this summer.

As the world was going haywire, issues of anxiety and depression arose and since Kiana had confessed her struggles to her fans repeatedly through her posts on social media two years before 2020, she opened up again about her journey.

Kiana took her absence from the live scene as an opportunity to do some special events and concerts to drumbeat her advocacy to increase mental health awareness.

Kiana flew back to Manila in December to shoot some videos for a special new album project collaboration with US producer Jesse Barrera and to participate in some corporate projects. She also organized a fundraiser to cap a successful year.

"Safe Place," the fundraiser concert aired online on December 22 a day after Kiana's birthday, was able to generate Php350,000 in cash and goods for the benefit of her special causes through the Shining Light Foundation. She would visit the girls of Marillac for her birthday for six years but being unable to do so this time, she was able to mount this concert and in the process, donate care packs for about 200 people. She also allotted a portion of the proceeds to donate through Operation Blessing Foundation for the victms of Typhoon Rolly in Bicol.

The Safe Place concert, which featured Kiana's father Gary V as well as musicians Roxy Modesto on saxophone and DJ Abdel Aziz, Over October, Ruby Ibarra and Curtismith, will be re-aired today, Black Saturday on her official YouTube channel Kiana Valenciano – youtube.com/kianavalenciano – at 9:30pm (Manila) 6:30am USA Western) and 9:30am (USA Eastern).

Proceeds from the PayPal donation link on the YouTube premiere this weekend will go to Shining Light foundation for the continued benefit of the Marillac Safe Haven For Girls and the Shining Light Foundation for mental health causes.

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