With Parents’ Choice® and NAPPA Awards for her debut album Beauty Land in her hip pocket, children’s musician Dani is truly ready to share her music – and two new companion videos – with the world.
Phil Dornfeld, producer/writer of Scary Movie 3, 4, and 5 was excited to direct Dani’s new “Beauty Land” music video, an exquisite fantasy showcasing Dani’s talents and featuring 20 child dancers. Dani is also thrilled to share her beautiful “Run and Fly” music video, a dreamy lullaby shot at dusk and imbued with twinkling lights and sparklers. Both of these videos can be seen on Dani’s Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/DaniBeautyLand.
These gorgeous videos embellish Dani’s captivating, interactive concept album, Beauty Land, where each song is part of a mini-epic legend of giants, kings, enchanted forests and princesses. Beauty Land is rooted in the same magical soil as Disney’s Frozen, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Shrek. With folk, pop, rock, country, electronic, and even jazz and metal influences, Beauty Land is a recording to which a diverse population of kids – from tough to dainty – can relate.
Beauty Land offers a setting where Dani calls upon her considerable singing and storytelling talents to create a modern tale of enchantment that employs elements of mystery, fantasy, and intrepid heroism much like that encountered in The Chronicles of Narnia. The album’s mystical, impressionistic ambience is a framework that holds together a collection of captivating songs and dances that urge the listener to engage in song and movement. Dani’s colorful, atmospheric music runs the gamut from exotic to spooky, and through it all, her very listenable voice is the anchor that pulls everything together.
Following an evocative prologue, Beauty Land begins with “Skipping Through the Woods,” and listeners can join with brother-and-sister Jimmy and Lulu as they joyfully clap, sing, and dance their way through an enchanted forest. Spooky minor key effects are woven together over an irresistible beat in “Strange Little Witch,” announcing the arrival of a devious witch with a poofy dress and crazy hair. Captured by the witch and cast into a dungeon, Jimmy and Lulu dream of escaping to Beauty Land, a wonderful place filled with beautiful colors and candy treats. A sweet, comforting interlude follows, with “Magic Wish,” an a cappella ballad in which Dani serenades the children as one who has entered the story to give aid in their escape. A dramatic journey ensues, laced with episodes like “Jimmy and the Giant,” “Mrs. Blue” (whose specialty is the blues and who belts out a verse that leads to some great ‘50s rhythm ‘n’ blues), and “Mountain King,” a royal rhythm master who challenges Jimmy to a test of four rhythms, which our hero passes with flying colors. The children are sung to sleep by a “Butterfly Princess,” and, upon awakening, resume their travels, encountering wild “Tree Creatures” and dancing “Kangaroo Kids” who guide them to the island of Beauty Land. The odyssey comes to a moment of repose with “Ocean,” as Jimmy and Lulu bid their friends goodbye and set sail for the land of their dreams. With courage, spunk, and support from others, they have achieved their goal, against all odds. The story ends in true cliffhanger fashion, paving the way for a future Beauty Land album. Stay tuned!
Notes director Phil Dornfeld, “Dani is a special kind of children’s artist, in that her songs tell a wonderful story that captures kids’ imagination, yet the music is complex and melodious enough to entertain parents. I genuinely enjoy her music, and it was an honor to direct the video for the title track on her Beauty Land album.”
Dani reflects, “The majority of kids today don’t listen to ‘children’s music.’ They listen to Top 40 radio, which is hip-hop, pop, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Wiz Khalifa, and so forth. I like Top 40, too! However, a lot of the lyrics are inappropriate for children. With Beauty Land, I wanted to create relatable, Top 40 sounding songs but with family appropriate lyrics. My hope is to bring magic and fantasy into kids’ lives and to inspire them to dream big.”
A Chicago area native, Dani has been immersed in music since childhood, performing in her first musical theater production at age six, playing the lead in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella in middle school, and singing in choirs and a cappella groups throughout high school and college. She was an original member of Berklee College of Music’s “Pitch Slapped,” which went on to win numerous awards and to appear on NBC’s The Sing Off. After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in music therapy, Dani did her seven-month music therapy internship at the Institute for Therapy Through the Arts (ITA) in Evanston, Illinois, passed her certification exam, and joined the ITA staff. As a board certified music therapist, Dani traveled to special education classrooms throughout the Chicago area, where she used music to help children improve their social skills. After two years, she moved to Los Angeles to focus on writing and performing music. Dani was inspired to write the Beauty Land album after working behind the scenes at Rockhard Films, a Los Angeles-based music video production company where she assisted on set for projects starring Adam Lambert, Marilyn Manson, Rita Ora, Bella and Zendaya, Karmin, LFMAO, and more.
I received a copy of this CD to review and what really shines through is that Dani is unique! The music is catchy and cool for young kids and Mom and Dad will love that the lyrics are appropriate! The music is also definitely fun and will motivate young children to sing and dance along to the colorful music that seems to also be telling a story.
Beauty Land is available at amazon.com and iTunes.
Self Disclosure: I received a free CD to facilitate this feature. Photo Credit: Dani.
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