“Are you getting uncomfortable now? I’m a little too loud for you now? Don’t try to calm me down. I was made to be LOUD!”
Sofia Carson, along with songwriters Alida Garpestad Peck and Paris Carneyon shares liberating anthem “LOUD.” The song advocates equity and encourages the vocalization of those repressed and underrepresented to break free. Carson’s lyrics articulate gender inequality so perfectly. She speaks the hearts of women who have been silenced before, vocalizing their feelings or opinion: “If I was a man, then you would understand. You wouldn’t say I’m causing all this drama.” The music video, directed by award-winning director and Carson’s frequent collaborator Uri Schutzer, choreographed by Avihai Haham, utilizes the metaphor of a butterfly coming out of her cocoon to tell the story of a previously silenced voice now breaking the chain and being louder than ever.
Sofia Carson is a multi-faceted artist. As an actress, she has brought to life many beautiful and amazing female roles that we all come to love. She has starred in Netflix’s Fell the Beat, Michael Bay’s Songbird, Pretty Little Liars:The Perfectionists, and Disney’s Descendant’s. Latest, she starred and execute produced Netflix’s Purple Hearts. Carson confessed that she has never done a role where she didn’t believe in: “The roles that I play, the music that I sing are reflections of who I am at heart. Even though the stories I tell on camera aren’t my own, but still a part of me within them.”
As a philanthropy, she was appointed as the newest UNICEF Ambassador on 23 Oct, 2020 where she uses her voice to encourage young people across the U.S. to fight for equity for every child and bring awareness to programs that save and protect children. Sofia Carson is the first-female global ambassador of the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation. She co-sponsored Sofia Carson Prodigy Scholarship to provide young Latin musicians the opportunity to attend Berklee College of Music.
From the world of acting and advocacy, now to music, Carson is spreading her wings and embracing what her heart truly desires. “I don’t remember a moment in my life when I wasn’t in love with music,” the artist said to the press, “It’s something that run through my blood and in the beating of my heart.” Just like the butterfly breaking from her cocoon in “LOUD,” Sofia Carson lives as an empowering woman and a cultural icon, doing the impossibles and standing up for the rights of the most vulnerable. Her story is inspiring and her voice is louder than ever.
Written by Katrina Yang
Press Q&A with Sofia Carson
Q (Glass Factory): When did you decide to pick up music?
Sofia Carson: I don’t remember a moment in my life when I wasn’t in love with music. It was always so much more than what I did than who I was. It’s something that run through my blood and in the beating of my heart. I began singing before I was talking (according to my mom). I wrote my first song when I was 11 years old and I fell in love with songwriting and storytelling. It’s just something so magical about how your deepest focus and most heartbreaking thoughts can feel so safe in a song, and how on the stage, beneath the spotlight lives the courage to share those thoughts with the world. Music is my heart and I feel so grateful that I get to do it and creating everyday in my life.
Q (Envi Media): In the music video in “LOUD.” What does the butterfly represent to you?
Sofia Carson: The butterfly represents the silent voices of generations who are now breaking free. Who are now louder than ever. The voices of women and the loud voices of change who are fearlessly loud to get to the forefront of history. Amplifying not only their own but each other’s voices. So we are louder than ever, and we are the wind of change.
Q (Honey Pop): Has it been hard to transform from acting and creating fictional worlds to making music and being your authentic self.
Sofia Carson: It hasn’t been. The roles that I play, the music that I sing are reflections of who I am at heart. Even though the stories I tell on camera aren’t my own, but still a part of me within them. and more so, I admire the women I have been lucky enough to play. I made a promise myself that if I’m ever lucky to do this for a living, I’d never lend my voice or body to something I wasn’t believe in. Whether that was a song or a film. That was my way of being true to myself and my way of being loud. So in any role I played, my heart lies in every single one of them, and now it’s thrilling to be trusted to be one of the storytelling aspects of the films. I just executive produced one of my film, so I was not only able to act the part, but also to develop the roles and the characters and write the songs for the movie. It’s really fulfilling experience.
Q (Music, Musings, and Me): How do you find the balance between work and finding the time and space to be creative?
Sally Sossa: That’s something I’ve been thinking about recently quite a lot. It’s a balance that I have to find. My career and my work does require me to wear the hat of both business woman to make business decisions on a daily basis, where I also to be creative. Now there are certain things I have to do for myself. When I’m in the studio, I keep my phone on airplane mode or off. I find it’s the only way for me to be able to disconnect from the world and create authentically, purely and instinctively, to live in the moment to create beautiful music. When I’m shooting a movie, my team know that my priority is the film and the role, so when I’m on set, my phone is in my trailor and I’m completely disconnected from the rest of the world. If I’m wrapped for the day. If there’s anything I have to attend to, I will, but usually I’m completely immersed in the role. I go straight to the hotel and prepare for the next day. I find it it’s the only way for me to completely immerse myself into a character, and when I’m filming, that’s the most important to me.
Q (Vacancy Magazine): How would you encourage the Latin community to be our own voice of change in our own community?
Sally Sossa: By supporting Latin artist and Latin music, by watching films, directed, produced, and written by Latin artists. In doing so, we’re celebrating and amplifying Latin art which is a reflection of Latin culture and history. The culture the world has fallen love with throughout the last couple of years, which is really beautiful to see. I would say also as simple as it sounds: using your voice and platform within your own community to stand up for what you believe in and to stand up against injustices. Our voices are the greatest and most powerful weapons.
Q (All or Nothing Magazine): What was your intention at the start of the creative progress?
Sofia Carson: I had the honor with two incredible songwriters. The intention behind Loud was to create a song dedicated to the voice of women who have been previously silenced but are now louder than ever. When I recorded the song being really emotional experience. I remember having my mom in my heart because she is the woman who raised me. The greatest heart I’ve ever known. She raised my sister and I to be fearlessly loud. I remember recording it was quite emotional and cathartic and really special experience to bring that to life, that’s why it’s incredibly rewarding to share it with the rest of the world.
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