We recently connected with Luana Sandoval and have shared our conversation below.
Luana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
My name is Luana Sandoval and I am a German/Nicaraguan singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. I grew up in a small village in Germany called Saarburg. When I was a little girl, I always admired women in the performing arts. This admiration turned into a passion for dance and music. I went to the theater every week to see ballet and opera performances.
When I turned 15 years old I fell in love with a woman for the first time.
She inspired me to write love songs in German. I kept my love for her secretly and used my songs as a diary.
I had no one to talk to about my sexuality and felt lonely and misunderstood. On top of that I was bullied in school for being biracial and single. The bullying went out of control and my classmates began to cyber bully me. The meanest comments came from the boys who made fun of my physical appearance.
The girls put me under pressure and asked me what was wrong with me for still being a virgin and not having a boyfriend. Some of them made assumptions that I might be gay.
So I came up with excuses and said that I was focusing on my music career which was partially true.
The only outlet where I could express myself was music and dance. At the age of 16 I discovered Madonna who impressed me for being herself and not being ashamed of the mean comments that people said about her.
In fact, she always taught her haters a lesson and proved them wrong.
This made me confident that I could finally be someone meaningful on this planet and live out my true authentic self.
The more I performed in public, the more confidence I gained and the more extroverted I became on stage.
The only thing that was missing was having close friends and being able to have deep conversations about life.
At the age of 22 I was finally able to open up and talk about my feelings for women with my best friend at that time who also confessed that she felt the same way.
It took me another eight years to have the courage to be openly gay. I was afraid to lose friends because of that. The bullying in my past made me cautious of what to say, who to talk to and who to trust.
I was badgered because I was hiding my identity my whole life. On October 15th of 2022 which was exactly six months after my 30th birthday, I posted a short clip on all social media platforms telling my story and proudly saying “Yes, I’m gay”.
The response was 95 % positive and people congratulated me and thanked me for being courageous and sharing my story. The other 5 % were some random bible quotes and hate against the LGBTQ community.
Since I came out I am relieved.
I was born this way and I am no longer afraid of being myself.
Luana, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Between 2012 and 2016 I studied opera singing at the Saarland University in Saarbrucken. After graduating, I visited New York from December 2016 until February 2017.
When I walked along Times Square I felt like home for the first time in my life. I knew that it was my destiny to move here to be able to take my singing career to the next level.
I didn’t know anybody during that time. I had $10,000 in savings and a dream to make it big in America.
My Airbnb host Sasha was very helpful and introduced me to the entertainment and fashion industry. She came from Russia a few years ago for studies. Sasha explained to me how she got the O1 visa for immigrant artists and what was involved in this process.
This made me confident that I could do it too.
I came across the app meetup. That’s how I connected with the New York Songwriters Collective, founded by Peter Bliss.
After doing some research about Peter and listening to his music, I sent him an email and wrote that I’m visiting from Germany and that I want to record a few songs. He replied and invited me to his gig at the Bitter End. The day after, we met at his recording studio where I introduced him to my song “Love” which I wrote in 2016 for a woman who I was in love with. I was brave enough to sing it for her. That’s how I confessed my feelings. Due to my classical training I was used to type out the sheet music with the software MuseScore which allowed me to create midi files for the piano and vocals.
Peter said that the song is not ready to record and told me about his film composer friend Mark Roos who could build a whole orchestration around the song. Peter gave me his contact information and I scheduled a recording session.
Mark and I ended up recording my songs “Love”, “Wake Up World”, “Melissa” and
“Sin Ti”. I wrote the song “Wake Up World” in 2015 as a homage to the terror attacks which happened in Paris. The songs “Melissa” and “Sin Ti” are dedicated to my cousin and aunt in Nicaragua.
Mark was so impressed with my voice and songwriting skills that he offered me a sponsorship for an artist visa.
Without hesitating I said yes and accepted the challenge to apply for an artist visa.
Mark introduced me to the pianist Nataliya Medvedovskaya who is also a composer and songwriter. We decided to do a show together when I come back to New York.
Back in Germany, Nataliya and I planned to do a show at the Metropolitan Room. She sent me some of her original classical songs in Russian and pop songs in English that I was eager to learn.
We managed to put together a very diverse set list of Broadway hits, pop songs, Chansons, Opera, her songs and my songs.
In September of 2017 I returned to New York for two weeks to do the show with Nataliya. I also competed in a belly dance festival called “Raqs Without Borders” and landed second place. Furthermore, I starred as a backup singer in the music video “Rise Up” by Andra Day in collaboration with “Rockin’ 1000”. The music video was directed by Printz Board who wrote the song “Where is the Love” for the Black Eyed Peas.
Besides working on getting more credits as an artist to be able to qualify for the O1 visa, I scheduled consultations with immigration lawyers. It took a while to find the right one who could best represent me. A few consultations later I found the right attorney whose background was in musical theater.
In March of 2018 my O1 visa was approved. I was so happy and excited about it.
Two months later on May 5th I finally moved to New York.
I immediately got involved in the film industry and started working as a production assistant. This led to projects like New York Fashion Week with Paris Hilton and commercials with Julia Stiles and Bruce Willis.
