voice council feature
Independent artist Jenn Bostic has been surprised by fan reaction to her song.
She’s been used to getting into her Ford Focus and playing every café and winery she could find.
Now, Jenn Bostic’s vid “Jealous of the Angels” has reached over a million views and has led to new opportunities on two continents.
Jenn reveals the origins of her song and how it has taken the world by storm in this exclusive interview with VoiceCouncil Magazine.
We want to know how your song got to where it is. What did you do?
I was pushing my music career hard in every way I new how, playing as many shows as I could, writing all I could – but I felt stuck. To try something different, I entered into four songwriting competitions.
Which ones?
Four big ones: We Are Listening (UK based), International Songwriting Competition (ISC), USA Songwriting Competition and the John Lennon Song Contest.
We understand you did very well in these…
Interestingly a judge from the UK competition, Jay Frank, heard my music and got in touch with me. Turns out that he actually lived ten minutes from me in Nashville!
But this didn’t mean instant fame.
No – it meant some fantastic connections and the development of my music. I wrote Jealous of the Angels 6 months after that competition and continued to play small venues. I was noticing that the reactions to the song were incredibly strong.
That’s not surprising since “Angels” deals with your father’s death.
I remember performing the song at a café and a woman came up to me in tears to tell me that her dad had passed away the night before and she knew I had sung the song for her. Something like that began to happen at every show.
You’ve definitely “connected” with this song.
Jealous of the Angels is such a special song for me as writing it was a form of therapy from the pain I faced in losing my father. Being so personal, I had no idea the song would impact people the way that it has, comforting those in mourning and helping to heal broken hearts.
Tell us about making the video.
We discussed how we could make a low budget film – with one camera. And we flew to Minnesota to film it in the house I grew up in, on the piano I played as a child.
Aside from the power of the music, how has it gained so many views?
I had about 1,500 truly dedicated fans from my shows. When they saw that I had done this vid, they found it powerful and shared it with others – that’s what started to create the buzz.
Have you continued with the competitions?
Success is funny: I have now entered Angels into over 10 other competitions – with no luck!
It’s a reminder that these competitions are subjective.
Yes – I used to be so heartbroken when my songs – my “babies” – didn’t place. I would think that it was all about me not being “there” yet, but now I realize that isn’t true.
We understand that you’ve had a flood of personal reactions to “Angels”.
Yes, people keep telling me how much the song means to them and that means so much more to me than any piece of paper that says I won a writing competition – I share many of these stories now on my blog.
What’s next?
We’re planning our next steps with US releases. Also I’ve loved touring on the road – maybe now I’ll be able to take a band with me!
Jenn Bostic is a singer songwriter who’s hit song “Jealous Of The Angels” is making an impact worldwide, she also recently won five 2012 Independent Country Music Association Awards. Www.jennbostic.com
Jealous of the Angels (as a single & album) has just been released on Amazon due to popular demand – watch Jenn’s site for live performance dates in Spring 2013.
