It's been a busy, music-making summer for Surrey-based artist with many gigs and concerts (including Filipino Fest at the Museum of Surrey on Saturday, Sept. 6), releasing new pop songs and preparing a five-track EP for distribution Sept. 19.
Music has definitely become a full-time job for the 24-year-old, who got serious about making music a career just a few years ago 鈥� not only writing and recording songs but creating social media posts and video, linking music-sharing platforms and doing all the administration stuff.
It's a ton of work.
"I'm glad someone noticed that," she said with a laugh, "because yeah, it's a lot to balance, not only having regular content to post (on social media) but keeping things like bios and websites and links updated. It can kind of pile up sometimes but yeah, you know, it's just part of the job. I do have collaborators for the music, thankfully."
The struggles of choosing a career in music are covered in Glisha's latest song, a dreamy, shimmering pop/R&B ballad called , which documents, as she says, "the emotional weight of pursuing a creative life in a world that often values stability over dreams."
Glisha sounds confident in her career choice but she's also not without her doubts from time to time.
"I think I'm pretty stubborn in that way, and I think I'm at the point where I'm, like, I am going to make it happen no matter what, no matter how hard it gets," she said. "The song (Time and Time Again) is where I'm always going to be back and forth in my head, but deep down inside I know I'm always going to do this (music) and I'm always going to want to spend my life doing this."
So far, Glisha has close to 20 original songs to her credit, with more to come, plus some choice covers that she performs at festivals and community events across Surrey and Metro Vancouver.
A highlight for her is , where she gets to celebrate her family roots in song.
"I did the Filipino Fest last year as well, and it's such a great event, one of my favourites," Glisha said. "It's just so bright and colourful and there's food, there's vendors, performances. Given my roots, it's so nice to be able to kind of connect with Filipinos because I feel like we all have similar stories, especially those of us who have immigrated here or have immigrant parents. I like to kind of incorporate a little bit of my own stories in my set, so being able to connect with like-minded people is really nice."
Born in Winnipeg, Glisha grew up in the Guildford area and now lives in Surrey City Centre.
With her music she's earned accolades including Pop Artist of the Year at the 2024 Fraser Valley Music Awards and nominee for the 2025 YWCA Women of Distinction Awards (Young Woman of Distinction category).
Another summer-release song for Glisha is , which she calls "an emotionally raw yet euphoric dance-pop track about the moment you choose yourself, even when walking away hurts."
Produced by Los Angeles-based Flo Mavridorakis, it's the kind of track that should get Glisha noticed by more people.
鈥淚 wrote this during a time I felt torn between holding on and healing," Glisha says. "The relationship wasn鈥檛 healthy, but it still hurt deeply to leave. This song became a way to reframe that grief into power. It鈥檚 for anyone who鈥檚 learned that coexisting isn鈥檛 the same as being truly loved.鈥�
See and hear Glisha at Filipino Fest, which runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 6 at Museum of Surrey, 17710 56A Ave., in Cloverdale. Other performers on stage at this year's festival include The Kuyas, Raffy Swap One, Argel MDR, Red Filos and Ash Angel.
The one-day cultural festival has attracted more than 1,500 people in past years, and another full house is expected for the 2025 edition.
A family connection at the festival is Narima Dela Cruz, president of Surrey Philippine Independence Day Society (SPIDS). She happens to be Glisha's mother and also one of her biggest fans. "The Filipino community is grateful to the Museum of Surrey for their remarkable and generous gesture of hosting festivities for us to share and extend to the community at large,鈥� Dela Cruz said.
