Monday 28 May 2007

THE ANNA BOOK EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!!!!! (Part 1)


Oh My God! Schlager diva ANNA BOOK has very graciously given us, The Vodka Systems, an Interview! Marty took the reigns and spoke to our dancing schlager singing friend! Anna is by far the most friendly star we have ever spoken to!

M = Marty Musika
A= Anna Book

M- Who were your influences growing up?

A- Oh my god I have so many of them, for example I love Barbara Streisand. Some of my friends only liked Baccara and ABBA, and of course I liked Baccara and Abba too but I also loved Billie Holliday, Jennifer Holliday, Diana Ross etc.. I think I was a bit more mature because I always had a huge interest in music in general!

M- Who were you Swedish influences?

A- Well.. Carola was a great inspiration to me. She was 16 when she got her big break and I was only 14 when I got mine. But when I saw her for the first time I was only 12 years old, of course she was an inspiration to me! I still think that Carola is still very, very good at what she is doing. She is very charismatic!

M- Are you and Carola friends?

A- Well we don’t socialise so much privately, but we have some mutual friends and we have been meeting each other at some parties and stuff and she has always been very kind and helpful. She is a great inspiration still.

M- Where you disappointed to lose out to the Ark at this year’s Melodifestivalen?

A- I couldn’t really say that I was disappointed to lose out against 'The Ark', because 'The Ark' have something that I don’t and I think that I have something that they don’t!

M- Yeah we think that too Anna..

A- (laughs) I mean we are all unique and of course you can find similarities in different groups or different solo artists. I would have been very proud to have been representing my own country in the ESC!

M- We couldn’t unfortunately attend Melodifestivalen finals this year but we did watch the live link on the internet and we were cheering you to win .. we were shouting Anna Book has to win at the screen!

A- (laughing) Thank you!

M- You displayed your fabulous dancing skills at this year's Melodifestivalen...

A- I didn’t dance all that much in melodifestivalen!

M- .... you only have 3 minutes!

A- That’s true, you only have three minutes.. but of course I was very sick at the final..

M- Oh...really?

A- Yeah, my throat was very sore and I had to see the doctor in the morning and he said to me “ok you have to be quiet the whole day now”, because I could hardly speak. Due to the circumstances I was just very pleased to have been in the final..

M- We thought you were fabulous at Globen!

A- Aw... thank you so much, that makes me happy to hear!

M- Of course the song writer for your song was Thomas G:son, how come you came to work with the GOD OF SCHLAGER?

A- Well you see I am a very strong and self secure person, so three years ago I just walked up to him as said “hi Thomas my name is Anna Book”, and he said “I know who you are.” He started to laugh at me and I said, “so listen so would you like to write me a nice song"? at this he laughed like a mad man, and I said “was that funny?" He said “well.. I really appreciate you coming up to me because most people just send their record companies to call me and, you know, try to bribe me with money! ..So yes I will write you a very, very nice song , actually, I will write you more than one song!" So we just stayed in touch and talked to each other, he gave me a few song and we both didn’t feel like they were the right songs for me, so we took a break for a year and I did a show called ‘Let’s Dance’ here in Sweden –

M- Yes congratulations for coming runner up!

A- Yes… thank you (laughs) thank you so much! And then when I did that he called me and said to me “I have a song for you now and I think this can be a hit for you! ". He (Thomas G:son) sent me the demo and he was singing the song and he sings terribly…

M- (Laughing)

A -Now you don’t believe me, but It was just horrible! We actually played it at the final rehearsals in Globen and people they laughed like crazy and he was so embarrassed. That was really funny!

M- Was your participation in 'Let's Dance' the inspiration for the Latino feel in your new album?

A- No it’s not, I think the inspiration is because I am half Spanish! Yes my father is from Spain, so yes I am half Spanish. And I like the Latin rhythms, I really like them a lot!

M- You look like you are so enjoy the rhythms when you are dancing?

A- Yes I do absolutely and I will try to take some lessons now with more general show dancing, you know? What I learned in ‘Let’s Dance’ was more ballroom dancing, so I am gonna take some other types of dance lessons in the fall!


Part 2 to follow!

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