Favorites: Sorisa

Sorisa is a 16-year-old Canadian artist who’s taken Toronto and the internet by storm. I sat down with him for our new series, “Favorites,” where we talk about artists’ favorite things.

First, I wanted to get to know him a little better. We had met once before, very briefly, when we both happened to be in Times Square at the same time. So going into this interview, I still had a few questions I wanted to ask.

(His mom took this picture, shoutout to her).

We first talked about his day-to-day life, which right now is mostly school. “All I have time for is school, music, and high school shit,” he tells me, adding, “I still have homework to do after this interview.”

He then tells me about a show he did recently. He didn’t even have time to go home that day, instead heading straight from school to soundcheck. By the time evening came around, there were roughly 2,000 people in line for the 600-person venue. “We let 100 more people come in. So we were 100 past capacity. Then I had to tell, like, 1,000 plus people, goodbye.” 

Once we caught up on life, school, shows and everything in between, it was time to jump into what I actually came here for: his favorites.

Favorite Anime Character:

“It is Naruto, and every day of my life, it will be Naruto. I was reenacting the Rasengan in my dining room… and my uncle was like, this kid’s kind of weird. And that’s a cool memory. I didn’t care at all. Naruto is who I am, because his whole thing of never giving up. My dad once said our family doesn’t give up, and I was like, damn, Naruto. That’s my whole thing. That’s one of my core values from Naruto. He did all of that, the entire show, as a 16-year-old kid. Are you kidding me? That’s my philosophy right there, bro. I based myself on that character, and now it’s become me. Naruto was my anchor point… now he’s at the core of who I am.”

Favorite Soccer Player:

“My favorite soccer player is David Beckham, but he's my favorite celebrity. He just happens to play my favorite sport. My favorite actual player is Neymar.”

“I grew up watching Barcelona… I'm Argentinian, it's Neymar and Messi. But Neymar, that's the reason I love the number 11 so much. The number 11 represents joy and beauty in football because of the Brazilian players… all these number 11s, they make the game beautiful to watch and joyful to watch. That's why I love the number so much, and Neymar is the prime reason.”

“After my country won the World Cup, I was like, holy shit. I watched Neymar again, and my life was changed again… he would always play with a smile. Neymar is the greatest football player of all time if we're not taking in actually winning shit. If we're talking the greatest football, it's Messi, but Neymar is the greatest… It's Ronaldinho and Neymar right there.”

“Oh my God, Neymar. If I could live any life, mine would be first, then it'd be Neymar’s.”

Favorite Female Celebrity:

“Britney Spears is up there… I mean, like, Britney Spears before she went bald. She’s super happy, and she was also a kid, you know, being a fucking superstar as a child.”

“Rihanna… I love Rihanna. That’s just her music. I don’t know much about her as a person, I just love Rihanna, so I guess Britney. I know more about Britney Spears than I do anybody.”

“Also Princess Diana. I just read a thing about her… she was super cool. Apparently it’s against the royal family to crouch down and get on someone’s level because you have to show you’re superior to them, but she never did that, which is super cool. That’s one thing I love about her, because she treated everybody equal… from what I read, she’s pretty cool.”

“So I guess Princess Diana, Britney Spears, and on music’s side is Rihanna.”

Favorite App:

“It’s TikTok, and it’s not good, bro.”

What’s on your feed?

Right now, it’s all me. On my personal account I just repost everything about me, so it’s just about me.”

“Last night it was all Family Guy. And then also Geometry Dash, I don’t even like Geometry Dash, I don’t play it.”

What’s you screen time?

“For TikTok? Oh my God. This is not gonna be good, bro. My dad always moaned at me for this. It’s like… genuinely, I think this weekend is like 10 hours or something. Oh, 7 hours and 10 minutes. I swear I was on my phone the entire day. That’s a lie. I swear I was on it for 10 hours.”

Favorite Sorisa Lyric:

“My favorite lyric I’ve ever sung is from an unreleased song I play in my concerts. It’s literally the lyric, we don’t even have to try, it’s always a good time. I love that song so much. I love taking that lyric because it’s something that’s core to me and I’m putting it in the song.”

“My favorite thing I’ve ever wrote is… if I atoned for all my crimes then we would both have dry eyelids. When I was 15 and I wrote that, I was like, damn! Forehead, cheek, chin… that’s about my ex. I was like, damn, I’m a fucking poet. It’s such a basic line, it’s just big words. It’s literally just saying, if I said I’m sorry, we would not be crying right now.”

“The reason I love it so much is because as a 15-year-old I was like, oh my God, I’m gonna be a poet when I grow up. I’m the next Kendrick Lamar. For a week I was like, fuck! It’s not a good lyric, but I love it because it means something to me.”

“One thing I want to do is just put what’s happening in my life into music. Every time I’m feeling happy, which is 99% of the time, I want to put into the song what I’m feeling right then and there. The words are just the pigeon… the actual message is the feelings.”

Favorite Childhood Movie:

“It’s Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, because that’s the first movie that made me cry.”

