Anne-Marie talks female empowerment, self-love & being on tour

Photo: Anne-Marie/247 Tickets

We chat to the emerging British pop star ahead her Beijing show on August 1 at Tango

Anne-Marie was one of pop's biggest breakout stars in 2018, thanks to her worldwide hits 'Rockabye'. In just the past two years, the British pop singer-songwriter has emerged as a popular and acclaimed global artist with her chart-topping singles. Her music style combines a powerful singing voice with a charismatic, exuberant personality. Her confident, catchy anthems often centres around female empowerment.

Ahead of her Beijing show on August 1 at Tango, we chat to the British pop star on female music inspirations, self-love, being on tour and future collaborations.

Video: Rockabye by Anne-Marie/Tencent

Your album ‘Speak Your Mind’ is a list of powerful anthems with soul-bearing lyrics. Was that always something you’ve known you wanted to create since you first started making music?

I’ve always wanted to make music that’s about real life, and honest. I grew up listening to Eminem, Lauryn Hill, Alanis Morissette, they inspired me a lot.

Your music champions for female empowerment, who were your favourite female musical icons growing up? 

P!nk, Alanis Morissette, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera.

You’ve been very open about the issues and insecurities you’ve faced growing up, especially in the song ‘Perfect’ that talks about self-love and learning to be comfortable in our own skins. How or what did it take for you to come to and achieve this level of self-confidence?

It's not easy to love yourself in a world of constant comparison everywhere you look. And I definitely haven't reached my goal yet of feeling complete confidence in myself. I have good days and I have bad days and it's important to me to write about it in songs and post about it on social media. I always say, if you don't love yourself you can't love anyone else. It all starts with you. Change is good. Love yourself is good.

You’ve collaborated with several prolific artists like Marshmallow, Clean Bandit and David Guetta, as well as co-writing the track ‘2002’ with Ed Sheeran. Who was your favourite musical collaboration, and who are you most interested to work with in the future?

I really loved working with all of them and I think each time we created something totally different which is amazing! Who knows who I'll collab with next!! I love a collab!!

Video: Don't Leave Me Alone by Anne-Marie feat. David Guetta/Tencent

Songs like ‘Ciao Adios’ and ‘Alarm’, are about cheating exes. How much of this was derived from your personal love encounters? How has that inspired the messages you’ve chosen to bring across in your music?

Both of these songs are from personal experience! It feels great after going through what I did to be able to perform these songs and hopefully make at least 1 person feel a little bit better about what they might have gone through. It gets better! It gets easier.

Has touring cities across Europe, America and Asia changed your outlook in any way? How so?

Touring just reminds me how lucky I am to be able to see such incredible places all around the world, experience the culture, see the landscape, try the food, and meet all the lovely people I’ve met along the way.

To buy tickets to Anne-Marie's Beijing show, scan the QR code below:

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