“Follow Your Dreams and Stay True To Yourself”, an open letter by Karina Magallon

When I was little, I enjoyed the world so much. As I woke up in the mornings, I was greeted by the sound of birds singing outside my window while the sun would shine through the blinds next to my bed and that’s when I knew it was time to wake up. I was in love with the simplicity and beauty of nature. I still am. The sounds of the leaves dancing while the wind flowed through the trees is so soothing to me. Then, I would happily get out of bed and greet my dad while he played the congas and danced to salsa music. His joy was contagious and my music experiences with him have always been happy. This might have been when my love for music began, but the moment when I knew I wanted it to be a part of my life forever was when I was about five or six years old. I was a part of my church’s children’s choir for the Christmas play and something about seeing how people were impacted by music in the audience moved me. It brought happiness to them and connected with people in ways words struggle to. I knew then that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life.

So, the next year, I began to learn how to play the piano and explored different music styles. As my love for music grew, I began to create home concerts for my family and friends singing songs often accompanied by choreography, artistic outfits, and big entrances I created. I would sing songs by Shakira, Avril Lavigne, and Taylor Swift. Later, in my high school years, I was influenced a lot by Whitney Houston, Christina Aguilera, and Bruno Mars. Although I’m not a country artist, Taylor Swift actually inspired me to write my own songs when I was about 8 years old. But once I started, I never stopped. I fell in love with the art of songwriting, but I mostly did it for fun at the time. I would record myself on my parents’ digital camera singing my songs so that I wouldn’t forget. I wouldn’t have guessed that I would become a professional songwriter and actually be producing some of my own music.

Throughout my childhood, I ended up performing around my community, teaching myself to play guitar, did theatre, studied classical music, joined a christian band, etc. Music is one of those relationships that you keep falling in love with more and more deeply everyday. I would write songs in English and Spanish. My culture has not been something I have ever wanted to hide, instead, I celebrate it. In fact, I had been envisioning writing a song like my new bilingual song, “Closer”, for a while. I wanted to create a song that represents more of who I am and my Panamanian heritage is part of it. I included elements of reggaeton and wrote parts in Spanish to represent that.

“Closer”, was inspired by my boyfriend. When the pandemic hit, it caused us to be in a long distance relationship for 5 months. “Closer” is a love letter to him about expressing how much I missed him and how much better life would be when we are reunited. Although I wrote it about him, “Closer” can be dedicated to anyone you miss whether it be a friend, loved one, or family member. I wrote “Closer” with my amazing friend, Frank Albrecht, also known as 4nalog. We created and produced the entire song remotely. This is a testament that we can’t just wait for our dreams to become reality. We have to make them a reality.

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I enjoyed creating it. Never stop creating and keep chasing your dreams with passion. Even the birds that were singing outside my window when I was little had to train and work hard in order to fly and sing the way they did.

- Karina