{"id":379679,"date":"2026-06-29T20:01:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379679\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:01:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:01:28","slug":"for-san-joses-kaleena-zanders-dance-music-is-a-magical-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379679\/","title":{"rendered":"For San Jos\u00e9\u2019s Kaleena Zanders, Dance Music Is \u2018a Magical Experience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Kaleena Zanders<\/a>\u2019 song \u201cThe Light<\/a>\u201d blasted through my headphones, I pedaled faster.<\/p>\n

Soundtracked by energetic hi-hats, symphonic strings, a bass line from the underworld and Zanders\u2019 heavenly vocals, my bike ride became a spiritual experience. And I\u2019m clearly not the only one moved by Zanders\u2019 music.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Zanders has played nightclubs and festivals, and even once had a song featured in a Super Bowl Toyota commercial<\/a>. Her debut album Anything Goes<\/a> dropped last month. It\u2019s been highlighted by Billboard<\/a>, with two of its songs, \u201cStronger Than Machines<\/a>\u201d and \u201cAnything Goes<\/a>,\u201d spotlighted by ESPN.<\/p>\n

\"AKaleena Zanders, pictured performing at Outside Lands in San Francisco\u2019s Golden Gate Park in 2024, grew up playing sports and frequenting Hot Topic in San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

As Zanders launches a multiple-city tour<\/a> with stops across the United States and Canada, she gives credit to her upbringing in San Jos\u00e9 for making it possible.<\/p>\n

\nEmo fits and musical theater\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up going to Independence High School,\u201d Zanders tells me during a recent video call, \u201cand I played a ton of sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a teenage basketball and rugby player, Zanders also got deep into her emo bag with fits from Hot Topic at Eastridge Mall, across the street from where she lived. While fashion and athletics were important, art proved significant in her upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusical theater was a huge part of my life,\u201d says Zanders, who took classes at the San Jose Children\u2019s Choir <\/a>from the age of 8 to the age of 11. She had no problem singing to herself, but Zanders was a shy about appearing on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really caught off guard that my mom would put me in these musical theater classes,\u201d Zanders reflects. But it all makes sense now. \u201cI remember coming alive on stage,\u201d Zanders says. \u201cI get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a musical outlet proved vital as she navigated her teenage years.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding that I\u2019m queer,\u201d says Zanders, \u201cthat was actually pretty hard for me in high school.\u201d So she leaned into music, practicing on a piano in her mom\u2019s garage, and eventually taking guitar lessons \u2014 which got her into rock music.<\/p>\n

In college, Zanders played in a band, Moulder\u2019s Lounge, which she calls \u201cthe most euphoric, life-changing experience.\u201d The band allowed her to combine musical theater, instrumentation and rock music, and would\u2019ve been big, Zanders believes, if they\u2019d stayed together.<\/p>\n

Zanders eventually moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at the Musicians Institute. One day, while she was working at Trader Joe\u2019s in Hollywood, a friend told her about a DJ who needed someone to provide vocals for an EDM track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t the kind of kid that could go out and rave,\u201d Zanders says with a laugh; her mother wouldn\u2019t have allowed it. \u201cI literally knew nothing of rave culture,\u201d she says. But she quickly learned.<\/p>\n

\"The\u2018I make music that\u2019s rooted in love,\u2019 says Kaleena Zanders, pictured performing in San Francisco\u2019s Golden Gate Park at Outside Lands in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\u2018Big diva vocals\u2019\n<\/p>\n

Zanders now plays in nightclubs as well as sports arenas. They\u2019re two very different settings, except that both are male-dominated. Simply by being present in those spaces, Zanders tells me, \u201cas a woman, as a Black woman, as a queer woman, I naturally am gonna make some sort of statement. I don\u2019t even need to say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pivoting from writing verses and choruses of rock lyrics to short top-lines for dance anthems wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

Simplifying her lyrics felt like \u201cit was like a diss to the art,\u201d Zanders says. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018What do you mean you only need one or two lines?\u2019\u201d But after digging deeper into the history of dance, and the work of artists like Robin S.<\/a> and Sonique<\/a>, Zanders understood the power of \u201cbig diva vocals.\u201d With only a few choice lyrics, Zanders affirms, one can \u201cstill very much understand, in a potent way, what the song is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featuring Shift K3Y, Bipolar Sunshine and Hayley May, each of the seven songs on Anything Goes pack in a load of emotions and storytelling. Even the album name has multiple meanings.<\/p>\n

Heartbroken after an acquaintance stole something of hers, it hit Zanders that life is a free-for-all with no rules, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at these motherfuckers, they\u2019re out here just stealing shit,\u201d she says. \u201cOkay, fuck! Let me have the audacity to do what I wanna do, which is good stuff. But let me not be afraid, because these people aren\u2019t afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nA family lineage\n<\/p>\n

Anything Goes could also describe Zanders herself. She\u2019s an athletic pianist and former mohawked rocker who loves pop music and sings like gospel is in her blood. She also benefited from her mother\u2019s guidance, inherited her\u2019s father\u2019s vocal abilities and stands on the shoulders of her grandmother.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was a prolific piano player,\u201d Zanders says of her grandmother, a choir director who died when Zanders was just an infant but who left behind a trove of archival recordings. \u201cHearing that,\u201d Zanders explains, \u201cmade me think, \u2018Oh, okay, this is where some of my musical abilities come from.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Zanders does not claim any one faith. But whether her music\u2019s blasting through a sound system in a New York nightclub, playing at an outdoors festival in Canada or slapping in the headphones of a journalist riding a bike in California, the spiritual element is evident.<\/p>\n

\u201cDance music,\u201d Zanders professes, \u201cit can be a magical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaleena Zanders performs Friday, July 17 as part of the three-day Dirtybird Cookout and Northern Nights musical festival in Piercy, California. Tickets and more details here<\/a>. <\/p>\n