Anne Murray

(Anne talks about today’s hot new female Canadian country singers.)

Anne Murray- Hey well, these people were all raised listening to me. I mean Shania Twain, was raised listening to me! And, if there’s something that we have in common is that, you can’t out her in any niche. We’re both not necessarily country.

I mean I don’t think of Shania’s music as strictly country. She doesn’t have a country sounding voice at all. I mean, that’s my opinion. But she’s a good singer she can sing anything! That’s what I like about Shania and that’s what I see in her music that I also see in mine.

(Does Anne have a crystal ball?)

Anne Murray-No. (she laughs.) I’m off to Spain right now and I’m just taking the whole year off. Both my kids are living at home now. So, my family is really solid right now and my daughter is taking singing lessons right now and she’s writing songs. I just heard her first song yesterday and it’s amazing! She’s got a lot of talent. For me though, all that’s important right now is that she’s recovering. That’s all that’s important and she’s doing it with music. It’s a healing process. And so I see that and I’m not even going to look at the crystal ball right now because I’m not going to look beyond this year. I’m going to enjoy this year with my family. I’ve taken off my watch and I’m going to enjoy this year to the fullest with my family. And it’s just icing on the cake that this album is doing well. I can say, “Well, it’s that nice.’

(Anne talks about how she found inspiration for her latest album “What A Wonderful World”.)

Anne Murray-I haven’t had a reaction to an album like the one I’ve had currently in years. And it does feel really good. The funny things about it all is that I’m taking this year off, so my manager is pulling out his hair, because we have all these offers pouring in and there’s all this noise happening around the album(she laughs.)

(Anne talks about her daughter Dawn Langstroth and her battle with anorexia nervosa.)

Anne Murray-Well, people who inside close to her knew that she was suffering. There’s a drop-in center for eating disorder here in Toronto and they called me and asked me if I would be interested in doing a benefit concert in Toronto, because I’d been embroiled with this battle with anorexia (meaning with her daughter’s illness for years and the only was they would do the (benefit)concert was to do some interviews(for publicity. So the only was I would do that was with Dawn’s permission. So the two of us decided to do it together. So it started Out that we thought that we’d only do one newspaper and one television show. Well, when people heard that this was something that had affected my family’s lives. So dawn agreed to do this and it was very, very difficult thing to do. To discuss all of these personal things. That was in January of last year (1999). So, even up until the day before the TV interview I told her,’ You know, you don’t have to do this.’ And she said,’No mom, I want to do this. Even if I will help on person, it’s worth it to me.’ Well, we did the concert and dawn sang with me in the concert and she did a couple of duets with me and she sang on her own and the people loved her. And the people from the record company asked me about doing a duet with Dawn?’ I said,’Wel I don’t have any songs and I’ve been through hundreds of songs, trying to chose the right one.’ And of course Dawn was very nervous and it was a tough time for her but it worked. So I came home that day and there was this tape. So, it all happened like that and I’ll tell you, I was quite shocked by it all. So anyway, somebody from New York, at the “Today” show, had seen the Pamela Wallin when they were here in Toronto and they started calling asking us to be on. And I told them I wasn’t doing anything in the states at all. And then we did “Good Morning America” and then the **** hit the fan. “People” magazine put us on the cover and then it all began. October and November was a huge media time and we did a lot of shows.

(So, how’s this affected her family? Has it brought the closer together?)

Anne Murray-Yes. My marriage broke up two years ago and then all of this(with her daughter) and the this album came along. And on the surface, it looks like it was all premeditated and of course, it wasn’t I mean it just happened the way it did.

(Has Anne received feedback from her fans regarding this?)

Anne Murray-Oh yes! We’ve gotten thousands of e mails and letters about this telling us how this about how this helped them. People do find this kind of thing healing. Dawn and I never imagined I could find this kind of thing to be a healing experience, but it has. It’s amazing how many people we touched with this. Because you’re airing all of these private feelings in front of millions of people and I was (at first) loath to do it. I mean, I had this women from “People” magazine come here in my house say to me, “You know this could look at if you’re trying to further your career by trying to take advantage of this.’ And I told here,”Look here, I didn’t want to do this! I got dragged into this and people told me that by my daughter and I talking about this we could do some good. So, I told her (reporter from “People” magazine.),’Look, I’m taking next year off, what am I trying to do to further my career!’ Looking back, I can’t believe what happened last year! I look back and I wonder ,’How did I do it.’ I wonder how my daughter do this. Well, she needs this very badly and so do I. So I’m taking the time off.