Music has been a passion for Paulina Zelman for as long as she can remember. She knew how to play piano almost before she knew how to read, and then picked up playing the trumpet and even taught herself the guitar and ukulele. Music has always been her creative escape, and is her medium for documenting meaningful experiences in her life. It’s always brought her happiness, and many of her proudest accomplishments and moments have been closely tied to her music.
In fact, performing with her middle school band is an accomplishment she will always cherish. Something Paulina never imagined, however, was one day releasing her music to the public. She had always been private with her original songs, as sharing them was out of her comfort zone. Her songs contain private thoughts and extremely raw, authentic emotions and feelings that she’s kept close to her belt, but she made the decision to overcome her fears and release her music to the public.
The album, titled “One and Only”, has been received with tremendous praise and Paulina says she has no regrets in releasing the album. She now feels comfortable in opening up her more vulnerable emotions to the public, and is resilient to negative judgement. She says that it has been hard dealing with those that have put her down or disrespected her, but she is learning to accept that some people simply don’t have the capacity to be supportive of her music and that it’s completely okay.
She’s incredibly proud of her courage to release the album, and is excited about the opportunity she’s provided herself by initiating conversations about sensitive topics that one would usually shy away from. Even with all of the congratulations she’s received, Paulina is still trying to process what a huge musical accomplishment her album is.
Paulina used the time spent inside during quarantine to create and share original songs, and has put all of her heart and soul into her music. The message behind her music is that no one is alone in this world, and everyone is worthy of love regardless of what struggles they’ve had to endure over the years. She’s been able to overcome feelings of self consciousness to share her work with the world, and advises anyone looking to chase their dreams to shake any feeling of fear and take action.
She had to shake intense feelings of fear and self consciousness to get where she’s at today, but Paulina would not change the path she’s been on with her music for the world. It’s paid off for her already, and she will only continue to impact more and more people as her music catches on.
