Gina Naomi Baez is an actress, singer/songwriter, YouTuber and influencer from New York City. With a flourishing acting career having landed roles in Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Orange is the New Black and most recently CBS’s FBI. She has also performed in numerous Off-Broadway and Regional theatrical productions, with Baez becoming a name on everyone’s radar. However, her love and passion for songwriting and music has always been the true driving force behind her creativity, with the artist using her platform to spread messages of positivity. 

2021 sees the songwriter return with another Christmas song. Baez confides, “I love writing an original holiday song every year. This year, in particular for me after losing someone close to me, I became really focused on expressing that feeling of missing someone during the holidays. This is where that idea for Tinsel and Tears first came to mind.” “Tinsel and Tears” navigates the pain by discovering the beauty in the grief. Baez delivers this raw and very real feeling through an emotional and truly heartfelt release. Baez continues, “That feeling might be a dark one, especially during the holidays but it’s a feeling that everyone goes through or will go through in their life whether it be a loss, a break up, a divorce, a parting of ways, a long distance relationship.”

Written with co-writer Meghan Kabir (Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, Sabrina Carpenter), the beautifully sombre “Tinsel and Tears” features echoing chimes, twinkling string arrangements and a stunning, almost haunting violin which sends shivers down your spine. Baez’s falsetto vocals and layered choral harmonies emit a powerful message atop the simple, delicate arrangements.  

“I love writing an original holiday song every year. This year, in particular for me after losing someone close to me, I became really focused on expressing that feeling of missing someone during the holidays. This is where that idea for Tinsel and Tears first came to mind.”

Gina told Mundane