The Jackie Paladino Interview.

Born in New York and raised in central New Jersey, Jackie Paladino is a 20-year-old singer-songwriter whose voice has been compared to the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae, Billie Holiday, and Adele. She was introduced to the piano at the age of six, and developed her understanding of storytelling and performance through off-Broadway theatre, dance competitions, and musical vocational school. It wasn’t until Jackie returned to her birth state to attend the music theatre program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts that she discovered her true calling. “When everyone else was memorizing lines to songs and stories, I was writing my own stories through song, belting out the tunes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duffy, and Alicia Keys along the way.” Always an avid reader of poetry, she found herself delving deeply into the works of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, entranced by the precision and mystery of their word choice. As an artist, Ms. Paladino seeks to combine this sense of lyric perfectionism and her urgency to “mold the ugly into something beautiful” along with the power and soul of her favorite songstresses.

ABOUT “RESCUE ME” Single

Jackie Paladino releases her highly-anticipated new single entitled “Rescue Me," the follow-up to "Daddy's Money," which prominently placed her on the map as a musical force to watch out for in 2016. Recorded with Chris Griffin (Madonna, Kanye West, John Legend) in the heart of Manhattan last year, Paladino wrote her latest release a couple summers ago at her childhood piano in New Jersey as a way to cope during her struggle with an eating disorder.

Never one to shy away from vulnerable topics, Ms. Paladino admits that penning “Rescue Me” was essential to her survival during a destructive, chaotic period of her life. It touches upon the delicate issue of overcoming an eating disorder, and the shame, isolation, and uncontrollable nature that the disease encapsulates. “I couldn’t control anything. That’s what it felt like. I went from a go-getting, highly motivated, highly passionate individual to a girl who hated her choices, hated her body, and clung to all sorts of outside forces in hopes of finding something or someone to save me. It took what felt like forever to realize that the only one who could save me was myself.”

Inspired by her journey to recovery, the song transitions between a girl who is imprisoned by body dysmorphia who seeks outside forces, namely men, to rescue her to a soulful anthem of female empowerment where the protagonist realizes that she had the power to be her own heroine all along. “As girls and young women, we are constantly bombarded with fairytales, stories, and other images, that project the idea that women are inferior to men and are in need of rescuing. When I wrote ‘Rescue Me’, I chose to reject those beliefs and inspire women to find the courage to save themselves.”