After 70 million streams, a breakout collaboration and an intimate debut EP, the Cebuano singer-songwriter steps outside her comfort zone with a Filipino song about first love, vulnerability and learning as you go.
Jolianne never really planned to leave Cebu. Given the choice, she jokes, she might have stayed at home until she was forty.
But at 17, she moved to Manila for a record deal, leaving the city she knew for a place that demanded adjustments both personal and creative. The experience taught her to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, a lesson that now finds its way into her new single, “Daanan.”
Released via Sony Music Entertainment, the track arrives after a major breakthrough for the 21-year-old Cebuano singer-songwriter.
Her collaboration with Cagayan de Oro R&B artist Arthur Nery, “Palayo sa Mundo,” emerged from a songwriting camp with producer Luke April. Originally conceived in English, the song was eventually reworked into the version that has since surpassed 70 million streams on Spotify.
Instead of trying to recreate that success, Jolianne chose unfamiliar territory for her next release. She wrote in Filipino.
For an artist accustomed to writing in English and Bisaya, composing in Filipino required her to rethink cadence, imagery and word choice. Although she speaks Tagalog, she found that writing lyrics in the language demanded a different level of familiarity.
“Writing in Filipino felt like entering an entirely new space,” she said. “It made me feel like a beginner all over again.”
That sense of starting over became central to “Daanan.”
Produced by Luke April, the guitar-pop ballad begins with a restrained arrangement centered on Jolianne’s voice and guitar before gradually expanding into a fuller sound.
The song explores first love not as an immediate, overwhelming revelation but as something that develops through small moments between two people still learning about each other.
Its title, “Daanan,” frames love as a road rather than a destination. The emphasis is on moving forward together without knowing exactly where the relationship will lead.
The music video, directed by Raliug and produced with Lunchbox, translates that idea into dance. Jolianne portrays someone learning from a dance instructor and gradually developing feelings for him.
The imperfect steps and moments of hesitation are part of the story, reflecting the vulnerability involved in learning something new while depending on another person for guidance.
“There’s something inherently vulnerable about letting another person teach you,” Jolianne said. “You have to be willing to look a little silly, make mistakes, and trust that they’ll catch you when you get the steps wrong.”
The idea mirrors much of Jolianne’s own career.
She was 11 when she appeared on “The Voice Kids Philippines” in 2015. After the competition, she returned to Cebu and continued studying, writing and recording.
Her debut single, “Irises,” arrived in 2019, followed by “Halfway There” in 2020, which has accumulated more than 14 million Spotify streams. She later opened for Air Supply, signed with Careless Records and relocated to Manila at 17 to pursue music professionally.
Her 2025 debut EP, “Plain Girl,” drew from her experience growing up in a strict household and navigating romance, independence and adulthood. Collaborations with Nery on “Palayo sa Mundo” and Dom Guyot on “aminin” further expanded a catalog shaped by personal experiences and relationships.
“Daanan” began much more simply.
Jolianne first recorded its melody as a voice note without chords or a beat. The rest of the song developed from that initial idea, eventually becoming a track about allowing a relationship to unfold without forcing an outcome.
That uncertainty is also what gives the song its character.
Rather than presenting love as something already understood, “Daanan” captures two people learning how to move together, accepting mistakes and trusting the process along the way.
For Jolianne, the single also represents another creative first. Years after leaving Cebu to begin again in Manila, she is once more choosing unfamiliar ground, this time through language and songwriting.
She may not know exactly where the road leads, but “Daanan” suggests that finding out is part of the point.