I needed songs to help me set the tone of what I was trying to convey, on what I was trying to say. I needed my music to slowly build up, to then come back down, and then crescendo towards the end.
I had two different playlists- the first, was played during the first two rounds, and the latter was played at the final round. Both playlists had the same opening but had different songs in it.
The first playlist was very similar to what I had played for my national competition.
There was this one song that I really liked- the lyrics captured what I was trying to say about the mind. Its words were somewhere along the lines of, “you’re the one thing I can’t lose” and it felt very spiritual for me, even though it is a love song.
The last track on that playlist was a song called “Reborn”. I felt like that really symbolized what my journey was like, and how I felt with my soul. I felt like I was reborn.
For the second playlist, we chose the Interstellar track to be in it, and the full version too. This was the song that really put that crescendo that I wanted. But I felt like we should save this track for the finals, because we can only play this song once, otherwise it would easily be overplayed.
We really hoped we could get to the finals to play it. And when we did make it to the finals… I don’t think that people can hear it when they watched my run through the livestreams or the reruns on YouTube, but at the venue, the judges, the audience, they were really feeling it. I was feeling it.
This was the song that helped me deliver my lines and the tasting notes with a lot of conviction and some of the judges even made comments about it too.
I found the songs from this one playlist on Spotify… I believe it was called “Uplifting Cinematic Music” or “Uplifting Cinematic”. So, these songs are meant to play with your emotions and yes, these song choices were intentional.
I don’t really listen to these playlists anymore, but I obviously used to listen to it every single day, and also during my preparation time. I cried.
A lot of emotions are attached to the competitions and to my journey. Especially after I won, it really gave this new meaning to the songs. After winning, I listened to it a few times and it still gave me that same emotional reaction. It brought back some really strong feelings, and I hope that you will enjoy listening to the playlist!