Toronto-born singer-songwriter Johnny Orlando has returned with “Emilia,” a dreamy indie-pop track exploring the linear relationship between love and fear. Released via Position Music with an accompanying video starring Xochitl Gomez, the new single captures a singular, inward-looking headspace written in the heat of the moment. Driven by shimmering guitars, tape-worn textures, and layered vocals, “Emilia” lives somewhere between nostalgia and now as an instinctive, late-night kind of song that’s hazy around the edges but emotionally precise. Orlando comments, “Emilia is about self-sabotage — finding someone by accident who completes you, and not trusting yourself enough to let a good thing happen.” The track doesn’t rush to resolve itself, instead sitting with the tension between vulnerability and restraint while letting the feeling linger, marking a clear step forward in Orlando’s evolution as both a musician and songwriter.
The video leans into an understated, indie-film aesthetic that mirrors the song’s emotional tension and restraint, with Gomez delivering a quietly cinematic turn. Sonically, the track pulls from the emotional world of Dominic Fike, The 1975, and Harry Styles while nodding to the timeless ease of Fleetwood Mac and The Strokes. Following headline tours across North America, Europe, and Asia, “Emilia” signals the next chapter of a broader body of work on the horizon, positioning the 22-year-old at the forefront of a new wave of alt-pop artists redefining what mainstream can look and feel like. Orlando has accumulated nearly 1 billion global streams and an online following of over 26 million engaged fans worldwide, garnering nominations for Breakthrough Artist of the Year and Pop Album of the Year at the JUNO Awards, as well as four consecutive wins for Best Canadian Act at the MTV European Music Awards. His August 2022 debut album ‘all the things that could go wrong’ has amassed over 250 million streams globally.