2025: Grief, Creative Change, and Redefining Success as an Artist

2025: A year of grief, music, change, and learning to let things rearrange.

2025 was not a year that could be wrapped up in a neat reel with trending audio.

It was a year of grief, big creative highs, brutal lows, major life pivots, community, exhaustion, and growth. A year that asked me to grieve not only the loss of my beautiful grandmother, but also the loss of an identity I’d built around an idea of success — one that no longer fit.

As an artist, performer, and creative mentor, I spent this year navigating the space between ambition and sustainability, visibility and nervous system safety, artistry and real-world stability. There were sold-out shows, big band gigs, feminist music spaces, and moments of deep joy — alongside grief that lived in my body, forced stillness, and required honesty.

This reflection is about what happens when life rearranges things for you. About letting go of who you thought you had to be. About redefining success as a woman in music. And about trusting that grief, while painful, can also clear space for something truer to emerge.

👉🏻 Read the full essay on Substack →[https://mellathouras.substack.com/]