“Sometimes the hardest person to get over is the one who never quite made you feel there was anything to lose in the first place.”
“Acupuncture” is Ava Valianti’s take on the exhilarating confusion of falling for someone who may never reciprocate. The single (released 9th October 2026) is the second to be taken from her forthcoming third EP *kismet* and is a rather cheeky reworking of the “unrequited love” trope. Rather than go in for the full-on heartbreak route, Valianti is interested in the maddening space between friendship and something more. A single touch, a suggestive look, a single ambiguous gesture can be enough to keep the hope of something more alive. It’s a very familiar emotional state but Valianti has a way of making it feel new by acknowledging the humour in her own romantic misjudgements. The song is all about the paradox of knowing that someone may not be the right person and yet still being in a position where you’re looking for any sign that there might be something there. That’s the heart of the song really. The heart has its own logic and it doesn’t always follow the sensible conclusions that the mind has already reached. Valianti is very aware of how easily mixed signals can be the very thing that fuels misplaced optimism in the face of romantic uncertainty. She doesn’t present herself as a victim of unrequited love, nor does she pretend to have it all figured out. She just accepts the awkwardness of wanting someone, of questioning their intentions and still finding yourself drawn back into the same situation. The title is a perfect metaphor for the experience. Acupuncture is all about needles and sharpness and it’s a very apt name for a song about the little moments that can be both electric and painful. A fleeting touch can be absolutely thrilling and yet the uncertainty around it can leave a very sharp sting in the emotional aftermath. Valianti describes it as a song about “the pain and the exhilaration of a secret love” and that duality is what makes it so good. **“In the uncertain space between friendship and romance, one small gesture can become a thousand different possibilities.”** That’s the territory she’s exploring. It’s a song about the way we can so easily read too much into someone’s behaviour. Rather than make the experience of romantic disappointment a full-blown lesson, Valianti allows the confusion to be part of the experience. You can be self-aware and still fall for someone. You can just know what you’re doing as you do it.
“acupuncture” is another step in Valianti’s creative evolution, taking her further into the jazz/pop territory that defines the *kismet* album. Her previous work has ranged from the more introspective indie pop of her debut EP *petunias* through to the louder guitar-based pop rock of *Sophomore Slump*. With *kismet* she’s looking at the jazz and R&B influences, still retaining the intimate storytelling and emotional honesty that is at the heart of her work. It’s a significant step as it enables her to look at the same coming of age themes from a different musical angle without losing the essence of her songwriting. The first single “celebrity” was about the idea of putting someone you love on a pedestal, using the concept of celebrity as a metaphor for romantic adoration. “acupuncture” continues that exploration of attraction but shifts the focus to uncertainty, flirtation and the little moments that keep a precarious romance going. The two songs together begin to establish *kismet* as an album that is interested in the many ways we assign meaning to our feelings and to the people who inspire them. The title of the album suggests fate and the idea that some encounters are meant to happen. “acupuncture” poses a rather cheeky question in that regard: what if the person you can’t stop thinking about is just someone you should probably leave alone? Valianti doesn’t need to resolve that contradiction for the song to work. The appeal of the song is in the recognition that you can understand a situation and still be emotionally unready to walk away from it. That’s the emotional balance that is so effective here. Unrequited love is usually presented as a story of rejection, yearning and heartbreak but “acupuncture” is about the stage before that happens. It’s about the hopeful uncertainty, the playful banter, the sheer belief that the next interaction might be the one that changes everything. The song works because it recognises how absurd that can be and yet still embraces the excitement. It’s that very playfulness that gives the song such a distinct personality. It’s the emotional truth of the song that comes from acknowledging that people don’t always act in their own best interests. Sometimes the mere possibility of a relationship is enough to keep you invested even when the evidence would suggest you should be more cautious. That’s where the cheekiness of the song is so important. It allows you to laugh at the situation without in any way dismissing the genuine emotion underneath. At 17 she’s already showing a real willingness to experiment rather than just settle into one genre. Her writing is always inspired by the messy, funny, painful and thrilling reality of growing up and allows romance to be complicated without necessarily making it a tragic affair. That is the emotional balance that is so relevant here. Unrequited love is often portrayed as a story of rejection, longing and heartbreak but “acupuncture” is about the stage before that. It’s about the hope, the uncertainty, the banter and the belief that the next interaction might be the one that changes everything. The song works because it recognises how ridiculous that can be and yet still embraces the excitement. It’s that very playfulness that gives the song such a distinct personality. It’s the emotional truth of the song that comes from the fact that people don’t always act in their own best interests. Sometimes the mere possibility of a relationship is enough to keep you invested even when the evidence would suggest you should be more cautious. That’s where the cheekiness of the song is so important. It allows you to laugh at the situation without in any way dismissing the genuine emotion underneath.
Valianti’s burgeoning independent career is a great counterpoint to this new phase. She’s got over 650k streams and airplay on over 300 stations globally, plus a raft of awards under her belt including the Boston Music Awards, the New England Music Awards, the International Acoustic Music Awards and the Unsigned Only Music Awards. She was also 1st runner-up in American Songwriter’s Road Ready Talent Contest (performed in the finals at Basement East in Nashville). She’s played live extensively throughout New England, NYC, Nashville and LA including a gig at the GRAMMY Museum. All of that is testament to an artist who is building a career in a very real and tangible way. The real interest in “acupuncture” though is in the way Valianti looks at the song itself. She realises that growing up is all about the contradictions, the questionable decisions and the moments where you suddenly have self awareness but no answers. Rather than paper over those complexities she uses them as the bedrock of her songwriting. The result is a very romantic song which allows for both the excitement and the discomfort. It’s a song which allows you to see yourself in it without it being a case of ‘oh my god I’ve just been made to feel so bad’. As the second single from *kismet* it also sets the scene for a project that is going to be warmer, more jazz infused and more exploratory whilst still retaining her very distinctive lyrical voice. It’s an artist who is happy to follow a song wherever it takes her, whether that be into a more introspective place, a guitar driven place or a place of playful romantic uncertainty. Sometimes falling for the wrong person isn’t something you learn about before you do it, it’s something you learn about as you’re doing it. That’s the essence of the knowing charm at the heart of “acupuncture”. Ava Valianti takes the oddity of wanting something that may never come and turns it into something quite funny and quite honest. Rather than turn unrequited love into a classic tale of misery she makes it a little more human, a little more flirtatious and a lot more relatable. With kismet marking the start of a new creative phase “acupuncture” is a perfect encapsulation of her ability to take the confusion of everyday life and turn it into thoughtful, engaging songwriting.
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