We were lucky to catch up with Svetlana Toropoviene recently and have shared our conversation below.
Svetlana, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?
I have never regretted that I started my professional music career later than I desired. After all, sometimes time, opportunities, personal problems or life circumstances do not allow us to do this. It’s never too late to start doing what you love. In addition, for example, the process of learning vocals’ management, as a rule, goes faster and more efficient for adults. Especially, if there is good motivation. In a few months you can master something with excellence that would take a young person several years to accomplish. A huge number of famous singers began their musical careers after 30, and some even after 40, such as the magnificent Cesaria Evora, whose first concerts and recordings happened when she was 47 years old. Therefore, always follow your dreams!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
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 and my personality and I got that gift from my mother who had a brilliant voice as well despite she was not a professional singer. 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 perfect 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 of 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 piano and grand piano, where during 7 years of studies I had a great opportunity to deepen my knowledge of music theory and practice, solfeggio, voice management such as pitch, loudness, breath support for good voicing. Due to family problems 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. From December 2022 I became an official Spotify artist, songwriter-singer. From January 2023 I started collaboration with 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…”), “Lonely Heart” which got Golden Kayak Award on site indiemusicpeople.com in the category of the best Electronic and Dance Song 2023, “Set Me Free”, “Unfaded Love”, “Only Light”. 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 together 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 all over the world and make them feel happy, even, if it takes at least few minutes while they listen to a certain song. Music speaks in the language of Love despite age, religion, nationality and social status and all musicians must be united by this idea. We are all the ambassadors of Love in this world, so the main aim would be to spread Love, Peace and Harmony through Music.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The goal of a songwriter-singer is to compose song that evokes emotions and conveys ideas, expresses the individuality and unique style of a performance. For artists it is important to enjoy the creative process itself and your achievements at the same time. It is said: “Do what makes you happy, share it with the world and then it will bring much happiness to someone else“. Ultimately, my main aim is to compose songs or music that will inspire, delight my listener and show my sincere emotions and feelings.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Music has a unique ability to affect our emotions and cause feelings of delight and admiration. One of the forms of admiration is a powerful attachment of a listener to a singer. Fans usually experience a strong emotional connection with their favorite singer and this phenomenon is called as “the magic of musical admiration” I think that when singer sees his fans’ support, happy eyes, smiles and feels special bond with them, that is the best reward for the artist.
Contact Info:
- Twitter: @LanaToro21
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SvetlanaToropoviene
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6AugGBjOjlhFxMFfNsohmK?si=U0qgZA7HRvqz1O1R5zJqtg Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/hello-187 Top ten Influencers from Lithuania in Twitter: https://klear.com/people-from/Kaunas%20County_Lithuania
Image Credits
Photographer Robertinas Valiulis