Say Hello To The Holiday Cheer With Elizabeth Chan!
Christmas break is around the corner, and what better way to get into the holiday spirit than by cranking up some jolly tunes! If you’re like me and you’re the type of person that breaks out the ugly Christmas sweaters on November 1st at midnight, then you will love Elizabeth Chan’s work!
Our most recent Soyars Leadership Lecture Series guest speaker is a recording artist and founder of Merry Bright Music, a label that focuses strictly on Christmas music, and trust me when I tell you that you have to listen to her work! Between empowering stories of how she made her way into the business while following her dreams, Chan has become one of the top selling artists on the holiday charts.
The self proclaimed queen of christmas has brought a lot of cheer and tears for the past six years. Her debut album, which began as a Kickstarter campaign after being turned down by Kelly Clarkson and her team, became a chart topper next to Clarkson herself on the same year. In fact, her most recent record; The Ghost of Christmas Past, became the #1 Christmas single in the country, beating Mariah Carey’s iconic All I Want For Christmas Is You in the charts.
Let me tell you, tonight I found out that the fastest way to put a 200 student auditorium to tears in less than four minutes is by playing them her music video with no prior information. My laptop’s keyboard was covered in tears by the time it ended, and I was sitting on the second row so I’m pretty sure she noticed, not that I stood out since everyone there was in the exact same state. If you’re up for some heartbreak, feel free to check it out below!
Ghost of Christmas Past is an interesting song indeed; however, this isn’t her only top credit. A few years back, nine of her songs were licensed by the Kardashian family for one of their holiday specials and she has written music for many artists in the industry. While she was telling her story, all I could see in my head was a Broadway musical in all its glory, having a passion, following it, having a lot of people laugh at you and ridicule you for it, and then eventually making it to where you always dreamed you could be, all told through song.
While she has certainly made it to a good place with her talent and her determination, her dream does not end here. “My dream is to create a new standard for Christmas music, a jingle bells or a silent night,” she said while encouraging students to follow their dreams, however impossible they might seem. “If I do my job right, you will never remember me but you will remember my song,” she also added before closing the night after a thunderous applause.
If you want to know more about Elizabeth Chan and her work, you can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Happy holidays!
