- Gabriele Filippi
- October 2020
- 3 min.
- 606 views
Release and therapy – The young and talented KISA debuts with the single “Hurting,” showing herself for the reborn swan that is now out of depression and freed from all burdens.
KISA is a 21-year-old emerging artist born and raised in Los Angeles in a Russian-Ukrainian family who started dancing at the age of two.
He danced ballet for eight years, then exploring hip-hop and contemporary. When she was eleven, KISA discovered her love of acting and film, starring in shorts that she produced and edited herself.
Growing up, she also became a poetry writer, and as you can imagine, her passion for writing led her to songwriting. After winning several poetry competitions and being a finalist in a songwriting contest with her first song “Crazy,” today KISA performs as heel dancer, singer, and songwriter, writing her own songs.
But sadly, KISA’s life hasn’t always been a bed of roses. A little over two years ago, she was diagnosed with depression.
After moving to Ukraine for six months, KISA tried to heal herself with materialistic solutions: “moving to a new place, buying new clothes, etc. None of this worked. Yet still couldn’t shake the sadness,” she explains, going back to those dark moments.
Then came the turning point: “It wasn’t until I began to treat myself with kindness that I was able to work towards bettering my mental health. I started to write music, sing, and dance. I healed myself by releasing all judgment.”
Thus “Hurting” is undeniably illuminating KISA’s debut and her ultimate recovery. Vulnerable as genuine, the song reinspects the struggle of those tough moments marked by depression and anxiety, handled and outsourced through an inner dialogue. Yet this song is anything but a sad retreat.
Indeed, the weight of the mental burdens that KISA has overcome is well present. But rather than twisting around the problem, the song offers a beautiful glimpse into that fragile and elusive moment in which she became aware of her situation. It’s about the desire to get out of it and the lack of that strength needed to overcome the overwhelming weight of depression.
“Hurting was the first song I shared after I came back to Los Angeles because it was my truth at the moment. I had discovered how to heal. It all starts with how we chose to speak to ourselves”– she says about the turning point, then she continues –“This piece is very special because it is a way of me expressing to my listeners that I hear them. I am here, by their side. It is okay not to be okay. Be kind to yourselves.”
Starting from her mental turmoil, the delivery that KISA offering to us is both release and therapy.
Don't cry. You don't have a reason.
Stay quiet. Keep it all hidden.
You say, you don't mind it this way.
You know, when you're lying in your skin.
The simplicity of these lyrics with which KISA opens “Hurting” is an accurate synthesis of this dualism, direct as they are soothing and painful as they are genuine. It’s like a return ticket to spot the exit way from a dead-end tunnel with no apparent outlet.
Rather than a debut, maybe we should address this as a rebirth. And the newborn is a magnificent swan, eager to grow and strengthen, although she is already able to spread her wings, to soar in a grandiose and delicate flight, now free from any burden. 
The release of the single “Hurting” is accompanied by an official music video, which you can find on the KISA YouTube channel.
Dance, acting, music, tears, and pain; those are the dowels that gave birth to “Hurting.” The video and the song are a perfect unification that together constitute a delicate manifesto of the artistic sensitivity of this young, talented and promising artist.
Listen now to “Hurting”, the debut single from KISA, and find out more about KISA and her music by checking the links below:
- .: Nova MUSIC blog // October 2020