The Echo sits just five minutes from my favorite ramen spot, Silverlake Ramen (specifically the Echo Park location). Immediately, memories from 2016 flood my mind. Late nights, my early twenties, back when the world still felt like my oyster. It feels poetic that Historic Filipinotown is just a few blocks away. How much more LA can you get than Sunset Blvd?
The air is crisp. The kind of cool that makes you want to linger outside a little longer. You don’t expect much from a Monday night, but tonight feels different. Inside, it’s warm and familiar. The kind of place where everyone seems to know each other, or at least acts like it. Denim jackets, Pinoy patches, jerseys, laughter, and drinks spilling into conversation. It feels like family, like everyone showed up for the same reason – and that reason is HILLARI.
The lights dim, and everyone knows the show is about to start. A few phones go up, screens glowing against the dark stage, ready to capture the first few moments. A soft, honest voice plays through the speakers. It’s HILLARI’s. Like we’re listening to her own thoughts out loud:
“Though it feels like the end, I know it isn’t… What feels like the end is actually the beginning.”
Suddenly, the room fills with the angelic opening notes of Only God. The voice is live, raw, pure… but HILLARI isn’t on stage. The crowd stirs, scanning the room only to discover HILLARI is among us, standing in the middle of it all.
It’s a sacred kind of moment. You can feel her singing from somewhere deep, every note pleading like a prayer. Only God can hold me, love me, fill me. HILLARI looks up, a hopeful grin crosses her face. She’s calm, poised, sure of herself. She starts to make her way toward the stage, the crowd parting for her like light breaking through darkness. What a beautiful way to begin the night.
HILLARI’s presence on stage is magnetic. There’s a lightness to her energy, but also a steadiness, like she’s rooted in something deeper. The crowd grooves with her, drawn in by the ease of the rhythm she carries. Fresh off a weekend at a Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final, it shows. Every beat feels intentional, like music lives somewhere beneath her skin.
Between songs, she speaks to the crowd like we’re old friends. She talks about navigating her twenties, about the weight of growing up in a fear driven world, and what it means to bloom even when life doesn’t make sense. There’s vulnerability in her words, but also conviction,
“My life and your life, they’re not in our hands, they’re in God’s,” she says.
When she says it, it feels like a release — like we’ve all been carrying something heavy and finally remember we don’t have to. It’s the kind of truth we need a daily reminder of.
As the night carries on, the sincerity in the way HILLARI carries herself never falters. She doesn’t perform at the crowd; she performs with them. She calls her fans the famHilly, and standing in that room, it makes sense. It feels like belonging, not just to her but to something bigger.
That connection extends far beyond the four walls of The Echo. My friend Addy, who lives in Australia, first discovered HILLARI through a social media ad, proof that even in the chaos of the internet, something real can still cut through. She told me,
“‘I’m Still’ by HILLARI has been on repeat ever since I discovered it. Immediately, I was captured by the self-assuredness she exuded through that song as someone who is also around my age. I’ve struggled a lot with the notion of rest and stillness as a twenty-something living in a culture that rewards hustle — and that mindset even bleeds into a lot of the music we hear today. ‘I’m Still’ immediately calms me whenever I play it, reminding me that sometimes chasing perfection will only take you further from the truth you’re seeking. The lyric ‘I know whatever I’m feeling, time heals’ has become an affirmation for me. It reminds me to slow down — to trust that time, being the mystical thing it is, will always turn everything over and make it alright in the end.’”
Adeline Chai, Australia
That same grounding and honesty have been at the center of HILLARI’s story since the beginning. In a 2023 interview with Niji Magazine, she said she hopes to “make music from the soul, for the soul” and be used “as a vessel” by God. Two years later, that still feels true.
By the end of the night, it doesn’t feel we came here for a show anymore. It feels like community, like family finding its way back to each other. HILLARI’s voice, her words, her joy, it all points to something healing and hopeful.
Outside, the night hums. The city moves on, but something in the air lingers. Maybe the world still is my oyster, just not in the way I once thought. Maybe it’s enough to pause, to breathe, and to bloom right where I’m planted.
Show Date: 10.13.25 // Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo // HILLARI Brings Soul and Stillness to The Echo in Los Angeles
Photos & words by Kaprea Devila – further readings here
