MANILA – Nicole Laurel is all set to release her new song “Christmas Without You” on Friday, November 26, on Spotify.

“Christmas Without You” is a prequel to her original composition “See You This Christmas” which she released last year.

The new track describes a couple saying goodbye as one of them needs to leave to work abroad to support a loved one. Yet they continue to find ways to remain hopeful during the holiday season, even if they are apart from one each other.

“The initial songwriting process was quite simple. I began humming a melody and out came the first verse… It was after that that I couldn’t squeeze anything. I started watching Christmas movies on Netflix in hopes of drawing lyrical inspiration. A day later I had my first draft of the song lyrics and melody,” said Laurel about composing the song.

At that point, she started working with a young Dumaguete-based Nigerian songwriter named Sam Akins.

“I decided to give Sam a Zoom call so I could get his creative opinion on the song. Together we made a few lyrical adjustments. I was also unsure about how to end the song at that point so I passed him a rough phone-recorded demo and he tried singing some lines as he would, stylistically,” she said.

Laurel loved what Akins had done so she decided to keep his soulful flavor in the song.

“Thematically, I wanted the song to traverse from having the persona alone in present day to plunging into her memories with her lover. Hence, a musical shift of sorts was in order," she said.

Aside from the song drop, the music video of “Christmas Without You” starring Laurel and Ranty Portento will also be out on December 2.