From signed recording artist to independent music artist, Liliana Pinheiro tells us her story in an industry where she struggles to remain independent.
It was around six o’clock in the evening when I first met Liliana. In the midst of a bustling storm and over a dodgy internet connection, we spent nearly an hour speaking about everything. From our conversations about college and her decision to study law to New York and her experience in the music industry. This 20-year-old woman is one to watch.
Music has always been a huge part of Liliana’s life. She even remembers her very first performance.
“I remember I had it because my mom still has a video of it. I had Christmas tree earrings on and I sang ‘Rockin’ around the Christmas tree’ and I thought… since then I was like, you know what? This is for me,” she says.
“I knew I always kind of liked to play as much as I could sing, and I was in and out of singing lessons. All of that kind of stuff from a really young age,” Pinheiro adds. “But I think it was kind of during the lockdown that I took it more seriously.”
Her former music coach would become her longtime manager and friend, also one of the faces of her record label. TheGraGaff was a record label set up by Lauryn Gaffney and Grainne MacNeill. Including three signed artists, Georgia Gaffney, Sophie-Doyle Ryder and Liliana Pinheiro.
The record label title is a tribute to Lauryn and her sister, with ‘Gaff’, short for their surname ‘Gaffney’ and ‘Gra’, meaning love in Irish. The label was a huge success with the artists soaring in Irish charts. Experiencing many new appearances in television, radio and live performances. However, now with one of the lead partners writing a musical, and her sister thriving and shooting for her career in New York, the label parted ways and so Liliana became an independent artist.
Liliana’s personal connection to New York, “the city that never sleeps”, was noticeable from the get-go. When asking her about where she’d like to end up, and if New York would be the place, Liliana responded with, “one hundred per cent.”
“I’m obsessed with New York. I love how busy it is. Even if I wanted to pursue law, it’d be a great place to do it there, and then even for music, it’s just so creative.”
“My degree is always going to be there, you know? So I think I’d one thousand per cent take any music option over law,” she adds.
While discussing performances, Liliana mentioned her recent performance experience, where she was rather nervous, as she had taken a break from songwriting and performing. “It was just this wrap up show with the Bunker Studio, because they had just a couple artists over, and even though it’s something super intimate, I was singing like new songs that people hadn’t heard”.
“You know as much as like people maybe act like it isn’t, it’s a part of yourself, and so it can be hard”, she says.
From a television appearance on the Six O’ Clock show on Virgin Media, to many listeners across radio stations around the country. The latest significant performance was during Electric Picnic 2023. “It was insane,” she adds.
‘Three’ had an event during the months leading up to it, where Liliana busked, along with many other emerging artists. “They had a few people recording it” she tells me. However, during this she had no idea they were looking to gauge which artist had gained the most popularity on social media, to invite them to perform at Electric Picnic.
While rehearsing and songwriting with another music artist, Liliana was called out of the studio and into a room full of people, including some from ‘Three’ she recognised, where they showed her a video of Tracy Clifford telling her she’d won the spot to perform.
But even for a successful artist on a record label, things changed when she became independent. TikTok changed the music scene. “People who don’t have, you know, rich parents who maybe can pay for certain producers or can pay for certain marketing, like, I think in that sense, I like social media.”
“I think it can just be a bit annoying when, even in Ireland, I see so many talented Irish artists that I just feel like they don’t get the respect they deserve at all because of numbers”, she says. “I’ve sat before with labels that have told me, okay, we like your song, but you don’t have the followers for it. So it’s just that part is frustrating because I feel like a piece of art should be able to stand on its own”.
Nearing the end of our interview, Liliana says she wants to really focus on music in 2025 and releasing music. “Next year, I just want to release. I’ve changed so much as a person, and I think that’s really kind of shown in my music,” she tells me. “I’ve done the kind of mainstream pop. I think I haven’t incorporated as much kind of R&B, even more kind of like ballad style songs, which is something that I have coming, which is very scary. Going from like radio pop to here’s actually a slow song, and that has meaning, so I’m a little nervous to see how people are going to react to it.”
Although perhaps the most comedic moment during our interview was when we were discussing musicals, Lilliana adds, “one of the first songs I ever sang when I was like 12 – I don’t know who I thought I was – was ‘Satisfied’. I did a rap part, like I was fully in character, like me acting as if the love of my life had just married my sister.”
It is safe to say that the young artist has always been destined for the stage.
