Out now on all streaming platforms, American Doll marks the striking debut of JAE.CI (Jae Carelli), a lyric soprano and songwriter whose deeply personal 7-track album weaves music and memory into a genre-defying exploration of transracial and international adoption.
With a voice rooted in classical training and a soul driven by lived experience, JAE.CI transforms their debut into a bold act of reclamation—centered around themes of identity, loss, and truth-telling. “I attended the Korean Adoptee/Adoptive Family Network Conference with my sister in 2023, and we attended a session that explored the 7 core issues of adoption,” says Jae. “I recognized these issues had a significant impact on my life experiences, and used the theme to shape the concept of my album—especially since the four existing songs already resonated with those themes.”
Those seven issues—loss, loyalty, control, identity, abandonment, trust, and shame—form the spine of American Doll. It’s not only an album, but part of a larger artistic project titled Homeward Bound, which had its sold-out New York premiere and heads to Boston on June 7 at Somerville Music Spaces. The live show fuses JAE.CI’s original music with classical works by composers such as Samuel Barber, Tom Cipullo, and Carlisle Floyd, reframing each piece through the lens of JAE.CI’s identity as a Korean adoptee raised in an Italian-American family.
“My whole life, I was told I should be grateful to be adopted, saved from poverty and struggle in Korea—that there was no reason I should have any issues,” JAE.CI shares. “The white savior complex silenced my pain, and I decided to reclaim the narrative and sing my truth.”
That truth deepened in 2024, when JAE.CI learned that South Korea—the world’s largest exporter of adopted children—had profited from the adoptions of their and their siblings, along with over 250,000 others. That revelation, reported by the New York Times in March 2025, lit a fire under American Doll’s already burning sense of urgency.
In both the album and live performance, JAE.CI bridges the sacred and the rebellious, blending classical and contemporary vocals with striking vulnerability and humor. The result is an experience that defies genre while demanding to be heard. American Doll isn’t just a debut—it’s a reckoning.
ABOUT JAE.CI
Jillian “Jae” Carelli is a soprano, music director/educator, and performing artist (jae.ci). With a background in classical voice, and training in piano, organ, flute, and harp, their varied musical experiences shapes their approach as a singer/songwriter who bridges the gap between classical and contemporary performance. Jae brings these skills to voice studio, empowering those who are silenced by stigma and society to sing their truth.
