JULIANA. is ringing in the holiday season with a cover of one of our favorite Christmas songs ever — “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande!
The LA-based pop songstress teamed up with longtime friend, performance artist and tech entrepreneur Izzy Pollak for the reimagined version, stripping down the upbeat pop song to create an emotive R&B-influenced duet.
“Santa Tell Me” also marks the lead single off Pollak’s debut release, a holiday EP titled It’s Never Too Early, dropping December 18th. All proceeds from listens of “Santa Tell Me” and the forthcoming EP will be donated to CASA of Los Angeles, helping children in LA County’s child welfare system. For more information or to donate directly, visit www.casala.org.
“Christmas is my favorite holiday ever created — it was a huge holiday in my family and I loved Christmas music. ‘Santa Tell Me’ was one of my favorite songs that came out around the holidays, and since it is a pop song and I’m a pop singer/songwriter — and Izzy has a very amazing raspy vocal tone — we thought it would be a perfect baseline to get our creative juices flowing with the song and make it unique and different in our own way. We stripped down the production a ton and made it a little more subdued in terms of the intensity of the mixing and the production behind it because we wanted to really focus on the lyrics that were being sung as well as our vocal tone,” JULIANA. tells Celeb Secrets of the process behind “Santa Tell Me.”
“I’m super excited to release something with [Izzy] because this is my first collaboration that i’m doing and he’s the perfect person to do it with. He’s so on top of everything and he’s extremely talented and we’re just both really excited to have it released.”
Listen to “Santa Tell Me” here:
With things looking a little different due to the Coronavirus pandemic and new lockdowns in California, JULIANA. tells us that while her Christmas plans will quieter than usual, the one thing that will remain the same is blasting music throughout the house — aka her latest cover on loop.
“[My family] already heard it. They’re loving it and can’t wait to play it on Christmas, Christmas Eve, the week before Christmas and so on — they’re ready to go,” JULIANA. laughs. “The second it comes out we’ll be playing it a ton.”
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Since her debut in September with the empowering break-up single “Call It Quits,” JULIANA. has been steadily releasing new music and garnering media attention, while racking up thousands of plays. Her follow-up single “Burn” is a liberating pop song that served as a breakthrough moment in both her mental health and her songwriting.
Through eloquent song craft, graceful instrumentation, and dynamic vocals, JULIANA. says what’s on her mind and converts raw feelings and real stories into chantable, powerful anthems. Inspired by artists such as Julia Michaels, Zara Larsson, Hailee Steinfeld, Astrid S. and Bebe Rexha in both her songwriting and personal sound, JULIANA., who’s dealt with a variety of physical trials and obstacles throughout her life, hopes to bring positivity, empowerment, acceptance and control through her original music to help and heal others.
Check out our interview with JULIANA. below where she talks all about Christmas and “Santa Tell Me” and don’t forget to let us know what you think of it by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
You can also keep up with JULIANA. by giving her a follow on Instagram at @__juliana.____.
