SELECTED RELEASE
FREE RANGE
859K+combined Spotify + Apple Music plays
One of Shaolinn’s most-listened-to releases, reflecting the audience she has built across her independent catalog.
Virginia Beach · 2027
SHAOLINN
AWAKENING
A new independent chapter in music, visual storytelling, and artistic ownership.
01 / Profile
THE ARTIST
Shaolinn is a Virginia Beach recording and performing artist whose work moves through R&B, alternative music, hip-hop, and atmospheric soul.
Her music is centered on emotional honesty, intimacy, contrast, and storytelling.
After experiencing both independent artistry and the major-label ecosystem through a previous signing with Pusha T’s Heir Wave Music Group, Shaolinn is entering a new independent chapter with greater creative ownership and a more intentional artistic identity.
She is a member of the Recording Academy and has received support through REVOLT-related artist initiatives.
Her 2027 project AWAKENING is the clearest expression yet of her music, visual identity, and independent direction.
02 / Funding & timeline
BUDGET &
TIMELINE
All recording, production, mixing, and mastering for AWAKENING will be completed in 2026. Grant-supported activity begins in 2027 and is focused on visual presentation, audience development, promotion, and public engagement.
January
Project Preparation
Finalize visual concepts, schedule, bookings, styling direction, locations and campaign strategy; scope new digital press kit and booking portfolio deliverables.
February–March
Campaign Photography + Styling
Complete campaign photography and styling; create Des Scobey campaign assets and develop new press and booking materials.
April–June
Video Production
Produce and edit Director Framez video content; complete the new press kit and integrate delivered imagery into campaign materials.
July–September
Audience Development
Paid digital promotion, press outreach, content rollout, continued visual releases, and audience-building around the project.
October–November
Virginia Beach Show
Produce and present a free, all-ages live Virginia Beach show for AWAKENING, combining performance, visual presentation, final campaign documentation, and continued promotional support.
Campaign photography: the full activity is budgeted at $900. The City of Virginia Beach request covers $400; the remaining $500 is requested separately through the Virginia Commission for the Arts Artist Catalyst Grant. The two requests are separately allocated and no expense will be charged to both programs. The $600 digital press kit line funds new 2027 press-kit and booking-portfolio deliverables, not this portfolio site.
03 / Listen closely
SELECTED WORK
A selection of recordings, collaborations, and performances from Shaolinn’s catalog — work that reflects her evolution as a songwriter, recording artist, and performer.
SELECTED COLLABORATION / CHRIZ JAVEY, 1981 TOKYO × SHAOLINN
CRAZY ON MY MIND
156K+Spotify plays
Created spontaneously in Los Angeles after Shaolinn and chriz javey crossed paths during Grammy week, ‘Crazy on My Mind’ grew out of an unplanned studio session and became one of the stronger-performing releases in Shaolinn’s catalog. Released as chriz javey, 1981 Tokyo & Shaolinn.
SELECTED RELEASE
CHERISH
206K+combined Spotify + Apple Music plays
A six-figure-streaming release from Shaolinn’s existing catalog, highlighting the sustained audience response to her work.
SELECTED RELEASE
HEAVY HEART
201K+combined Spotify + Apple Music plays
A selected release from Shaolinn’s established catalog, demonstrating the depth of her work beyond a single breakout track.
04 / The era
AWAKENING
Nine songs.
One emotional world.
A complete body of original music bringing together visual storytelling, emotional honesty, and intentional presentation in Shaolinn’s next independent chapter.
The project narrative
AWAKENING is a complete nine-song body of original music. Recording, production, mixing, and mastering are being completed in 2026.
The 2027 phase brings the finished music into a fully realized visual and public-facing world through professional photography, styling, video, digital presentation, audience development, and live/public presentation.
Shaolinn's music and music videos are distributed through REVOLT, which carries the finished AWAKENING visuals to an audience beyond her own channels.
The sequence / 01—09*
* Work-in-progress audio These previews reflect the current production stage of AWAKENING. Select vocals, arrangements, mixes, and production elements are still being revised; final release versions may differ.