“It’s a scene where Lucario and Ash Ketchum are fighting… I forget why they’re fighting, I think it’s because one of their Pokémon got trapped by Mew. And then they’re like, oh, it’s your fault, it was your fault, and then Ash apologizes and he’s just crying.”

“I was crying as a kid. I was like, this is art, this is actual cinema. That movie is beautiful.”

“And then when Lucario sacrifices himself to save Ash and Pikachu… oh my God, oh my God. That’s why Lucario is my favorite Pokémon—because of that movie.”

Favorite Rapper:

“Right now, it’s OsamaSon. I love OsamaSon right now.”

“Ever since I heard Lobby two months ago. I used to love him, Kills was my favorite song, probably second favorite song of all time. I used to cry to that every day of grade 11. Not for the lyrics, just for the beat switch. I would actually just cry.”

“When I was in grade 8, I would listen to Glaive and khai dreams, again&again… indie stuff. And then when I was in grade 9, I was like, damn, I’m not going to be cool if I listen to this shit. So I tried Take Care. I was like, okay, Drake, sure, whatever, oh my God, this is fucking amazing.”

“Since then, I love Drake. Drake’s my number one of all time, but right now, it’s OsamaSon. And it’s been OsamaSon for like two years.”

Favorite Letter:

“Letter S. It’s S. Because S is my name, Sebastian, smile, and just sonrisa and risa.”

“It comes from smile and laugh, because sonrisa is smile and then risa is laugh, so I put them together and I got Sonrisa.”

“This is my first language, but I lost it immediately because I live in Toronto. My parents tried to teach me and then I lost it because I went to school… and when my little brother was born, they kind of just gave up.”

“I started learning it again in high school because I met this Latina girl and I was like, damn, I’m Latino, and if I don’t speak Spanish she’s not going to like me. So I started learning again.”

Favorite Place Visited:

“I love El Salvador. All the mountains and stuff. I love all the volcanoes and the beach.”

“My grandma has this beach house that we go to, so it's just vibes.”

“I've been to Paris and London… I saw Messi live at PSG, Mbappé and Neymar. Amazing. But honestly Paris and London… I was 11 and all I cared about was video games, so I didn’t really take it all in. I just wanted to go home. It didn’t hit.”

“When I went to LA… if I went to LA when I was 11 I wouldn’t have given two fucks, but now I took it all in because I was like, maybe it’s the only time I'll be here… it’s going to be super lit. I went two weeks ago for label meetings and stuff. It was super lit. I love LA.”

“I met Feng. I met all of 2hollis’ family. His mom told me congrats… she was like congratulations. I was like, oh! Thank you. She’s super tall, I was freaked out.”

That concluded the Favorites portion, but not the interview. 

What point of your career do you think you’re in?

“I can only tell you when I’m 80. God forbid this is my peak. Who knows? I could be nothing next week or I could be Drake tomorrow. I can’t tell the future.”

“People know who I am in my city and I love them so much, but on the level that I want to be… I want to be Britney Spears. I want to be on MTV. I want to be touring Amsterdam and Melbourne and fucking everywhere in the world. I want to be a superstar.”

“This is nothing to me, whoa, whoa, whoa, no. This is not nothing to me, but in terms of scale and size it’s nothing. I love it though. I love it.”

“If I was dropped off tomorrow, I’d be super grateful for everything that’s happened to me in my life, because who gets to do this? So many people try, and by luck or whatever it was… I’m super grateful to be here and I’m not letting it go. I have the opportunity to be a superstar now and I’m not letting that go. I love everybody so much.”

Advice to your younger self:

 “You got it. He knew what was up. Every time I dropped a song on Spotify and it had zero streams for five weeks, I was like, who cares? I’m doing this. I don’t care if I have nothing now, I know I will have something in the future.”

“He never gave up… because of my dad and because of the people in my life and because of my experiences. I’m never giving up. There’s no point in giving up.”

“The only reason I started was for fun. I was having fun in my room. I uploaded my thing to Spotify only because I loved the song so much… I just wanted to listen to it. I didn’t even care if people listened to it. By the second song I was like, I want to do this for my life. I started promoting on TikTok… no one cared. I didn’t care if they didn’t care. I kept having fun, and the more fun I had, the more it showed through my music.”

“Just actually have fun. Do not care about your numbers. Obviously you have to care in a place in your mind, but don’t make it your forefront or else it’s gonna kill you.”

“There shouldn’t be a reason for you to give up. If you really love music, or if you really love accounting, if you really love flying planes, if you just love doing it… it will show. And if somebody sees that, that’s it. Your spark has been taken into a fire.”

Message for the people:

“Love… like, I mean, there’s no reason not to be kind. There’s points in my life where I wasn’t nice, but now I’ve grown up, so I want to be nice.”

“There’s a lot of evil in this world. There’s so much that is unavoidable — and to avoid it is to be ignorant, which you have to acknowledge.”

“But because of that evil, because you acknowledge it, you also have to be kind. You have to be. Because if you don’t — who is?”

“If you’re not gonna be kind, then I don’t know what’s gonna happen. Everybody has to strive to be kind. That’s it. That’s all I gotta say, because I can’t promise anything else.”