Music therapy: Filipino singer addresses mental health issues through her songs, spreading awareness and helping others
- Coeli San Luis sings about mental health as a self-healing process, and to battle the culture of ‘toxic positivity’ in her country
- She talks frankly about her own issues on Instagram, and has inspired some of her followers to seek professional help
Mental health has always been a sensitive issue – especially in Asia, where a culture of “saving face” and “don’t ask, don’t tell” prevails when dealing with difficult subjects. But Filipino singer Coeli San Luis is not deterred by stifling old conventions.
The 26-year-old from Antipolo, a city just to the east of Metro Manila, who goes by the stage name Coeli, uses her folk-pop tunes to address mental health – and to reach out to people who might feel the same way. Her bright, experimental style lends itself well to her subject matter, bringing some levity to a serious subject.
“I thought I was overdramatising everything in my head,” she says. “With the stigma surrounding mental health, I thought that what I was feeling was invalid. But my songs – as I played them to myself – would tell me otherwise. My inner voice would somehow find its way through the music I created.”
Gradually, as she began performing to more people, Coeli realised that she wasn’t alone. She began releasing music, starting with her first single, Magkaibigan o Magka-ibigan, in 2016. The soulful Tagalog ballad dealt with the fear of the vulnerability that comes with opening up to love, and brought Coeli new-found attention.