- 01UNAWARE
- 02FOREVER
- 03BELIZE
- 04MIST
- 05CHASTE CASUAL
- 06WATER AND OIL
- 07LIGHT
- 08WITNESS ME
- 09NAOMI
Building the world
- ACampaign Photography
- BStyling Direction
- CMusic Video Production
- DVisual Content
- EDigital Press Kit & Booking Portfolio
- FMarketing & Audience Development
- GVirginia Beach Show
05 / Art direction
THE VISUAL WORLD
Portrait, movement, fabric, shadow. A visual language shaped around emergence and emotional clarity.
06 / Experience
SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS
- 01
REVOLT BE HEARD WINNERREVOLT Summit
Winner of REVOLT’s Be Heard competition, which put Shaolinn in front of leading music-industry executives and helped expand her professional network.
- 02
SPOTIFY CULTURE NEXTFeatured artist
Featured by Spotify in its Culture Next campaign/report, spotlighting emerging voices shaping contemporary culture.
- 03
HEIR WAVE MUSIC GROUPPusha T’s imprint
Previous artist experience through Pusha T’s Heir Wave Music Group within the Universal / Def Jam major-label ecosystem.
- 04
WALMART BLACK & UNLIMITEDSomething in the Water campaign
Featured musician in Walmart’s Black & Unlimited campaign connected to Something in the Water in Virginia Beach, with artist support/funding tied to the campaign.
- 05
RECORDING ACADEMYVoting member since 2024
Voting member of the Recording Academy since 2024.
- 06
REVOLTDistribution + 440 support
Shaolinn's music and music videos are distributed through REVOLT, alongside televised live performance experience and continued artist support through REVOLT's 440 Artists initiative.
- 07
CROSS-PLATFORM AUDIENCEApple Music + Spotify
563.5K lifetime Apple Music plays, with listeners in the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, and the United Kingdom. Selected releases: Free Range 859K+, Cherish 206K+, and Heavy Heart 201K+ combined Spotify and Apple Music plays, and Crazy on My Mind 156K+ Spotify plays.
- 08
TEEN VOGUEBest New Music
Heavy Heart was featured in Teen Vogue’s Best New Music coverage.
07 / Home
ROOTED IN
VIRGINIA BEACH
Shaolinn didn’t move here to make music. She was made here.
Her mother named her out of a love of Wu-Tang Clan, which is a fitting first fact about a woman who has spent her life holding several inheritances at once. She grew up Black, white, and Filipino inside one household, raised alongside her Filipino and white grandparents. Her heritage was never something she went looking for later in life. It was the ordinary condition of her childhood, sitting at the table with her.
The city itself was steadier than her time inside it. She moved between Lake Taylor, Bayside, and Ocean Lakes before graduating, a stretch she has called hectic, and she came to poetry before she came to singing. Writing was the first place the moving parts of her life could sit still long enough to be looked at.
What she carried out of all of it is a fluency in moving between traditions without trading one for another. It is audible in the work: music that lives at the junctions of R&B, hip-hop, and alternative, built by someone whose early ears took in rock bands, Billie Eilish, FKA Twigs, and Tyler, The Creator with equal seriousness.
Virginia Beach is where those separate inheritances became one person. AWAKENING is the first body of work where she says so out loud.
08 / Film & performance
WATCH
Heavy Heart
Lie 4 Me
Live Performance
09 / Press
PRESS & PROFESSIONAL
Profiles, interviews, reviews, and editorial features on Shaolinn. Each entry opens the original publication in a new tab.
- REVOLTYoung, Talented and Ready: REVOLT Summit’s “Be Heard” contest winner Shaolinn got nextProfile · 2021
- Teen VogueTaylor Swift & Big Red Machine, Rico Nasty, and LOONA: Best New MusicIncludes Shaolinn’s “Heavy Heart” · 2021
- Beats Per MinuteInterview: Virginia Beach songwriter Shaolinn dishes on her debut EP, working with Pusha T and much moreInterview · 2021
- District FrayArtist Shaolinn Offers a Meditation on Pain + Loss in “Blackstone”Feature · 2021
- REVOLT8 songs by REVOLT’s 440 Artists you need to hearIncludes “UNAWARE” by Shaolinn
- REVOLT8 songs by REVOLT’s 440 Artists you need to hear, Pt. 2Includes “Belize” by Shaolinn
- PopscureThe Journey to Finding Peace in Shaolinn’s BlackstoneFeature · 2021
- A1234Shaolinn – Lie 4 MeReview · 2021
Professional document
ARTIST CV — 2026
Selected original work, performances, recognition, press, and professional affiliations.