Sugar Iced Tea by Hannah Renee

11:07 AM pada mama

As a parent and a Mother of two teenagers; I have watched my son and daughter grow and mature in ways I never thought possible. They have both carved out really authentic futures for themselves based on their individual passions - one as a gifted songwriter / musician / singer and the other as a talented soccer player. All I can do is stand back in awe because they didn't get those talents or determination from me!!!

I am extremely proud of my daughter Hannah Renee so this blog post is all about her. On Sunday night, she released her first professional music video for an original song she wrote when she was 16. It's called "Sugar Iced Tea". Hannah has been a journal keeper since she was in 8th grade and I knew that this would benefit her exponentially in the years to come. Her continual journal-writing on a daily basis has become the very core of her self expression and as a result, she has spawned many heartfelt lyrics for songs, derived from the excitement of 'first loves' to the crushing blow of that first break-up. Writing lyrics has been a form of therapy and sometimes even healing as she navigated her way through difficult periods of high school teenage drama. The music for Sugar Iced Tea was composed, recorded, mixed and mastered by my brother - musician/producer Mark Shannon (www.markshannon.ca) in his studio in Toronto, Canada, over a year ago while Hannah was visiting him on summer break. Hannah wrote and choreographed the script for her video and approached fellow LMU film student Matthew Law-Phipps to do all of the video production work. FYI - Matthew has worked with many great artists - including rappers: Wiz Khalifa, Kendrick Lamar, BIG Sean, and Rick Ross to name a few. Matthew worked tirelessly for an entire weekend in San Diego filming and directing for little to no compensation (other than a few good home cooked meals provided by yours truly). He then spent over a month editing and tweaking it to perfection. Then there was the handsome video "love interest" Anton Razanav - a fellow student Hannah hand picked from her highschool in San Diego, CA., to play the romantic lead role! (And no, they're not dating LOL). I was very impressed with how well Anton jumped into the role with no prior experience and worked continuously for two days with a smile on his face and a positive attitude. So today, I just want to say a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone that helped my daughter and was involved in this exciting project! This meant the world to Hannah. We are eternally grateful and thankful for your generosity. If you haven't seen/heard the video yet - please check it out and share your thoughts when you have a moment. Click on the link below "Hannah Renee" to go to the video.