INTERVIEW: Rosa Linn on her viral hit 'Snap': "As an artist that's one thing that I'm doing this for: I want to sing with people, I want to hear them, I want to be together with them in my songs."
The Eurovision Song Contest is always guaranteed to throw up surprises every year, and in 2022 one of the biggest stars to emerge from the contest is Armenian singer-songwriter-producer Rosa Linn (full name Roza Kostandyan).
Linn represented her country performing the song ‘Snap’, a gorgeous, gentle guitar pop track which details the aftermath of a relationship breakup and how the well meaning advice from loved ones can cause you to ‘snap’.
The song came 20th in the contest, but several months later it went viral on TikTok and started charting across the world. It has since become the most successful song from the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, charting in more countries worldwide than any other track, including hitting number 20 in Australia, number 21 in the UK and even making inroads into the US Billboard Singles top 100. Along the way it has been streamed close to 185 million times on Spotify alone.
Linn has been singing and writing her own music since she was a child, but growing up in a small, conservative town made chasing a career in the music industry difficult. “[In Armenia] you’re always on your own: getting gigs, finding the audience...with no opportunities and sponsors because there’s no infrastructure and no music industry,” she says. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get a shot. But I didn’t give up on my dream.”
Her breakthrough came last year when she released her debut single ‘King’, a collaboration with US star Kiiara. It is a smooth pop track with elements of synthpop, indie and R&B and sees Linn sing in both Russian and English. The track has racked up close to two million streams to date.
Already breaking new ground as the first Armenian to have a global hit record as well as being the country’s first female producer, now with a global record deal with Columbia Records and a debut album on the way, Linn is primed to become even a bigger star. We recently caught up with her to find out more about her career and music.
Hi Rosa, how lovely to meet you. I want to dive straight in and ask you about your debut single ‘King’. It is such a great track. You sing in Russian and English on this one, can you talk me through the importance of the amalgamation of language within your music?
Thanks for the question. Every language has its own kind of melody and for me as a musician and a songwriter, it is an advantage that I speak Armenian, Russian, English because it’s like I have a variety of melodies. Language can drive a certain type of melody, every language is special and has its flavours and the more flavours you can give to your music [the better].
Absolutely. You of course performed beautifully at the Eurovision Song Contest this year with ‘Snap’, can you tell me a little bit about that experience?
Eurovision was a dream for me when I was seven or eight because I used to watch it with my family. When I was older and my parents knew that I want to be a musician, my mum would always ask me, ‘would you be able to sing like they do?’ or ‘would you be brave, and not be nervous?’ And I would be like, ‘yeah, Mum, I'm going to be on that stage one day!’ and that happened. I felt very proud when they chose me. I was like, ‘wow, kid, you made it!’ I got very emotional, I was in my room alone when I learnt I was going to Eurovision. I loved absolutely everything about Eurovision. It's like a different world, everyone loves you. you're in everyone's attention and you meet a lot of great musicians. Eurovision gave me my first experience of singing with the audience have them sing back. It was magical because as an artist that's one thing that I'm doing this for, I want to sing with people, I want to hear them, I want to be together with them in my songs.
Obviously you sung ‘Snap’ which has just blown up ridiculously since Eurovision. It's a song that centres on self love and reminding yourself that you're enough. Tell me, has music always been an avenue for you to process your emotions?
Yes, a big yes! Growing up in Armenia was wonderful but also difficult for me because I wanted to do something that which was not very usual for [Armenian] kids. I wanted to become an artist, I wanted to be a producer, I wanted to be on big stages and we don't have artists from coming from Armenia and going on to the big stages. So that was very, very hard knowing that realising that, like, ‘Oh my God, I don't have any examples, I don't know how to do it’. The songwriting process, and just singing in my room really helped me because you don’t really think about that stuff when you write. You feel very connected to what you want to do, you can have the conversations that you can't have in your real life. It's a very magical and strong moment for me when I write because it takes me away from the everyday life and I feel like I'm living the life that I want to.
Coming from Armenia and not having Armenian artists that you could look up to and learn from, do you think that was a blessing as well as a curse?
I can't say that it's a curse. I saw my name in a list of Armenians who are going to be popular globally and it was very shocking for me! I felt ‘I'm just so small yet!’ I'm absolutely honoured to be on that list, it's never gonna be a curse, I'm always going to be proud of being in that list.
Fashion magazine Flaunt recently described you as Armenia’s first woman music producer. How important is it within these early stages of your career to inspire more young girls to tinker and create music?
Inspiring people is not the main thing that I want to do, but it feels great that what I do can maybe inspire someone to start something. I was inspired by Sting, I was inspired by Adele, I was inspired by Norah Jones, I was inspired by Coldplay. And that's why I did this, and I changed my life. If I can inspire someone so strongly that it can change their life, that's like, wow. It's very important, especially in my country and everywhere in the world, to be a bit supportive of each other because if we’re on our own, standing for just ourselves, this world can easily disappear.
Absolutely, no woman's an island! Obviously, we have some beautiful tracks from you and it's blowing up everywhere.I just know there's a ton more music swirling around inside your head. What else is coming up for you, Rosa?
I'm working on my album and I have a couple of singles that I want to release so much! I'm in Stockholm writing with one of the best musicians and songwriters in the world, in my opinion, and then I'm going to LA to do a lot of writing there with more songwriters and producers. I hope we can we can get that done pretty soon and finalise everything. I'm very, very excited for the album because I want it to sound 10 times more personal than ‘Snap’, 100 times more personal than ‘King’. I just want it to be absolutely me so I can sing my heart out on my tours very soon.
‘Snap’ is out now via Nvak Collective/Columbia Records/Sony Music Australia. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Rosa Linn you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter
