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Hayley Kiyoko has shared her new vision with us, and it is beautiful.
Panorama, her second album after 2018's Expectations, is Kiyoko's strongest effort to date and really shows her growth as an artist. The songs flow perfectly into each other, and the album sends a message of resilience, personal growth, and self-love.
It's her first album in four years, and you can hear how much she's changed in those years. No more is she singing about dating straight girls or imagining lovers in her dreams. Now she sings about love that traverses lifetimes, celebrating her womanhood, moving on from tragedy and struggles, taking chances on love, and found family.
With songs like "For the Girls," "Deep in the Woods," and "Found My Friends," Panorama is an instant classic in the genre of Sapphic Pop. Hayley Kiyoko is reminding us all why she's earned the title of Lesbian Jesus.
The album release was paired with a screening of Panorama's visuals, which consist mostly of dreamy drone footage of nature in Simi Valley and Portugal, with Kiyoko performing. With the soothing synth and soaring vocals behind them, the visuals created an immersive experience allowing fans to get completely caught up in the music.
With queer celebs like her girlfriend Becca Tilley, The L Word: Generation Q's Jacqueline Toboni, and Are You the One's Jenna in attendance, an emotional Kiyoko thanked her friends and family for the support they've offered over the last four years in which she said she's faced both physical and mental health struggles.
"The world is really hard to navigate, and art is so important for survival, and a lot of the time you create art out of necessity, and you also create art out of...almost like there's a glass ceiling, and you're trying to break that glass ceiling. It's like, 'how can you break through that ceiling?'" Kiyoko said in a speech at the event. "Well maybe you go to the left, or maybe you go to the right, and that's where you find art. And that's where we found Panorama. I wanted Panorama to be a safe space for my fans and my listeners to be able to go to a world that feels familiar, but has an escapism element to it."
Next up, Kiyoko will be Joining Lauv on tour, where fans can get to hear her perform songs from her new album. Panorama is available for purchase and streaming right now.
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