by RAF KATIGBAK

Norway’s Annie Lilia Berge Strand is the biggest pop star you’ve never heard. But if she has her way, that’s all about to change. For the last year, Strand (known simply as Annie by her fans) has been working hard, promoting and touring Europe and the United States, happily taking on the seemingly Sisyphean task of the outsider trying to break the mainstream charts. But with a legion of Internet fans and music-blogging nerds behind her, she might have a shot yet.

Of course, in her homeland Norway, the 27-year-old blonde bombshell is already a megastar, filling large concert halls and drawing legions of fans (aged five to 50) to outdoor festivals with the help of a gem of a pop-tronica album, Anniemal. For North Americans, it’s a familiar package—bubblegum vocal melodies and crisp, upbeat electronic production (thanks to Richard X and members of fellow Norwegians Röyksopp) that, on first listen, might be easily dismissed as imitation Kylie or an ersatz Madonna in her day. But there’s more to Annie than just the surface, and with every listen, more North Americans are figuring out what her Scandinavian fans and MP3 bloggers the world over have known all along: Annie rocks.

The buzz on this side of the pond began when her breakout single “The Greatest Hit” made hipster charts all over the World Wide Web early last year. With its upbeat, Madonna-sampled groove and cool, distant disco vocals, it was like a breath of fresh Nordic wind, cooling off sweaty dancefloors everywhere. Follow-ups like “Chewing Gum” and “Always Too Late” sealed the deal. Finally, hipsters had a pop queen they could claim as their own, with amazing tracks they could drop without irony or guilty-pleasure apologies.

The Mirror caught up with Annie by phone in her hometown of Bergen, in anticipation of her show on Tuesday that jumpstarts the 2005 edition of the Pop Montreal festival.

Mirror: Scandinavia loves pop music. Norway specifically had A-ha, and your album is rife with an ’80s pop spirit. Do you think pop music was better 20 years ago?

Annie: Sometimes I get surprised listening to some ’80s hits. I think in the ’80s you were allowed to be more daring. Now it’s much more limited as to what you can do. But I do think there’s a lot of good pop music out there, it’s just that the industry’s getting more fucked up. It’s very easy to hate it if one artist is doing well. It’s easy to hate it because it’s a big industry and it’s much more in your face.

M: Are you afraid of that happening to you if you get bigger?

A: I don’t think too much about it, but I definitely meet people who bought my seven-inch with “The Greatest Hit,” and then when I released 1,000 copies of a 12-inch later, they said, “Oh, we don’t like you, you’re too commercial. I used to listen to you when you were underground.”

M: Wow, I don’t know why, but that irks me.

A: Yeah, there’s always gonna be those people who don’t like you because there’s like, two other people that like you. I sometimes think that some people just want to like things that nobody else likes. Like Celine Dion.

M: Huh?

A: I guess if nobody liked Celine Dion, and maybe some noise acts were the most commercial thing ever, then there would be these underground people who would be really into Celine Dion, who would just love her like, “Oh she’s so good!” I’ve been like that myself too. It’s always good to like things that you feel are your own. If you have to share the artists with others, then it’s not only your band or your act or something.

Madonna complex

M: I hear you’re a bit of a control freak. Has getting major-label support been a trade-off in control?

A: Not really, sometimes you just don’t want to do interviews or anything at all. But if I want to reach out to people, so they hear what I’m doing—I want them to listen to my music. In that way, it’s the only way.

M: Where did that desire for wanting to spread the word come from?

A: I worked a very long time on the album. I just thought people should listen to what I’m doing. It really annoys me to hear that some people have been looking, but can’t find my records. People can be mean if they like it or not, but I think they should have an opinion.

M: Journalists often compare you to Kylie Minogue or Madonna. That must be annoying.

A: In a way, it’s got nothing to do with the truth. But people always need to compare. If I was in the ’80s, they probably wouldn’t compare me to Samantha Fox, but I’m sure they’d find something else.

Personal best

M: What I like about the album is that the songs sound so personal, like they weren’t just given to you by some producer or agent in a hit factory.

A: It’s very important for me to be part of the process. I’ve been writing songs since a very young age. Very often, I’m thinking about songwriting, walking down the street or whatever. There are only two songs I didn’t write myself on the album. But I would find it really weird to make an album where it wasn’t anything I was writing myself. Because it really means a lot to me, it feels different to even sing other people’s songs, it feels as though—not that it’s less personal, just different. It’s special to be on the stage and actually sing something you had done.

M: So what’s next for Annie?

A: Well, I’m excited to get back in the studio. I’m working on some new stuff, and some of it is quite different than the old songs. But I’m not going to talk about it too much because I don’t like to talk about things I haven’t finished. I can say I’ve done three new songs with Richard X and I’m looking for other producers to work with, but it’s tough.

M: Like looking for a new boyfriend?

A: Or girlfriend…

With Dragonette and guest DJ at Théâtre Plaza on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 9 p.m., $19.50

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