By Daniel D
Celeste O’Brien is a Grade 9 student at STA with a great gift. She has recently released 2 songs on her YouTube channel, Celeste Ireland, “My Canada” for Canada Day and the Pan-Am Games, released June 27, 2015, which has gained recognition by Premier Kathleen Wynne, and Toronto Mayor John Tory, and “Somebody’s Son”, April 28, 2016, which is about the struggle of a man belonging to the LGBTQ community.
These two songs are pretty different in topics, so how does she choose what to write about? “My songs are about pressing issues or representations of [current events]” she explained.
She got her start a few years ago, inspired by her father, who is also a musician. “I wanted to put our work out there, because I think we work really well together,” she said.
They put plenty of work into their songs, which can take upwards of a year from start to finish. This includes the main idea, composition of lyrics and melody, lots of practice and then going to a friend’s house to record and produce the song and video. The song “My Canada” took longest due to the different seasons in the background of the video. Celeste also likes to perform, as she did at the PJ’s coffee house recently, where she sang “How Far I’ll Go” from the movie Moana.
“Making music is a great outlet and an amazing way for people to get involved and share or understand an important message.” she stated. “It is a great contribution to the issues people face.”
To see some of Celeste’s music, visit her YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BR6ZLz_dubQfdQgXDVBNw