Sensual, Strong and Stunning
Lithuania | Pop
Piercing blue eyes – CHECK. Undeniable good looks – CHECK. A trademark voice – CHECK. Quality pop writing complete with contagious hooks and an added, underlying aggressiveness – CHECK.
There are thousands upon thousands UPON THOUSANDS of pop artists out there in the world, making it a pretty hard market to make it in; however Gjan manages to stand out above a ton of them thanks to her stockpile of talent.
INTRO/HISTORY/BACKGROUND
FACTS:
- Began as a solo artist in 2011
- Has several singles and one full-length album out to date
- Millions of views on her YouTube music vids which is how she came to prominence
Gjan, who’s real name is Greta Jančytė, is a Lithuanian singer-songwriter based out of Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius. She started out playing in a band but soon found out that that wasn’t her thing and that she was more of a solo artist than anything. She decided to try her hand at producing some music videos for her original singles on YouTube and within in no time, success was had! To date, those songs have several million views each and GET THIS – she’s only 23 years old. YUP. Greta can play guitar and piano/keys but where she stands out most is her greatest instrument she plays – HER VOICE.
THE MUSIC
The best way I can describe her voice would be whiny, yet sensual… an interesting dichotomy between romanticism and needyness. In 2012 she released her first single, Not Afraid, a spunky track that is pretty self denigrating yet still somehow manages to empower the listener despite such. Maybe it’s all due to the “I don’t give any rips” sort of attitude that emanates from her vocal cords? I dunno. The lyrics from the chorus are below just to give you a slight taste of said attitude:
Hey baby I’m not scared
To tell you that I’m bored of your screams
To get in fight with you, even if you’re stronger than me
Yeah you’re right, yeah I am blind
But I was always blind
Hey baby can’t you see that
I’m not afraid to fight
That’s one of my favorite tracks of her’s solely due to the display of her vocal prowess in it, moving up and down the notes so easily during the chorus. She went on to release the singles Tattoo, an emotionally evocative tune that builds into something much bigger, Need Your Love, a monotonous yet fun, summery song, and a bunch of others – Need Your Love, Now You, and Nobody Around in 2013. Gjan’s most successful song to date is 2015’s One More Drink, a dazzling example of Greta’s ability to compose not only great lyrics, but also gorgeous melodies that get stuck in your head. Oh, and SPOILER ALERT: the girl can rap, too. There’s little she can’t do, really. One of my favorite lines from that one is We both said we’ll build our own empire, How dare you say “You didn’t try”? This girl ain’t messin’ around.
Fast forward past a few more singles between 2015 and 2017 and this brings us to her debut album titled Do It, released last October. Wild introduces us to the album and sounds tamer than you would think despite it’s subject being… well… “wild”. But, the music video picks up the slack for that, with gusting winds, tribal makeup and the whole get-up.
7 Billion is an incredibly moving song that could easily be overlooked unless you pay attention to the content within it. It’s like a cry to a saviour, or how she puts it best, a “composer”, because this world has become so hopeless, violent and depraved.
Our composer
Just look at it closer, closer…
7 billion
Falling into pieces
7 billion
Can’t you feel we’re bleeding
And while the subject matter does feel heavy, yes, she ends the song in a breathtakingly beautiful way, with just her voice and keys, singing:
You raise me up
I can’t hold on
I’m falling, I’m falling
You raise me up
I can’t hold on
I’m falling, I’m falling
Each and every song is passionately put together by Gjan who uses monotony that would normally be a flaw in music to her advantage building songs and bettering them by the second with every push of her lungs. Monsters is a playful, rocky track that has a Frankenstein-y burlesque feel to it, Wasn’t Easy is full of legit dynamics that twist and turn despite the commonality of the subject matter (the complexities of love), and two tracks feature guest artists – the Gambian RnB artist Saint in Love Triangle and the rapper Gizzle in Mountains.
And one would think that an artist or band would relax their writing muscles upon the release of a record, but Gjan continues to knock out more and more tunes, keeping herself relevant and far from finished when it comes to cranking out new stuff. Her latest releases are sung in her mother tongue – Lithuanian. If you dig her after listening to her sing in English, then listening to her sing in Lithuanian will probably make her irresistible to you. Paskui Tave came out not long after her debut album and is only available on YouTube at this time via a lyric video in which Gjan sings along to. It speaks of being one with another, giving everything, longing to live in a dream with the one who washes all their pain away. And more recently just this March came Tabletė, a song about conflict, pure and simple.
As far as what the future holds for Ms. Jančytė… her Instagram spoke of new singles headed our way (in English) as well as a new album that is in the works, due out later this year. Her spunky and sassy brand of pop is something that will grow into greatness as time moves on because of her unique voice, songwriting skills and depth of her artistry that is so deeply ingrained within her bones and vocal cords. Music is Gjan and Gjan is music.
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Sferikul 