There are already a ton of amazing holiday songs and albums out in anticipation of December, but this gorgeous cover of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" just shot to the top of our list.
Married couple Jess and Gabriel Conte — content creators and musicians with a combined audience of over 10 million followers across their social platforms — decided to record a lovely, slightly sad rendition of the iconic holiday song for a pretty incredible reason. Despite the fact that the pair already tied the knot a year and a half ago, Jess is an Australian who is still stuck in the process of getting her US citizenship. That means she can't go home to Australia to visit her family for the holidays, because if she leaves the US, she might not be allowed back into the country due to strict immigration laws.
"When we were in the recording studio singing 'I'll Be Home For Christmas,' we realized how sad it actually was with Jess's situation — waiting for residency for so long and not being able to spend a Christmas back at home in Australia for the past two years because of it," Gabriel, who directed the couple's music video for the song, explained. "While singing, the music video idea was born, and I had such a clear vision in my head of exactly how I wanted to story to be told."
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Gabriel's vision for the music video features him and Jess singing to each other across a room, as photos of their family members light up the walls. It's the 24-year-old's directorial debut, and to do it with material so close to his heart made for a far more meaningful experience.
"As someone who has constantly created videos since middle school, there is nothing more fulfilling than creating your vision through video and bringing it to life," he said. "It's truly an indescribable feeling! Directing this music video was definitely one of the highlights for me this year and was a such a huge accomplishment."
If you're one of Jess and Gabriel's millions of fans, you can expect plenty more videos from them in the future. And hey — there's a strong chance Gabriel will be behind the camera for most of them!
"It's not at all as hard as I thought it'd be," he said of his first-time directing experience. "It really seemed to come naturally to me, and I think it's because I've spent so many years making my own content. I basically directed the hundreds and hundreds of videos I've created over the years from Vine to Facebook and now YouTube. It really felt like I was just making another video — bringing a vision of mine to life."
Watch the video above, and if you can't get enough, you can stream Jess and Gabriel's "I'll Be Home" EP on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, and more.
