Gigi Perez invites everyone behind the curtain.

When you peel back the layers of her songs, her questions of faith, memories of loved ones gone-way-too-soon, visions of ecstasy, and premonitions of romance bubble up to the surface. All of these emotions feel familiar because they’re delivered without filter in poetically blunt lyrics stitched into the fabric of her soft production and naked acoustic guitar. However, she doesn’t tell anybody what to think or how to feel; she simply holds up a mirror.

Amassing streams in the billions and attracting unanimous critical acclaim, the platinum-certified Cuban-American singer, songwriter, and producer remains as unapologetically honest as ever on her 2025 full-length debut LP for Island Records and much more to come.

“Feel whatever you want to feel,” she urges. “You can take anything you need from my music. To me, it’s unbelievable and humbling when anybody welcomes your thoughts and makes them their own. It heals my heart to know my ideas aren’t lonely. Since this is my first album, I only hope you understand me a little bit better after you listen.”

Her story has twisted and turned with the unpredictability of your favorite novel. After leaving Berklee College of Music mid-Pandemic, she built an audience on TikTok and parlayed the excitement for her original material into a major label deal. 2021’s “Sometimes (Backwood)” exploded to the tune of over 167 million streams, paving the way for shows alongside everyone from Coldplay to Noah Cyrus and setting the stage for her fan favorite How to Catch a Falling Knife EP [2023].

However, she took control of her destiny in 2024.

She left Brooklyn in the rearview and returned to South Florida in order to be with her family.  Grabbing the reins tighter than ever, she also taught herself how to record and produce on her own.

“The main catalyst for this music was learning how to record and produce,” she affirms. “It changed the flow of my creativity. There were no blocks. I wasn’t waiting around for anybody anymore. Music became something I could do in my room at any time of the day or night. I felt like I was seventeen again, because there was nothing in the way of my expression. It allowed me to be really intentional. When I moved back home, I was with my family—and they’re everything to me. My value doesn’t depend on how ‘well’ I do. My value comes from how I feel, whether or not I love my art, and if I’m having fun. I wouldn’t change this freedom for anything.”

She made the most of her newfound freedom by issuing “Please Be Rude” independently. “It was the first song I released fully as the creator,” she smiles.

Gigi only further engaged listeners with “Normalcy” before taking flight with the breakout “Sailor Song.” Beyond surging on TikTok and soundtracking hundreds of thousands of videos, the latter eclipsed 976 million streams, vaulted into the Top 25 of the Billboard Hot 100, and earned a Platinum certification from the RIAA. Hailed by Billboard as “a stirring, emotionally raw ballad,” it cemented her as both a dynamic vocalist and an empathetic songstress.

Nevertheless, she continued to pull everyone even closer via more music. Five years prior, she lost her older sister Celene. Her tragic and sudden passing understandably changed Gigi forever. The single “Fable” addressed the eternal fallout. On the track, briskly strummed chords toss and turn underneath soulful vocals. Her musings glow like embers as she laments “Thoughts and prayers was all they’d do” before turning her gaze past the pain and beyond this realm, “Stars blink in my sister’s eyes.”

“When I said, ‘I don’t believe in God’ on ‘Sailor Song’, I dealt with a lot of backlash,” she recalls. “For me, ‘Fable’ states, ‘I didn’t write ‘I don’t believe in God’ from a place of pride. I’m saying, ‘I don’t have faith,’ out of defeat’. I want to have faith, but I have so many questions from the catastrophic loss of my sister. I don’t claim to have the answers. I’m dealing with this, and I’m fighting demons in my head like a lot of people are. Much of my music comes from struggling to accept the unknown. That’s what ‘Fable’ is about. I want to have conversations.”

If the album proves anything, it’s that she will never stop inspiring these kinds of conversations. There’s comfort in knowing she’s looking for answers just like the rest of us are.

“I’m sharing my version of the truth,” she leaves off. “It may be different for everyone, but the biggest thing is to walk in that truth very clearly. No matter what’s going on, it’s important to be real about what’s happening inside of you. I know this. I’ve never been more in love with music and excited to play shows. I’m ready for whatever’s next.”