CREATOR SPOTLIGHT: Ariel Bellvalaire

Photo Credit: Knocking Bird Creative (@knockingbirdcreative)

ARIEL BELLVALAIRE

(She/Her)

Musician/Performer

A guitar-shredding, vocally-arresting, unapologetically over-the-top performer, experiencing @arielbellvalaire‘s music feels like standing close to a scorching flame. At a young age, Ariel began playing the electric guitar becoming a mean and meticulous player. She quickly rose through the music ranks to become a nationally recognized guitarist, which meant she was constantly in demand. In 2015, Ariel moved to Los Angeles, where she booked lead roles in commercials including the face of KIA’s iconic national campaign, the electric guitar-playing hamster. After this, Ariel took part in several prominent tours as a guitarist for the world renowned singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson, Drag The Musical (featuring contestants on Ru Paul’s Drag Race) and many others. Since 2021, she has been recording and releasing original music, wowing fans with guitar-driven songs, and catchy pop melodies. In 2024, Ariel announced that she was shifting her focus to work on her debut album. Her first single, ‘Til The Clock Strikes,’ dropped on March 22 - and it was everything that her fanbase had been hoping for. The song was loaded with energy and featured exquisite dance-pop production, a phenomenally catchy chorus, and a signature Ariel guitar solo. With her music being described by fans as “Lady Gaga with a hint of Van Halen,” Ariel’s songs traverse the genres of dance, pop, and rock - all of it stamped with her signature sound, inspired guitar solos, and her unabashedly energetic attitude.

1. Introduce yourself. Tell us who you are and what you do. Give us an overview of your career so far. (If possible, include some career highs and lows.) Give us a brief description of what daily life looks like for you.

Hey I’m Ariel Bellvalaire and I’m a guitar shredding pop artist who loves to combine melodic vocal melodies with lead electric guitar and give the most energetic live show possible! My career so far has been a roller coaster but I’m so grateful for all of it! Currently I have an EP of all original songs that I’m so proud of and have been diving in head first as a solo artist releasing each song and performing live around Los Angeles. When I’m not performing my original songs, I’ll play guitar live for other incredible artists such as Debbie Gibson and Drag The Musical featuring many of the Ru Paul Drag race winners and Joey McIntyre of New Kids On the Block. I feel like with with any career in the arts there are definitely many highs but with any highs there are always lows as well. There have been many projects I’ve been a part of that were thought to take off but ended instead but when you truly love what you do and keep going, the next and better opportunities always come.

2. Tell us about your creative process. What works best for you? Have you experienced writer’s block, imposter syndrome, procrastination, perfectionism, self-doubt, or self-limiting beliefs? How did you overcome them?

My creative process is organic and unpredictable, but after years of understanding my workflow, I feel like my creative process is always changing, sometimes I’ll get lucky and songs feel like they write themselves and I’ll have a full song in my head and will just have to figure out what I hear (love when that happens!) Other times I’ll have to sit with the guitar, write a progression and hum melodies until I like something. Once I have a melody I like I’ll write lyrics and naturally, a guitar solo. Often times when I have writers block I’ll take a break, go out in nature and just try to clear my head and that often helps! I’ve also found that if I have a cowriting session, it opens up my creativity and once I finish the song with the team, I can often go home after and if there was a song I was stuck on, the parts will come out easier. Perfectionism and limiting beliefs have definitely been a struggle. From as long as I can remember, I always felt that I was put on this earth to perform and make music and had a very specific big picture of how it should look and sound. It took YEARS of practice to get to the point where I felt I sounded good enough to even come close to that vision and often times I wouldn’t post videos thinking I wasn’t good enough yet and would constantly beat myself up about not being good enough. Thankfully the love of performing kept me going and practicing non stop along with consistently learning new skills really helped me get over that. I still have limiting beliefs and perfectionism sometimes and when that happens I need to take a step back and remind myself that I’m a boss a$$ B*tch and if I was able to make it this far I can keep going and do anything.

3. If comfortable sharing, tell us how you’ve previously struggled with your mental health. (Have you experienced anxiety, depression, a learning disability, ADHD, bipolar disorder? Or have you experienced adversity with your gender, sexuality, race?) What other challenges have you faced as a creative?

At this point I think anxiety and depression often comes with the territory of being an artist and having to constantly put yourself out there and in a place to be criticized for who you are, your passion and art. We performers often hide it well though! There are times where I’ve been caught up with thinking my self worth had to do with how many views I got on social media or that if I got negative comments on anything I did that I wasn’t good enough and would compare myself to other people constantly. I do have adhd as well, most of the time I consider it a blessing because I have the energy to do so many different things at the same time during a performance and can hyper focus on practicing for a show but there are definitely times where I feel like I don’t function outside of my craft very well and drive myself crazy with it! Making lists has been the biggest help with that!

4. Tell us what you did (or continue to do) to cope with these challenges. Tell us some of the best strategies that have helped you overcome these struggles.

I’m definitely a hyper focused workaholic to the fullest and find that doing anything that feels productive helps to cope with these challenges! Journaling and writing out a plan of action/ new ideas for my career always helps to spark new motivation and get me back into a better headspace along with scheduling in a day off to catch up on sleep.

5. Are there any other art forms, hobbies, or interests you engage in to help restore your creative energy? What nurtures your soul? Any creative activities that recharge you?

So many of my previous hobbies have become a part of my career that I definitely need to take time for a break to recharge! Trips in nature, yoga and arts n crafts nights are always my go to!

6. What do you do for your self-care? Share any specific strategies, habits, or techniques that you find effective in improving your mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual self-care.

Self care is so important for anyone who is in a creative field as it can be really draining at times even though it’s also your absolute favorite thing! For me I love taking essential oil baths after shows along with doing hair and face masks so I feel like I’m doing something special to take care of myself after having to put myself out there to perform. Often times on self care days I also love pulling tarot cards and seeing if that sparks any self care ideas or give me insights on what could help me to move forward.

7. What’s one piece of self-care advice you would give to a person just starting out in a creative career?

Never give up! There will always be obstacles and challenges that seem impossible but with consistency, passion and dedication, there will always be new opportunities for you if you keep going!

8. Anything else you would love your audience to know or to know about you?

I’m always finding new ways of creating an epic live show with over the top visuals so in addition to singing and playing guitar, I’m working choreography, dancers and my love of aerial gymnastics into the show as well! Basically I’m a guitar shredding circus! 🤘🏻🎸

9. Do you consider yourself an empath or highly sensitive person?

I consider myself to be both an empathetic and highly sensitive person. I feel EVERYTHING and feel like I often feel other people emotions as if they’re my own. It can definitely be draining for sure and I have to try and separate my own emotions from what’s going on around me. Stefani Fryzel’s book “Self Care For The Creative” really helped me to recognize a lot of my empathic and highly sensitive traits and give advice on how to deal with it! Highly recommend this amazing book!

Find Ariel:

Website: www.arielbellvalaire.com 

Instagram & TikTok: @arielbellvalaire