Fil-Norwegian artist Hillari names KZ Tandingan as musical influence

MANILA, Philippines — Growing up in a Filipino household and listening to KZ Tandingan has subconsciously influenced Filipino-Norwegian music artist Hillari’s knack for music and pursuit of a career path in the music business.

Real name Hillari Alison Conlu, she was born in Oslo to Filipino parents and spent her childhood in Bacolod and Bago cities in Negros Occidental.

“Growing up in a Filipino household, there’s always music around,” she recalled to The STAR in an exclusive Zoom chat. “I remember my grandma used to like, give me money just to sing in front of my titas. She used to make me dance and perform and sing and entertain the guests around the house.”

Hillari was into performing even at a young age but she never thought that she would be a singer or an artist one day in what started out as a “fun, little hobby.”

It was back in 2022 when she met her music team that changed everything. They took a year off to build her image and establish her brand of music. “Like OK, what type of artist do I want to be? How do I want my sound and so I was taking a whole year off while balancing high school and then I just made a lot of demos,” she shared.

Hillari was glad that they took the time off to strategically plan her music career because now, she feels very confident on who she is as an artist.

The R&B and soul musician has since played 16 concerts in Norway and Canada and has worked with major record labels and producers and songwriters from Toronto to Los Angeles.

She dropped her debut single Desperate Soul in March this year and the track was recognized as Song of the Month by Future Soul with Victoria Jane on BBC Radio 1 in London.

She was named Norway’s NRK P3 Urørt’s “untouched” artist in 2023.

Hillari’s debut EP How Is Your Soul? was released in July 2023. One of the tracks, Loyal, reached No. 10 on the Spotify Viral 50 chart in the Philippines. A remix version of Loyal featuring another Filipino artist, Jolianne, came out recently. Just this month, she launched another version of Loyal featuring Filipino-Australian artist RINI.

Loyal is a ditty about Hillari’s “messed up but beautiful generation.” The 18-year-old explained to this paper the sentiment of the song, saying, “Me being surrounded by my friends, I just see those relationships nowadays, especially when it comes to romantic relationships, we, my generation, often have this terrible trust (issues) for some reason.

“But then I really wanted to make a change. I want to change the perspective on that theme. I wanted to remind myself but also the people around me, especially my generation, that we actually have the choice to trust each other.

“And just because doubt is in front of you, just because it is served in front of you, it doesn’t mean you have to doubt every single person that you see. And so I really wanted to make a change on that and that’s why I just wrote on the lyrics, ‘I’d lay down my doubts aside for you,’ just as a reminder that we actually have a choice to trust each other. And it’s actually much better to trust each other.”

The rising singer admitted she is still in the process of “figuring things out,” being 18, but she nonetheless wants her brand of music to be “timeless, genuine and soulful.” She would like to collaborate with KZ, Moira dela Torre and Juan Karlos someday.

Hillari was recently in the Philippines for shows in Cebu City, Makati, Quezon City, among others.

“I had such a good time,” she described her experience playing in front of Filipino fans. “The Filipino audience is so different. It is something that I had never experienced before. And I remember when I came in, people were literally holding up posters like welcome home to the Philippines.

“And this one guy brought me a T-shirt which has my image. He made a merch for me and he made me sign his arm. And he was like, ‘I’m gonna make a tattoo of this.’ And there was this one man who flew from Singapore to the Philippines just to see my show. And people were crying and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! This is way more than I expected.’

“So, just doing a show here in the Philippines means a lot to me because when I see that my music is just bigger than myself, it is bigger than my own problems, and it’s bigger than just me and it actually touches other people, it just means the world to me. Seeing the reactions and seeing the smiles on their faces, it’s just amazing.”