It’s easy to make someone the centre of your world when you’re falling for them. Their smallest gestures start to mean more than they should, and the version of them in your head can become just as important as the person themselves. On “celebrity,” Massachusetts singer-songwriter Ava Valianti explores that kind of infatuation, where admiration starts to resemble idolization.
At 17, Ava is still finding new ways to express the feelings that shape her songwriting. Here, she approaches attraction through the idea of celebrity: what happens when someone becomes so fascinating that they seem almost untouchable? The feeling can be exciting, even comforting, but there is another side to it. Putting someone on a pedestal can make it difficult to see them clearly.
The concept becomes more interesting when viewed alongside Ava’s own ambitions. As an emerging artist, she is pursuing a career that could one day put her in the position of being admired by others. Yet “celebrity” turns that perspective around, focusing instead on what it feels like to be captivated by someone else. It adds a thoughtful layer to a subject that could otherwise have remained a straightforward love song.
The single also marks a shift in Ava’s musical direction. Her debut EP, petunias, introduced her introspective indie-pop approach, while Sophomore Slump leaned further into guitar-driven pop-rock. With “celebrity,” she moves toward jazz and R&B, opening up another side of her sound. Rather than abandoning her earlier work, the change suggests an artist becoming more comfortable exploring different musical spaces.
That willingness to experiment matters because Ava’s songwriting often begins with feelings that are difficult to explain until someone finds the right way to put them into words. The idea of seeing a person through rose-coloured glasses is familiar, but connecting that experience to celebrity gives it a different perspective. It raises a quiet question about how much of our attraction belongs to the person themselves and how much comes from the image we have built around them.
The release also arrives as Ava continues to establish herself through streaming, radio, live performances, and songwriting recognition. She has performed at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles and The Basement East in Nashville, and has received recognition from organisations including the Boston Music Awards, New England Music Awards, and International Acoustic Music Awards.
Her forthcoming project, kismet, is expected to continue her movement toward a warmer, more soulful sound. If “celebrity” is an indication of where she is heading, Ava seems interested in giving her songwriting room to grow rather than settling into one style too early.
What makes the single’s central idea linger is its uncomfortable little truth: sometimes, the person we admire most is partly a creation of our own imagination. “celebrity” finds its subject in that space between who someone is and who we want them to be.
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