Isabella Chiarini Proves Less Is More on “Gotta Be (Stripped)”

Pop music loves a glow-up. Bigger chorus. Louder drop. More drama. Isabella Chiarini did the opposite. With “Gotta Be (Stripped),” the Hamilton, ON singer-songwriter pulls the production back and lets the emotion breathe. And honestly? It lands harder this way.

The original “Gotta Be” carried that polished pop energy. The kind that makes you want to roll your windows down and sing it like you’re in your own coming-of-age movie. But the stripped version slows everything down and shifts the spotlight to what actually matters: the lyrics and her voice.

This song cuts into a painfully relatable theme. Everyone around you is putting themselves first. Feeling overlooked. Feeling like you are the afterthought in someone else’s priority list. It is not dramatic. It is real. Especially for young adults navigating friendships, relationships, and the constant pressure to measure up.

By stripping the production back, Isabella forces you to sit with those words. There is no glitter to hide behind. Her vocal sits front and centre, textured and controlled, but vulnerable enough to feel lived-in. You can hear the training. Starting at eight years old with renowned vocal coach Teresa Nocita and later co-writing with Nocita and Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo gave her technical precision. But this track is not about flexing technique. It is about intention.

And intention is what makes this version work. The pacing allows the emotional weight to sink in. When she sings about being pushed aside and made to feel small, it does not feel like a generic pop complaint. It feels specific. Personal. Like a journal entry turned into a melody.

What makes “Gotta Be (Stripped)” resonate is the shift from frustration to empowerment. Isabella is not staying in victim mode. The message is clear: even when people bring you down, you still get to choose yourself. That is the takeaway she wants listeners to feel, and it translates.

The full-length music video on her YouTube channel doubles down on that vulnerability, visually amplifying the rawness of this reimagined version. Isabella Chiarini is not chasing trends under the pop umbrella. She is testing her own depth within it. “Gotta Be (Stripped)” proves that sometimes the strongest move an artist can make is to quiet the noise and trust their voice to carry the weight.

When you decided to strip “Gotta Be” back, was there a specific moment where you realized the original production was hiding something emotionally important?

I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to create two versions of this song because when I first wrote the lyrics, I was struggling with which direction I wanted to take it in! After thinking about it, I thought that if the song was strong enough to be both upbeat and stripped back, it should be both! I feel now that the vocals are the forefront of the track, it really forces the listener to connect to the song on a deeper level, which was the goal of creating this version! 

The song deals with feeling overlooked and put last. Was this written from one specific experience, or does it reflect a pattern you’ve noticed in your life and relationships?

This song stems from a lot of different situations, but one in particular that I have been dealing with for a few years really sparked my creativity when making this song! I love how this topic is so universal, though, because unfortunately, at some point in everyone’s life, they have felt not good enough or overlooked! So the lyrics to this song are a great example of how even though you started off feeling bad, there is always something better that comes along! 

You’ve trained vocally from a young age and worked with established writers. How do you balance technical perfection with emotional rawness, especially on a track like this?

I find that when I connect to a song, especially as emotionally deep as this, my body aligns itself! I feel the emotion, I feel the authenticity, and it all just pours out! I find that if I think too much about how I’m singing, or about how I’m coming across, it messes with my mind, and I don’t get the takes I want! If I let the music flow naturally, I get a better feeling, and I can go back and tweak from there if needed! 

Your audience includes a lot of young adults navigating identity and pressure. What conversations are they having right now that you feel mainstream pop isn’t addressing honestly enough?

With the way the media has been going, I feel that body image and self-esteem are major problems in young adults! We are constantly comparing ourselves to photoshopped people on the internet and feeling unworthy because we don’t look like these people! Especially with AI now, it is nearly impossible to escape it! I love uplifting and empowering music, and I think that more of these types of songs should be showcased and celebrated! 

If someone listens to “Gotta Be (Stripped)” alone at 2 a.m., feeling like they’re not enough, what do you hope shifts in them by the final chorus?

I really hope listening to the final verse really shifts their opinion! It talks about how they will not be left behind, and they will stand up for themselves! It is important to feel tough emotions, but we have to come out of it and show the people who think we are not good enough that we can stand on our own two feet!