GROWING PAINS in the media

      Here's a small clip from the interview she did with Fredrik Skavlan (the host of "Skavlan"): nrk.no/video/PS*237750

      She says she's extremely grateful for the fact that she's experienced to come out on the other side of the divorce, and that it was hard, but she's so, so grateful for her amazing ex-husband. She's been through hard times before but this was one of the toughest decisions she made, she says.

      I'm crying after I watched that. I really admire and respect her and the courage that she has.

      I translated the interview with the host Fredrik Skavlan at Skavlan. The interview isn't uploaded to Youtube yet. There might be some mistakes here and there on my part, as I watched the interview twice without any subtitles (sometimes they speak and they're filming other things and I'm hard of hearing so I concentrate really hard to catch some things they say).

      Here it is:

      They start by showing archive footage from NRK’s archives. Maria as a child, interviewed randomly at her school for a case – Maria visiting the David Letterman show – the «Homeless» music video – her visit at Skavlan’s show two years ago, when she and Jamie Oliver kissed – the «Fuck You» music video – more from Jamie Oliver – the «I Always Liked That» music video.

      Skavlan asks the audience to please welcome Maria Mena.
      Skavlan: Welcome to the show!
      Maria: Thank you so much! This I have been both dreading and looking forward to for a while. I’ve been excited.
      Skavlan: You have?
      Maria nods.
      Skavlan: Yes, me too. I have just been looking forward to it.
      Maria: That’s very good.
      Skavlan: Now you’re included in a proud tradition, the break up record. Many of the big artists have a break up record. Adele, Frank Sinatra, and now you, Maria Mena.
      Maria: I have made break up records before. Two or three. [Laughs.] Been around the block.
      Skavlan: But only one divorce?
      Maria: So far, yes. I hope it’s the only one.
      Skavlan: To make a decision… and this is now a year and a half ago, or something like that?
      Maria: Yes… two years…
      Skavlan: The two of you had been together for nine years and married for two years… [Note: Maria and Eivind became a couple in December 2005, married in July 2012 – the divorce was announced publicly in May 2014.] You’re as famous as you are, how did you experience it when you had to make that decision?
      Maria: To make the decision? Or…
      Skavlan: The decision.
      Maria: It’s a scary decision to make. If you haven’t experienced it before, you shouldn’t stand on the outside and believe that it happens easily. It isn’t easy at all. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The year that followed was the heaviest one I’ve experienced. I’ve been through really hard things before – but this in itself was really hard. It was also some of the most important I’ve done. I couldn’t be more proud of myself after I have survived this. In a way, I’m so grateful for the fact that it happened, I’m grateful for the decision, grateful for an amazing ex husband that I’m so lucky to have. I wouldn’t have changed it.
      Skavlan: But… You don’t sound like you’ve felt defeated.
      Maria: Yes, you do go through a stage where you feel defeated… but I’m 29 years old, I don’t know that many people who have gone through a divorce. When it happened, I tried to find the few people around me that I knew had experienced a divorce. Then, a friend who had divorced, who wrote a message pretty early on: «Now I believe you’re having this enormous feeling of defeat.» That message was so spot on.
      Skavlan: But… Some people just decide they will date a lot. They feel the joy of being single.
      Maria: You know what, I’m so lucky that I don’t stress. I don’t date… I’ve been so lucky to experience the big love several times.
      Skavlan: Do you feel that people have expectations about how your grieving process is supposed to go?
      Maria: It’s a habit of my work to really try to understand how I feel. But now I’m close to 30, and things change. It’s amazing. I experience far more hangovers than before. One glass of wine is enough to rule things. It’s a total crisis! But the interesting thing is… I see how our lives, in a way, they change very quickly. We are… For the first time you experience that people die, marriages, having children, going through a divorce… It’s like we’ve had an inner check list: By the time I’m 30 I have to marry, have children, have a career, I have to exercise often, I have to knit that sweater everyone talks about. It’s a full list. I’ve had anorexia, I’ve had a depression, I’ve married once, I’ve released albums, toured – I’m tired! [Laughs.] I want to go on a holiday. The expectations I’ve put on myself…
      Skavlan: The check list is almost full.
      Maria: I’ve thrown the list out of the window from now on.
      Skavlan: Heartbreak is what heartbreak is. Have you, after all – forgive me for asking – but, have you had a small, tiny moment of awareness, realising that this process could result in a very good… record?
      Maria [at the same time]: ...record? [Laughs] Yes… [Nods] I have.
      Skavlan: Despite everything that happened?
