The ESCplus team has talked to ANNNA, participant of Supernova 2020, the Latvian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, with the song “Polyester” to know a little more about her candidacy and the experience that she is currently living. You can read the full interview below.
How do you feel about your participation in Supernova 2020?
Well, actually it took me a while to figure out whether Supernova is something for me since I’m very much an indie pop musician, however, I thought, if I keep my identity, my own songwriting and performance, – it could be very fun.
How do I rate my performance? This (the Supernova recording) was the first time I performed the song live since it hasn’t been released yet, so I do see that my constant willingness to dance and sing together doesn’t always benefit my vocal (laughing). I do think that I was totally myself onstage, however, if incredible things happen and I manage to go to the final, I’ll go full on. I’d love to dance through the clothing racks, with T-shirts in different shades behind me and put up one incredible show onstage.
At the moment we’re rehearsing to do that for the Eurosonic show in Groningen next Friday, and wow, there’s so much energy. We want to throw my eco merch socks in the audience and just go completely coconuts during the last chorus!
Can you tell us about the message of your song? Does it talk about any experience of your own life?
Hell yes, it’s about something that’s very dear to me, the fashion industry. Already more than a year ago I started my own sustainable fashion store (https://masa.organic) and this theme has been on my mind for a long time. “Polyester” is literally an ironic anthem against the fast fashion industry. People often forget that this industry is the second most polluting industry in the world and that buying that 1.99€ T-shirt means that someone has made it for very little, that it has been dyed in insanely toxic dyes that are being thrown in our oceans and that you are wearing something that you’ll throw out after a couple of weeks.
Well, I could go on about this subject forever, but I write all my music in themes, about things that either bother me or happen to me, so “Polyester” definitely has a message.
How will the staging be at Supernova 2020? Can you reveal anything?
I guess I already touched upon this one in the first question but yes, ideally I’d like it to look like in a huge clothing factory with all turning clothing racks around me, but we’ll see what we can do 🙂 “Polyester” is a party, so I want to keep on dancing and have everyone scream “T-shirts” with me.
How did you decide to submit a song to represent Latvia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020?
Reason one: I happen to live in between two cities – Amsterdam and Riga. When Duncan won the song contest for the Netherlands last year, I thought: “Wait a sec, next year Eurovision will be in the Netherlands!” and I started to consider the idea of me maybe trying to somehow get in that world.
Reason two: I have to be honest that my musical style is very particular, I’m very picky about what I like and where I see myself and when Salvador Sobral won with his incredible song representing Portugal, I really cried from happiness. You see, he’s my kinda musician. I like music that has that huge message, and when I wrote “Polyester” I thought, well, maybe some people will like this one. I sooooo enjoy dancing to this song and pretending to be that careless shoppier – and so I just went for it.
If you finally win Supernova 2020, are you going to promote your song in the official pre-parties that take place in different European countries before Eurovision?
Absofuckinglutely.
Have you heard the rest of the songs of Supernova 2020? What do you think about them?
Of course, I have and I think I have some great competition. It’s awesome to see so many different styles on one platform!
You can follow all the news of ANNNA on her official Facebook profile. This is https://www.facebook.com/annna.studio.
Supernova 2020 will be organized by Latvijas Televīzija, the Latvian broadcasting organization best known internationally like LTV. This contest will represent its sixth edition since it was inaugurated in 2015. Since then, it has been used as the Latvian pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. A total of twenty six candidates will be the participants of the contest, but only eight of them will be qualified for the Grand Final. This will be held on Saturday, February 8, 2020, and its winner will be the artist who will represent Latvia in Rotterdam during the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 next May.