Anne-Marie feels ‘lost’ without medals

Anne-Marie felt "lost" without winning medals when she began her career.
The ‘Heavy’ singer is a three-time karate champion and admits it feels weird not receiving trophies as recognition for her hard work, despite being nominated for British Artist Video for ‘Ciao Adios’ at next month’s BRIT Awards, and being nominated four times previously.
Speaking to the Evening Standard newspaper, she confessed: "When I first got started doing this industry, I felt so lost without medals or awards because I was so used to them in karate so I would think I’m not doing well, so I really wanted a trophy.
"But I think it’s always good to win an award, even if you wake up and just look at it because a lot of what we do is just out there in the world and because you’re so busy you don’t get time to think what you have actually achieved, so I guess awards like that are really nice, but just being nominated is incredible so you can’t really be sad if you don’t win."
Meanwhile, the ‘Friends’ hitmaker previously admitted her debut solo LP is inspired by "a lot of heartbreak".
The 26-year-old singer-songwriter has revealed how heartache helped her to pen her upcoming solo record, which is slated for release later this year.
She explained: "When I’m happy and in a good mood, I just search for other things that maybe connect to me on another level.
"I talk to my friends and see how they’re feeling – see what’s going on in their lives. I search YouTube and look for speeches by activists. I’ve got a lot of songs on my album about what’s going on in the world, and how it is growing up as a female."
The British star – who has previously collaborated with the likes of Clean Bandit and Sean Paul – also thinks that the sounds on her new album will come as a surprise to some of her fans.
She said: "I think some of the sounds will shock people, it depends what people might have heard before. There are some people that have heard my live set and they know what kind of person I am and what I want to talk about.
"I hope that every age range can really connect with it in some way. I hope there’s a song for every person because the goal really is to get everyone to like it, not just a specific age range of people or a gender, you know?"