      Maria: Yes, I’m very creative when I find myself in the middle of the melancholy. This time around the process was a little different. At first I didn’t write. I refused to sign a new record contract with Sony Music Norway [her record company]. I no longer had a record deal. I didn’t want it. Sony, my record company, called, nagged at me, said, «Maria, can’t you come to the office to take a coffee with us?» [Makes air quotes] A sneaky way to get new songs. I said, No, I don’t want to. They said, «Just one little cup of coffee, we don’t have to talk about anything.» In the end someone tricked me to go to the office. I sat there, feeling pissed, «What do you want?» - «Maria, I wondered, do you have any new songs?» - «No, I haven’t written anything,» I said, «Nothing. I don’t want to release a new album, I want to become a psychologist, I have no plans to keep on being a songwriter.»
      Skavlan: A psychologist?
      Maria: Yes… [Waves hand] It’s another topic. Jørgen Bratlie, my A&R at Sony Music Norway, says, «Can you do me a favour?» … We have worked together for 15 years … «Can you do me a favour? Can you go home, and then check your Mac [computer], just take a look at how many songs you’ve written.»
      Maria: «I haven’t written anything,» I said. «I haven’t written one single song. I can’t.» [Bends forward, talks in a lower voice] «Can you do me a favour, Maria, can you walk down… and then check?» I walk back home, pissed off, take a glass of red wine, really angry. [Makes typing motion with her hands] Twenty seven new songs. I have no idea how I managed to do that. A lot of it I had written in my dreams.
      Skavlan: In your dreams?
      Maria: M-m.
      Skavlan: You dreamt songs?
      Maria: Yes. I dreamt songs. I dream that other artists sing for me, and it turns out they’re my songs. [Smiles, short laugh]
      Skavlan: Yes…
      Maria: The song I’m going to sing tonight – another artist sang it for me in my dream. Marit Larsen [Norwegian artist] stood over me, sang that song [Makes guitar playing motions]. I thought it was so nice.
      Skavlan: In your dream, right?
      Maria: Yes. And then I woke up, and I had the entire chorus.
      Skavlan: But… That… that song… It’s called «I Don’t Wanna See You with Her», it’s the new single.
      Maria: M-m.
      Skavlan: I’d say the lyrics are self-explanatory.Maria: Of course… You’re pretty stupid if you don’t understand what it’s about… [Short laugh]
      Skavlan: When you say psychologist… What do you mean by saying that you want to become a psychologist?
      Maria: What shall I say… I have this knowledge… I’ve lived long enough to know that I have something I want to teach to other people, I have a mentor who says to me, «Maria, when you have learnt something, that makes you think – I wish I knew this, you should teach other people the same», after some time I have quite a bit of knowledge about having a disease, about emotions, and very, very narrow: I do know quite a bit about how it is to be young in the spotlight.
      Skavlan: As an artist, right?Maria: [Nods] I look around, watch this amazingly fun TV-shows… Pop Idol [Norwegian Idol], The X Factor, The Voice… I see that the contestants become younger and younger, more and more vulnerable… It makes me think that I have to find some way to protect them. Even if it’s only… I don’t quite know what to do, haven’t figured it out yet, but I want to help.
      Skavlan: Does it happen that when you watch TV, you want to get in touch…
      Maria: I have gotten in touch…
      Skavlan: You have?
      Maria: There are several who I text and call with.
      Skavlan: [Laughs] You get in touch and offer your support, your counselling services?
      Maria: I offer them someone to talk to, someone who understands what they go through. There are very, very few who actually have experience with the spotlight. I would believe, for you as well [talking about the host Fredrik Skavlan]… to be a well-known person in the press, there aren’t that many people who truly understand what it’s like, what it’s like to be … [Moves her hand to her face, to mimic spotlight].
      Skavlan: I have a couch backstage, it’s alright to lie on…
      Skavlan: One thing… one fan… who got in touch with you because they felt moved by your lyrics… and one who did get in touch with you at an earlier stage, who later on became an artist, was Sam Smith [Picture of Sam Smith on the screen] … Maybe one of the world’s biggest vocalists today… He… You became pen pals… Let me read this out loud… This week you released new material, and Sam Smith, who’s in the middle of promoting his single for the new James Bond film…
      Maria: Yes… it’s absurd…
      Skavlan: On social media he says… [Quotes Sam Smith’s Instagram post about her new single, and Maria being the truth]
      Maria: I get goosebumps.
      Skavlan: It’s amazing. [The audience applauds.] Incredible, yes. We just have to agree with Sam Smith, and thank you so much for coming here.
      Maria: Thank you! [To the audience] Thank you!

      In today's radio interview on NRKP1's "Nitimen" Maria talked about Sam Smith and the interview at "Skavlan". The program from today isn't in the archive yet but I'll put up a link when it is. ETA: Here's the link to her radio interview from today: radio.nrk.no/serie/nitimen#t=12m52s. It's all in Norwegian.

      In this picture (instagram.com/p/-I9it1xeEI/?taken-by=mariamena_official) she says that she has a 2 hour break before the next radio interview. She doesn't say which radio station it is but it's good that she's doing two in one day.

      Post was edited 1 time, last by “frkeske” ().