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The Daily Aztec
Arts & Culture
Nov. 3 - 9, 2021 EDITOR: Ryan Hardison • arts@thedailyaztec.com
Student musician thrives on stage, creates feel-good music in studio By Samantha Muscio CONTRIBUTOR
Singer and songwriter, Jalea Villarama, a third-year management information systems student at San Diego State, has a passion for making music that illustrates her lively personality and creative expression as an artist. “I just want to stay true to myself and make music that inspires people to spread love,” Villarama said. Students and faculty who know Villarama as an artist know her for her performances on campus, specifically her performances for the Asian Pacific Student Alliance organization, which she is the cocoordinator for. Her first big performance at SDSU was in 2019 at the Night Market event in the Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union. Hundreds of people gathered to watch her sing and play the guitar to three R&B songs. Villarama said she remembers feeling joy as the crowd started singing the lyrics along with her. After the Night Market performance, her recognition as an artist and support from SDSU students and staff emerged, leading to more performance opportunities for her on campus. Dr. Virginia Loh-Hagan, the director for the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Resource Center, is one of Villarama’s biggest supporters on campus. “It is important to amplify APIDA artists especially in this time of anti-Asian hate,” Dr. Loh-Hagan said. “Jalea has so much to share with the world. Through her music, she serves as a voice for APIDA joy. I’m so proud of her.” Villarama said her passion for music
Courtesy of Jalea Villarama’s Spotify
(Left) Single cover for Villarama’s newest single “Hung Up,” (Right) Single cover her 2020 single “Close.”
dates back to when she began singing at only three years old. She grew up in a musical household singing with her parents and grandparents who have always supported her as an artist. Some of Villarama’s most memorable childhood performances include opening for Vhong Navarro, a popular artist in the Philippines at six years old and winning best talent at a pageant for singing Frank Sinatra for an audience of over 300 people at seven years old. “It feels like home for me on stage and I feel like I can be whoever I want,” Villarama said. “If there’s a chance for me to perform, I’ll take it.” As she got older, she continued to perform in talent shows, singing competitions and choir performances at her high school. Villarama said her experience as a performer and the support she has received as a singer is why she is
the artist that she is today. In 2020, Villarama released her first song, “Close” ft. Y.S.A., which now has over 4,500 streams on Spotify. The music video for “Close” produced by the music production group, Collective Society, shows her natural-born ability as a performer. Villarama’s music has an R&B style with elements from pop music. However, she does not limit herself to this label as an R&B artist. Villarama explained that her main goal is to create music that not only sounds good but also expresses her artistry most authentically without limits. “I think Jalea makes music that is relatable and extremely vibey. I would describe her music as feel-good music,” said third-year speech-language pathology student, Giselle Sarmiento. Her latest song, “Hung Up” was released in September 2021 and has already
received more than 1,700 streams on Spotify. According to Villarama, releasing music on Spotify is one of her biggest accomplishments. Both “Close” and “Hung Up” follow the theme of love, a topic which Villarama says she enjoys singing about the most. “I’m kind of a hopeless romantic so I like to portray that side of me through music,” Villarama said. Villarama, who once used to record music in her parent’s bedroom, is now writing and recording songs in music studios, doing different collaborations with other artists, taking part in music videos, and accepting every opportunity that comes her way. She spends her time in music studios, specifically Villa Vibes Studios, exploring her creative vision and writing music with help from her father. Villarama’s favorite aspect of the music-making process is creating satisfying harmonies. Villarama said music will always be a part of her life, and her ideal artistic dream is to produce an album, go on tour, and watch as her fans sing along to her lyrics. More importantly, Villarama said she wants to stay true to herself as an artist and continue to make music for the joy of it. She hopes to impact lives in a positive way and bring people together with her music. “I just want people to know that it’s okay to follow your passions and follow your dreams,” Villarama said. “It’s your life and it’s up to you on how you want to live it.” Check out her Instagram @juhleeyuh and stream her two songs, “Close” and “Hung Up” on all platforms now.
Students show cinematic chops at Halloween festival By Flower Smith & Cristina Lombardo SENIOR STAFF WRITER ASST. ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
San Diego State’s School of Theatre, Television and Film department held their sixth annual Howling Halloween Film Festival in Montezuma Hall on Oct. 29. Over 100 people attended in-person and on Zoom to watch short horror films written, directed and produced by SDSU theater, film and media students. The spooktacular film festival showcased student and alumni films from throughout the years, but the festival really highlighted the amount of creativity and drive it takes to create a quick spooky story. The night started with eerie music playing right before the films began. As it got closer to showtime, the music gained momentum and became more ominous. Rich Underwood, the festival curator and professor at SDSU, kicked off the event with a quick welcome and introduction to the night. He asked the audience to howl as a metaphorical way to signify they would be howling with laughter and fear while enjoying the short films. Underwood asked the audience to participate in selecting the crowd favorite of the night by ripping a piece of the program brochure to indicate their favorite choice as a way to make the night even more memorable for everyone involved. “It’s interesting to see these things (the brochures) of what students think
of what’s scary and what scares them,” Underwood said. In total, there were 13 short films played. Each film was between a minute to 11 minutes long. There were many different themes and stories told, ranging from spine-chilling films to quirky and lighthearted. Nonetheless, they were definitely crowd favorites. The short film “Pumpkin,” directed by Casey Nakamura, was one of the top three favorites of the night. It centered on a tiny pumpkin in a pumpkin patch wanting nothing more than to be a Jack-O-Lantern for Halloween. This four minute and 20 second film showcased a lot about this little pumpkin’s journey throughout the Halloween season. It sees its friends get taken and put back, and also experiences the death of his friend as a little girl stabs another pumpkin right in front of him. The pumpkin reacts and its facial expression changes as it is soon put to bed and thrown out by the people working the pumpkin patch. But the tiny Jack-O-Lantern survives and makes it to Christmas where it becomes a part of the Christmas spirit and decor on a beautiful Christmas tree. This sweet film was definitely the crowd favorite and won the audience choice of the night. Following “Pumpkin,” and the theme of the spooky season, the runner-up was the short film titled “Madre Sagrada.” This short film, directed by Maximiliano Garcia, was one of the longer films with a run time of eight minutes and 50 seconds. This Spanish short film was in black-
Photo by Cristina Lombardo The Howling Halloween Film Festival hosted a night of spooktacular films from students and alumni.
and-white and included English subtitles. “Madre Sagrada” focused on Mexican folklore. The film follows a young girl’s mother being burned at the stake for witchcraft as the young girl tries to find her way to escape the same fiery fate as her mother’s. Rhetoric and Writing Studies student Althea Millman attended the Friday night festival and shared some of her thoughts about the film. “I really liked ‘Madre Sagrada.’ The cultural aspect was what made it the most cinematic,” Millman said. Some other crowd favorites were “Hanging By A Thread” directed by Chloe Cerami and “I Might Die Here” directed
by Tayo Oyekan. C.J. Villegas is an English major at SDSU and is a friend of Millman’s who also attended the festival. “I liked ‘Shutter’ honestly. All spooky and fun, it was cool to go to this,” Villegas said. Each film had the audience at the edge of their seats in anticipation of what was to come from the next showing. The TFM department’s next film festival is going to be Valentine’s themed, so be sure to keep a lookout if you are interested in attending. For more information about the Theater, Television and Film department at SDSU and their upcoming events, check out ttf.sdsu.edu.
