Interview — Anne Marie
The Meaning Of Perfect
British pop artist Anne-Marie stands up for body positivity and diversity. With her song »Perfect To Me,« she celebrates her own imperfection and redefines the meaning of the word perfect.
23. Mai 2019 — MYP N° 25 »Twilight« — Interview: Jonas Meyer, Photography: Steven Lüdtke
We humans are strange beings. Wherever we walk, sit, lie or stand, we carry our smartphones with us, and because of their so-called intelligence, we often trust them more than we trust ourselves. Of course, these machines are helpful and do make many facets of life easier. But let’s be honest: They also leave us increasingly unhappy.
Who of us has not caught ourselves scrolling through Instagram for several minutes—maybe even for hours—to revel in images of flawless bodies, all the while with a sigh of dejected acceptance of an unattainable ideal? We have become slaves to an ideal of beauty that is defined by others—and we make this ideal our own, as if it were the measure of all things!
British pop artist Anne-Marie has declared war on this sad development (and she can fight well, after all she is a three-time Karate World Champion). For many years, the 28-year-old has been standing up personally and in her music on topics of body positivity and diversity. An important milestone was the release of her single “Perfect To Me,” a reworked version of the song “Perfect” from her gold-certified debut album Speak Your Mind. With great sensitivity, the song celebrates Anne-Marie’s own imperfection and the perception of what perfect really means. She underlines this with a wonderfully empathic video, in which she lets a diverse swath of people have their say. These people describe their own understandings of perfection—and give us a hug when we catch ourselves sighing through too many impossibly beautiful bodies on Instagram.
»I felt it was really important to get everyone’s ›perfect‹—because no one is the same.«
Jonas:
In your new video to the song “Perfect To Me,” there’s a young guy saying “My mom died when I was 14. My perfect was eating lunch with her every day.” Is he the best example for showing all of us what really matters in life?
Anne-Marie:
First of all, it shows that family is really important, and it obviously shows that we will never really know how something like that feels until we go through what he goes through. I think he’s an amazing example and that’s the reason why I needed him to be in the video. But everyone else in the video has their own story, too. That’s why I felt it was really important to get everyone’s perfect—because no one is the same.
Jonas:
How did you find these people?
Anne-Marie:
We had auditions with lots of people.
Jonas:
And what did you feel when you heard this young guy’s personal story for the very first time?
Anne-Marie:
I felt obviously sad. Every time I hear that line, it still makes me sad. I could never imagine how it feels to lose my mom, I could never dream of this. He’s amazing just in being able to talk about that and say that sentence nicely. He’s able to speak it out loud in a music video and I’m sure he’s going to help so many people just by saying that.
Jonas:
He’s kind of a role model.
Anne-Marie:
Exactly!
»Everyone tries to look like that one person on Instagram. In the end, we’re all going to look the same.«
Jonas:
In the very same video, you say that your personal meaning of perfect is “being different to everyone else in the world.” Could you specify that?
Anne-Marie:
When I was growing up, I always tried to be like someone else. I just needed to see a picture of someone else and said: “I’m gonna cut my hair like she did! I’m gonna wear those trousers ‘cause she looks great in them!” But the older I got, I realized that I don’t want to look like everyone else. Today, everyone tries to look like that one person on Instagram, Twitter or any other social media platform. In the end, we’re all going to look the same. And I think it’s really important to love that you are different, and you should love that, instead of hiding it. That’s what I wanted to say with that line because I have been for such a journey of wanting to look like someone else—and now I couldn’t think of anything worse.
»The only thing it takes for young boys and girls is to come across someone who has a picture of a body that isn’t perfect.«
Jonas:
Instagram is a good keyword. We’re living in times when millions of people, especially young people, form their personal beauty ideal on platforms like Instagram. There are literally beautiful bodies everywhere! How can we get to that point where people love themselves just how they are and look—in the sense of “I love every single part of my body” as you sing in “Perfect To Me?”
Anne-Marie:
I think it takes people to post stuff on Instagram. If that’s where young boys and girls are learning it from, then the only thing it takes for them is to come across someone who has a picture of a body that isn’t perfect—a body that has a stretch mark or acne, for example, or bad hair one day. It only takes that for young people to see that. I personally feel okay now because I try as much as I can to put up photos and videos of me without any makeup and to post captions of when I’m feeling bad. I also do that because I hope that someone sees that and helps them through something, just to let them know that they don’t have to be perfect all the time. I’m not perfect all the time, too. I don’t look perfect all the time, so I want that to help someone. I personally follow a lot of accounts of people who’ve got a belly or a big bum and say, “This is my body and I like it.” As long as people are doing that on social media, it’s hopefully going to stop equally now the people who present themselves as completely perfect.
»Over the past three or four years, I used to get lost in moments and didn’t really capture anything.«
Jonas:
Being on tour takes a lot of energy and keeps you permanently busy, there isn’t much time to rest and relax. And to make matters worse, you told us before the interview that you don’t feel so good today. Are you still able to take some time for yourself? Do you remember when you last experienced a perfect moment just for yourself?
Anne-Marie:
I think I have perfect moments all the time, that’s what I’ve been trying to capture more. Over the past three or four years, I used to get lost in moments and didn’t really capture anything. More recently, I’ve been living in the moment and have been realizing that everything is amazing—even though there are bad points like today, for example, because I’m not feeling so good. But I still get to perform in front of all these people here in Berlin tonight which feels incredible. It always equals out, you know?
»I feel differently today about what I’m singing about.«
Jonas:
I can imagine that you also experienced a perfect moment when you released your first album, Speak Your Mind, just over a year ago. How do you look at this record today? Do you have a different perspective on it?
Anne-Marie:
Honestly, I feel differently today about what I’m singing about because I write about my life and about stuff that is usually happening in that very moment. So, a year down the line, or even two and more years after I’ve written these songs, I naturally feel differently about what they say. But I’m very happy that my first album taught me a lot about what I want from the next album. When I was putting together Speak Your Mind, I was just like (making wild sounds with her lips), “Brrrrrrrr! Put whatever we want in it! Put that one and that one and that one!” It was just to bring a whole album together. But for my second album that is coming up this year, I’ve gone into studio sessions knowing exactly what kind of songs I needed on it. It was also very important that I was able to perform all of them on stage. I love performing live so much, it’s such a big part of me. With Speak Your Mind, I unfortunately had to realize that I couldn’t translate some of its songs onto stage, that’s why I wanted to do better with my next album.
