Today we’d like to introduce you to Svetlana Toropoviene

Hi Svetlana, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I was born and raised in Vilnius, Lithuania, in the international family of Lithuanian-German-Russian origin. That is why I can speak fluently and compose songs in few languages. From the early age music and singing was always a part of me. My musical journey on stage started when I was only 5 years old. After few successful performances on stage, few music teachers noticed my exclusive talent, my absolute ear and started to prepare me for various local “Kids’ Voice Contests”. In 1984 I was awarded with a title of winner of “Kids’ Voice: Song of the Songs” contest. Later on, in the following years I was a Laureate of few more songs’ contests. I have graduated Music School in the specialization of grand piano, where during 7 years of studies I had a great opportunity to deepen my theoretical knowledge as well as practical skills in solfeggio, basics of song composition, voice management such as pitch, loudness, breath support for good voicing. Due to family issues I had to decline entering Music Academy and entered the Pedagogical University where I obtained high education in English, Lithuanian, Russian Linguistics and later on Master’s degree in Comparative Linguistics. After graduation I have started to teach ESP course at the College for adult students. During this long break from music, I never gave up on my thought to fulfill my dream and start to release my songs and music professionally. The main force to implement my dream was my father’s incurable illness and his death in 2014. At the beginning I was releasing just cover songs of other artists and my short Soul Piano & Instrumental compositions on my YouTube channel. With nowadays electronic music tendencies and trends I have discovered few DAWs online which I was eager to learn to work with and started writing lyrics and composing my songs mainly in the genres of Dance Pop, Electronic Pop, Synth Pop, Euro Dance and Adult Contemporary. On September 9th, 2022 my first official single “Raise Me High” was released in collaboration with Danish musician Ocean of Sound. At the end of December, 2022, I became an official Spotify artist, songwriter-singer. From January 2023 I started collaboration with very professional mixing-mastering engineer-musician with over 40 years’ experience Aleksej Saralidze and one of the best recording studios in my country (Lithuania) “Mamastudios” where I recorded and released the following singles “Don’t Let Me Go”, “Feel”, “Only You”, “Paklausyk…” (Lithuanian song “Listen…”), “Unfaded Love”, “Set Me Free”, “Last Good Bye”, “Only Light”, “Stay Away”, “You Lost Your Way”, “Love Me Now or Never”, “Mes Vėl Kartu” (lithuanian version-remake of “You Lost Your Way”). One of my songs “Lonely Heart” got Golden Kayak Award on site indiemusicpeople.com in the category of the best Electronic and Dance Song 2023. I am always open for collaboration and new captivating ideas, so one more joint project in the genre of Funk and Electro Pop, single “Night Queen” was recorded and released in May, 2023 in collaboration with Kenyan musician-rapper AMiR. As I was raised on legendary music of such Grand artists like Whitney Huston, Michael Jackson, Tony Braxton, ABBA, Modern Talking, A-HA, Roxette, Laura Pausini, Lara Fabian, Madonna and many others, I promote music of 90’s and 2000’s and my main mission is just to uplift people and make them feel happy, even, if it takes at least few minutes while they listen to one of my songs.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

From 2022, when I became an official Spotify artist and songwriter-singer, I have met a real challenge of promoting my songs and become a bit more noticeable in music world. First of all, I am a small independent artist who has no ties in music industry, no smart producer, no huge sums of money for song promotion. I do not use any specific apps which help you to get fake streams or followers, so, it became a struggle in some way and at the same time the path to my evolvement. I am a hardworking person, so I had to be boss to myself and by myself. I do everything by myself: starting from a scratch – composing a song (chords, melody, lyrics, recording demos) finishing with song recording together with my engineer at the studio, producing it, as well as delivering to digital music platforms through two distributors Tunecore and AGATA, designing an album artwork, videos and submitting songs to Spotify Playlists as well as promoting them in my few social media. Being 24/7 on social media is not possible, especially, if your main occupation lies in a different field and physically being online constantly is impossible. Secondly, I quickly came up to the conclusion that without a good team which stands behind you (producer, influencers, bloggers, IT specialists, etc), it is extremally hard to push forward, as it takes a lot of your time, efforts, energy and sometimes even health. Thirdly, nowadays the world of music is a competitive field, where there are a lot of different players of different walks of life and, if you do not follow certain rules, you become just an outsider even, if you are a very talented person.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I am proud of myself as I am an independent female songwriter-singer and it is a huge achievement nowadays as according to the Blokur’s Songwriters’ Review Report 2022 which highlighted the persistent gender disparity within the music industry, only 15% of the top songwriters were female, and to exacerbate matters, the number of female performers in the top 100 songs dropped from 35 to 26. Today women still remain underrepresented and stereotyped in music and this motivates me even more to continue to evolve in this field and in such a way influence the positive attitude and approach towards the significant contribution of female songwriters-singers to music industry.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?

I traveled a lot around Europe and visited many countries such as France, Hungary, Italy, Monaco, Poland, The Baltic States, etc., but I have never been to the USA or California. I have read that Culver City hosts a variety of cultural festivals and events, including the Culver City Film Festival, Fiesta La Ballona, and the Culver City Art Walk, showcasing diverse art, music, and entertainment for all to enjoy. The Boulevard Music Summer Festival would definitely attract my attention as it is presented as a series of free outdoor concerts that showcases an eclectic mix of musical genres, ranging from jazz and blues to world music and beyond. That would be a real fun to participate in it and get acquainted with many talented people, singers, musicians, performers. I can’t tell anything what I like least about your city, as to know it well you need at least to live here. If we talk about my native country Lithuania and its capital Vilnius. The most what I like about Vilnius is a blend of Germanic, Slavic, and Nordic cultures. Life in Lithuania in general gets you closer to nature (access to green areas) as well as both traditional and modern architecture. If you want to have fun with your friends, you can always fly with air balloons and enjoy the panoramic views of old and modern town or visit famous sightseeing places, museums and castles, participate in various art and music festivals, relax in plenty of cozy restaurants and cafes with tasty traditional foods as well as international cuisine. What I dislike is our unpredictable weather. If you are a foreigner, it can be hard to get used to our humid weather: there’s a lot of rain, cloudy days! But if you are a type of person who knows that the sun always shines behind the clouds, the rainy weather will not impact your mood.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/svetlana.toropoviene.9/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LanaToro21
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SvetlanaToropoviene
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/hello-187
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AugGBjOjlhFxMFfNsohmK?si=U0qgZA7HRvqz1O1R5zJqtg

Image Credits

Photographer Igoris Petinas
Selfies (home archive): Svetlana Toropoviene