“It was a beautiful moment to be able to just have that serenity.”
That moment was when singer-songwriter Emilee Moore performed her song Up In The Sky in a hot air balloon to honour her late grandmother.
It was Moore’s way to find closure for not being able to say goodbye to her grandmother during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the performance video, Moore also projected memories of loved ones, submitted by fans, onto the hot air balloon, which acted as a green screen.
“My grandma… she was a beautiful woman. She was a lot of inspiration for me for getting into music,” said Moore.
Her grandmother was a long-time pastor at the Richmond Pentecostal Church and she was one of the first people in North America to pass away due to COVID-19. Her family was unable to have a funeral due to restrictions at the time.
Moore wrote lyrics to the soundtrack for Pixar’s Oscar-winning animated film Up in 2022 when a “devastatingly sad” scene in the movie reminded her of her grandmother. The song as thousands of others found solace in her lyrics and their memories were featured in Moore’s music video.
This year, Moore wanted to do something “more epic and special and meaningful.”
“This is my first try at a more Youtube-esque… video,” she said, adding that including the hot air balloon performance was more of a spectacle that was “driven by a narrative, a story, purpose and meaning.”
“A hot air balloon and this song just go hand in hand, so it didn’t take too much thinking to figure that out.”
Moore encountered many obstacles to create the performance video. Not only did she face countless rejections from balloon companies, but she had to face her “deep” fear of heights as well.
“I was very, very anxious leading up to this. Like the week before I was not sleeping, I was very stressed,” she said. Combined with an early morning start, Moore was “very emotional” and was even “shaking” while she was up in the air.
Fortunately, Moore found Denni, the owner of the hot air balloon company, who supplied a hot air balloon for her performance after hearing about her song.
“I wish more people could have experienced it with me because it was so beautiful. But it was also such a blessing to be able to just be up there with Denni, who very much understands grief and has experienced loss of his own,” said Moore.
“It was just so quiet, it was so warm, and it was just like, I really truly felt like I could have a moment where I could just think of my grandmother and say goodbye.”
One year after going viral
As Up In The Sky’s approaches the one-year anniversary since its release last June, Moore said the song’s success still feels surreal.
When thousands began to use her song on TikTok to remember their loved ones, Moore was shocked.
“It (didn’t) even really feel like my song, it just felt like an extension of what I was feeling. And then it just became everybody else’s song, which is so powerful,” she said.
“And I’m really honoured to be able to make something that would have an impact like that.
Moore has been told by listeners that the lyrics of Up In The Sky express how they feel in moments of grief when they don’t have the words.
“I just hope that this can impact anyone who’s grieving right now and needs to feel a little less alone.”
To watch how Moore put the performance together, check out . Moore’s latest single, Moonlight, is now .
