Exclusive Interview with Russian Singer Annamally

Annamally is a Russian Singer. She had started her career as a singer with the song “Молчим (I’m Silent) in 2019.

What encourages you to be creative and original?

I have been in creativity since early childhood. When I was two, my mother sent me to dance, then I fell in love with the stage. I loved music, my parents say I started singing even before I spoke. I remember seeing Britney Spears performing on TV at the age of five, taking hairspray and singing in it, presenting myself on stage. Even then, fantasies about performing on stage visited my head: I constantly thought over the costumes, light, technique, and dances in my head, and these fantasies made me incredibly happy. Even then, I had a dream to become a singer, to whom I still go.

I always sang when I was alone at home. I chose a difficult song, like Christina Aguilera’s “Hurt”, and sang for 3-5 hours straight until I started to like the performance. At school, I sang in the choir from the age of 6. In general, if you want to learn something, get ready to do it for many hours in a row every day to achieve a result.

Is it possible for you to see the end product before you begin?

Yes, a motive usually comes into my head, I immediately come up with a text, and then I see the final result, usually, if the motive does not come to the music, I take the next beat, because already at the beginning I have to see the whole picture.

Is there anything special that you do to get into a creative mindset?

I am inspired by pain and love. Such close and such different feelings. I’ve had a lot of both in my life, so my inspiration will be enough for a hundred albums.

If you strive to convey a message through your art, what is it?

This is the most important thing for which I create music. It just so happened that in my life I critically lacked support from close people, it broke me, but I learned to turn this energy into goodness. And my goal is to support people, I want people to calm down with my music, to understand that they are not alone, and I understand them. Whether it’s a crazy feeling of love or a feeling of endlessly piercing pain. I’m here to make it easier for them.

Do you ever feel like you’re unable to fully express your creativity? What kinds of things inhibit your progress?

Every musician had it. Anything can knock down a wave of inspiration, some kind of wrong emotion, and the vibe goes away. I write songs for other people, and sometimes, it happens that I need to write a love song, but I was hurt and depressed, I am in a different resource and state, but these are my clients, so I have to change my mood in different ways.

Do you ever find yourself limited by the materials that you have available?

I had three years when I did not write anything. It was as if my creativity had disappeared, and this greatly ruined my life. Music is my resource, I seriously cannot live without it.

Who is your greatest influence?

My childhood idol is Britney Spears, she influenced the fact that this dream ignited me so much. I was at her concert at the age of 15 and she touched my hand and looked at me – I remember that I cried with happiness the whole concert and these emotions inspired me very much. I love Weeknd, Rihanna, Thirty’s Seconds to Mars. I can enumerate for a long time, I am inspired by a huge number of talented musicians.

Is there a particular place where you feel most creative?

Oh yes! It’s a bath! Hahaha Honestly, it is in the bath that incredible motives and bright lines come in.

Do you feel that you chose your “passion”, or did it choose you?

We chose each other.

What would your alternate field have been if you hadn’t chosen your field?

I am a creative person. I danced from early childhood, finished 7 years of art school. I worked as a makeup artist in a well-known salon in Moscow. I worked as a news editor in a media portal, worked with celebrities, wrote the song for «Russian Disneyland», created my tutorials, produced bloggers. That is, I am always interested in something, so I don’t think that I would have problems with what to do, I know one thing for sure, it would be something creative.

How important do you think education is? What do you believe a class like The Psychology of Creativity should tell us?

I always support self-education. My personal experience has shown me that I have found more knowledge and experience through my studies, not at the university. But I think that it is needed to take vocal lessons, acting lessons and always sports – for me the best sport is dancing.