Check out our interview with rising teen popstar Annissa Murad and her plans for 2023.
After the success of Annissa debut single “Blue,” she’s back with two new tracks “Soundtrack To My Life” and “Ice cream mess.” Her sound being inspired by early 2000’s music and coming of age teen TV. Over a period of only 2 years, Annissa has amassed an Instagram following of over 86k and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Follow Annissa @annissamuradmusic
Hi Annissa, We did recently an interview, but I bet you have new updates to share! Tell us what’s new?
Thank you so much for inviting me again!! I’m so excited for what 2023 holds and really happy to share that I’ve been writing lots so my fans (#AMF) have a lot of new music to look forward to!! In addition to this I’ve launched a new segment on my Instagram: the #AMF asks, where my followers can ask me anything they want and I have to answer 100% truthfully!! Yet, one of the things I’m most looking forward to in 2023 is starting to play live shows and maybe meeting fans there in real life!!
Describe your sound in 3 words?
Pop-rock, young, authentic
Who influenced you and why did you choose to make music?
Some of my biggest influences are Avril Lavigne and Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift’s powerful storytelling skills really inspired me to hone in on my songwriting skills and share stories to the world in the form of a song.
Do you play any instrument?
Yes!! I’ve been playing piano since I was 4 and have done my grade 8 and I’ve been playing guitar since I was 12 which I taught to myself.
Do you ever get nervous?
Yes, definitely!! I think it’s normal to get nervous before performances, especially for me since I haven’t done very many live performances yet. But hopefully in 2023 that will change and you’ll start to see more of me playing live!
Tell us about your new singles “Soundtrack To My Life” and “Ice cream mess?”
I mentioned earlier that Avril Lavigne was one of my biggest influences and fun fact, her first album “Let Go” was the musical inspiration for “Soundtrack to my life”. Furthermore, if you check out her music video for “Complicated” you can see some parallels with my music video for “Soundtrack to my life”. That reminds me…don’t forget to check out my music vids on youtube (I edit and direct them myself) !! Then for “Ice cream mess”, this was a song I wrote with an amazing GRAMMY Nominated writer Kim McLean. I just feel as though Kim’s storytelling skills are so powerful and therefore it was incredible to have her collaborate on the song. In addition to this, a cool fact about Kim is that she was Taylor Swift’s songwriting mentor “Liz Rose’s” mentor, and so I’ve learnt so much from working with her on “Ice cream mess”. For the visuals of “Ice cream mess” I was really inspired by one of my favorite TV Shows: Emily in Paris, so the whole vibe of the song is really french and I think that’s well reflected in the music video too!!
What’s the story behind the songs?
For “Soundtrack To My Life” the message I hoped to convey was to simply roll will the punches of life and that facing the lows of life is inevitable, however you must pick yourself up and keep moving forwards. Then for “Ice cream mess” I wanted to use it as a metaphor to display how although life is messy and chaotic at times, those moments are what makes it beautiful. Therefore, the overall message of the song is to embrace the messy moments of life and to keep things in perspective, like the song says…”it’s never as bad as it seems”.
What do you think is the secret to have a successful Instagram or TikTok account?
I actually think there is no secret, anybody can have a successful Instagram account, just most people quit posting before they allow the results to begin showing up. So my best advice for anyone reading this who wants a successful Instagram account is to be consistent and post even if no progress has been made, you simply need to trust the process and instagram will slowly but surely begin favoring your content.
When you started your account, did you expected such a success?
Definitely not! I actually first downloaded Instagram to post videos of a singing competition I had taken part in for my family in Italy to see because they couldn’t watch it live. But as I started posting more videos one random day I woke up with tonnes of notifications on my phone. I later discovered one of reels had gotten 10k views and at the time that amount was crazy to me. From then I continued posting and the views went from 10k to 100k to 1 million to 10 million!!
As a popular influencer you are followed by so many people. How do you feel about that pressure of doing always the right thing?
I don’t actually feel any pressure to do the right thing. Even if I had 0 followers I’d still make sure to have good morals and carry out right actions because I feel you’re happiest when you’re actively striving to be the best version of yourself, at least that’s what I believe in. Instead of feeling pressure to do the right thing I just feel as though I have a responsibility to be a role model to many young people who follow me and it simply makes sense to do the right thing.
What advice would you give to your younger self and why?
I’d tell my younger self to have big goals for herself but make sure her work ethic matches whatever she strives to achieve. I’d also tell her to be bold and courageous, not ever holding back because facing regret is one of the biggest pains.
If you are a book, what would be the title of the book and why?
Oooh this is a tough question. I guess I would just self title it Annissa Murad and so it can be a series of various stories from my life.
What would say are the greatest lessons you learned so far?
One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned so far is to believe in yourself and what you want to achieve. This is because whatever you believe you can achieve, you’ll somehow find a way to do it no matter the adversity you face.
Any advice to entrepreneurs out there?
I would say to think outside the box. Most of the top entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerburg, Bill Gates and Elon Musk have all created their fortune from an idea outside the box. In addition to this when I’ve thought outside the box it always produces the best results for me!
What’s next for Annissa Murad in 2023?
I’m hoping ALOT!! I can’t reveal anything yet but you can expect new music, live performances and maybe a surprise or two!!!
What is your own definition of happiness?
My definition of happiness is when I’m working hard, achieving my goals and surrounded by the people I love.
What is you favorite song to belt out in the car/for karaoke?
“Blue”…the OG song of course!!
Where we can follow you?
You can follow me on…
