Gigi Perez “Can’t Wait” To Play Her Debut Album Live

In Elite Daily’s series Early Influences, musicians reflect on the songs and albums that left a lasting impression on them in their formative years. Here, rising star Gigi Perez reveals the artists she’s looked up to and how they’ve inspired her debut album.

Gigi Perez has already done the thing most musicians nowadays strive for — she’s had a viral hit on TikTok. The 25-year-old singer-songwriter’s raw track “Sailor Song” took over the FYP in 2024, with over 600,000 videos using the popular song for wholesome moments like long-distance couples reuniting.

With newfound internet fame, the Brooklyn-based singer has earned herself a spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 and in Spotify’s 2025 RADAR program of up-and-coming artists. “The fact that I was considered and chosen for this is a huge honor,” Perez says after performing her breakout hit at the music streamer’s Downtown Los Angeles office.

Now, her debut album, At The Beach, In Every Life, drops on April 25, and Perez says fans can expect subjects of grief, trauma, and rejection, along with larger themes of personal worldview, religion, and love.

“It comes from experiencing a lot of different cycles in my life at once, and how they all intersected with the way that I love someone,” she says. “It's very much, ‘This is what's been going on. Here you go.”

Below, Perez discusses three of her musical heroes who inspired the project.

Celene Perez

Perez’s biggest inspiration growing up wasn’t a pop star, but rather her older sister, Celene Perez, who died in 2020. “She was singing all the time, so I don't even know if there's a specific first memory,” Perez says. A moment that will stick with her forever is the last time she saw her sister sing on stage.

There's a piece of me that feels like living this life, sharing and creating music, is a way to be close to her.

Celene performed a song titled “Fable” in a musical during her senior year of high school. “Time completely stopped,” Perez says. “We were in a high school gym, getting a freaking Tony Award-winning performance from this 18-year-old girl.”

“My sister had so much potential, and for a lot of different reasons, she didn't have the opportunity to do it,” Perez says. “There's a piece of me that feels like living this life, sharing and creating music, is a way to be close to her and feel connected to her.” Celene has not only inspired Perez to keep going with her singing career, but she was a major muse for At The Beach, In Every Life.

Perez hopes that by writing about her grief, she can be there for someone else who’s going through it. “I'm only one small perspective in a giant rainbow of many different people, but I'd like to share it in honor of her, and in honor of everyone who was in a way robbed,” she says.

Ariana Grande

Perez may not consider herself a pop star like Ariana Grande, but she was heavily influenced by the Wicked actor when she was growing up. “It all started with watching Victorious, and thinking, ‘This girl has pipes,’” Perez says. “When her first single came out, ‘Put Your Hearts Up,’ it was everything to me.”

Grande’s love of other artists, like Imogen Heap and Frank Ocean, introduced Perez to new genres. “She's always been that somebody that I've looked up to — less so in the sense that you listen to my music and think of her, but her vocal arrangements scratch an itch in my brain.” Perez got to meet Grande in 2024 in a “very sweet and incredible” interaction, along with Cynthia Erivo. “I've been a big Cynthia fan forever, too. At my first audition for a play in high school, I sang ‘Anything Worth Holding On To,’ which was a song she made famous.”

Alex G

Perez was introduced to Alex G’s music around 2019, when she was a student at the Berklee College of Music — all thanks to a love interest. “I was really into them, so I started listening to Alex G and got myself familiar with his discography, and then something in my brain flipped.” Ever since, Perez says she hears music differently. “Once I heard DSU, it was over, and then I found House of Sugar,” she says. “Whenever I listen to that project, I immediately feel like it’s winter in Boston, and I’m taking Greyhounds to New York.”

Although she was inspired by his unique tunings, she kept the chord structures in her album simpler. “Hearing Alex G’s perspective on music led me to my own.”

As for what’s next, Perez is currently on a headlining tour promoting her debut album. Then, she’ll be making the festival circuit at Lollapalooza after joining Hozier on his Unreal Unearth tour this summer. “I'm excited to get to play these songs that have been unreleased for so long,” she says. “I can’t wait to see the way the fans’ relationship to them changes and evolves, and how my relationship to the songs changes and evolves as I play them.”