Being involved in the film world has allowed me to make connections in the music department. This led to collaborations with music producers and film composers. I produced five tracks with KingCharlie Prince from “The Dynamic Three” who is known for “The Roof is on Fire”.
Furthermore I produced my songs “United” and “Adiós” with Ethan James, who was the bass player for Carlos Santana.
In December of 2020 I moved to Nashville due to the pandemic and loss of work as a performer. There, I starred as a Bollywood dancer in Selah’s music video “One Name” which has currently over 41 k views. This led to a nomination for the “Josie Music Awards” in the category “Best Performance in a Music Video”. The award show took place at the Grand Ole Opry on October 23rd 2022.
Furthermore, I collaborated with other songwriters and musicians on my songs which I sang live at the Triad Theater in New York in September of 2022.
Between August and October of 2022, NECAT Network gave me a space to produce and host my own TV show called “Songs of my Life”. I shot ten episodes and interviewed songwriters and musicians about their musical journeys and what inspired them to write songs. It is educational and covers the topics of music business, music production and co-writing. I even wrote a song on the spot with my guest Deborah Bishop which can be witnessed in episode 10.
The show will be available on the channels Access Nashville, iQtv Education, Music City Arts and Roku Channel. People who watch the show can submit questions related to songwriting and music business to my email [email protected] that I will answer in the next season that I am going to shoot in New York City.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a singer-songwriter is that I can touch people’s hearts. My songs are inspired by culture, travel, people, personal circumstances and senses. Whatever inspires me, I can immediately write a song about it. Melody and lyrics come naturally to me from the universe. When I sang my contemporary Christian song “The Last Chance” at church in Clearwater, Florida, somebody from the audience came to me and said “I felt like I was touching the edges of heaven”. When I heard this line I immediately wrote it down because it felt so powerful and I knew that I was going to use it in a new song which I did.
In September of 2019 I met Madonna’s percussionist Miroca Paris who was rehearsing in Brooklyn, New York for the upcoming Madame X tour. We connected on Instagram and I wrote to him that I love his music and would love to collaborate on songs. He replied and invited me to the hotel where he introduced me to his fellow musicians and Madonna’s music director. We ended up jamming all together and singing Madonna songs and Portuguese songs. The jamming session turned into a songwriting session. Miroca played a beautiful tune on the guitar and the words and story of the song just came to me naturally. The song is called “La Soledad” and is about two musicians who are traveling the world, feel lonely but are connected through their music.
On February 29th of 2020 I had an egg retrieval in New York. During the procedure I was under anesthesia. When I woke up, I felt that I did the most rewarding thing in the world.
For somebody who doesn’t want to have children it is a beautiful gift to help intended parents to get a child.
This life event inspired me to write the song “Leap Day”.
Here is a part of the lyrics:
Leap day, leap day
You come and go away
But I will never forget
To be a part of a life
It is alright to sacrifice
For someone else
My legacy lives on and on
In fact, this song got me on American Idol and I earned my first royalty check of $600. The producers who I auditioned for on Zoom loved this uptempo song and the message behind it. I was invited to audition for the celebrity judges in Ojai, California in November of 2020. On my audition day I sang Frozen by Madonna in a pop/opera version with belly dance. Katy Perry said “I know Madonna personally and she is one of the kindest people I know and so are you. You are the mother of Opera.” Lionel Richie said “Wow, I really enjoyed your performance”. And Luke Bryan tried to imitate my belly dance with my fan.
When I moved to Nashville, I worked on a movie called “Christmas at the Ranch”, directed by Christin Baker. During the shoot I slept in a tent to avoid driving back and forth between Lebanon and Nashville. While waking up in that tent, I heard a beautiful melody to which I immediately mumbled words. I grabbed my phone to record it. This song idea turned into my first Christmas song “Oh Magical Wonderland”.
Acting wise I landed an agent who got me a leading role in the show “Snapped” as well as a featured role in Dolly Parton’s movie “Mountain Magic Christmas”.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
My mission as a songwriter is to write meaningful songs for organizations such as NYC Pride, True Colors United and the Trevor Project. As a gay artist it is important to me to make my voice heard and to connect with people in a profound and healing way through music. As somebody who had no outlet other than music which gave me strength to heal from my depression, I want to bring hope to the youth who feel the same way as I did when I had nobody to talk to.
As far as my TV show “Songs of my Life”, I want to bring this show to New York, Los Angeles and Honolulu. I am looking for investors in order to be able to pay my guests, the film crew and to cover travel and accommodation. I know that this TV show will bring people together and make it possible to learn from each songwriting process and music genre. And most importantly it proves that music can heal a broken soul.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.luanasandoval.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luanasandoval.official/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Luana.Sandoval.Official
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luana-sandoval-20b9b118a/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/luanasandovals
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChyj6BU5URRD-c4-8DnZ3qA
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1LNc5FaILS1cf3GVTYCsvD Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/@luanasandoval Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@luanasandoval.official Bandcamp: https://luanasandoval.bandcamp.com/ iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/luana-sandoval/985659317 Venmo: https://account.venmo.com/u/luanamusic
Image Credits
Ann Landstrom and Luana Sandoval