Village Music Cafe, an intimate entertainment center nestled in Palm Beach, Florida, used to be the place where Gigi Perez would debut her most personal records. On Thursdays, she would bring her latest works to the showcase that helped build the stage presence she now displays on festival stages and during her own headlining tours. The location holds precious memories for Perez, who returned there to shoot the short film Back to the Beach, which celebrates her being named Vevo’s 2026 DSCVR Artist of the Year.
The honor previously presented to Reneé Rapp and Chappell Roan has now been bestowed on the singer-songwriter, who performs “Fable” in the warm setting of Village Music Cafe and “Sugar Water” down by the beach in the film. “One day, I drove by the mall and I saw that there was an open mic. Ever since that day that I walked through the doors, the owners, Steve and Donna, took me in as their own kid, their musical child,” Perez says. “It gave me a certain kind of confidence, especially with the environment of encouragement to continue to share the music.”
In the clip, Perez performs “Fable” at the Village Music Cafe, which brought her back to a voicemail she received from her late older sister Celine, which plays at the end of the track. “I was performing at the cafe like I always did all the time,” she says. “This was absolutely everything to me during those years. She really understood that. ‘Fable’ is a moment in my set that always brings me back to that bond and connection that I had with her.”
Perez has heard that voicemail ring out at dozens of shows this year. “To me, it’s really awesome to think that by the end of this year, we’ll have played 65 shows and I think it was something like I’ve played in front of over 700,000 people this year in total,” she continues. “Knowing that her voice has reached that many people — even if it was just for a moment in the set — that moment comes at the very end of the song where I feel her reverberate through so many people.”
She adds: “To me, that makes me feel proud, it grounds me, and it brings me back to why I’m doing this. Even the songs she’s not in, she’s had an imprint on me in so many ways that there’s always going to be that piece of her inside of the things that I do.”
Just before Perez heads of to play “Sugar Water” outside, Steve from Village Music Cafe presents her with her first guitar, repaired after extensive wear and tear. “This is a gift that was given to me by a family friend. She was a little bit older than me, she was like the cool older sister to my older sister,” she says. “She had this guitar and whenever I was over I would just bang on it. I fell in love and she was like, ‘Here do you want it?’ I wrote a lot of songs on it. I’m so happy that I get to play this guitar again.”
“Sugar Water” appears on Perez’s debut album At the Beach, in Every Life, released earlier this year. In Back to the Beach, she describes the record as being about nostalgia, particularly the push and pull between her past and present relationship with feeling secure. “I look at my 18-year-old self and I think she’d be so proud to know that this girl is 25 years old and has a certain security in her life,” Perez said. She’d gotten used to facing obstacles at every turn, especially when she first started releasing music under her current artist name.
“There were a lot of constant roadblocks, like every single day there was a door that you’d open and behind it was a little fist that punched you in the face,” she says. “But this year, it was different. Things started to just flow and happened in a way that I haven’t experienced before. I’m excited for the end of the year to really be able to let all of the memories sink in and download. I’m just so grateful.”
