I must admit, I’ve been giving Anja Nissen’s new music video a wide berth for a while. I’d spotted images of her, red lipped and pouting, and felt a bit cheated by her makeover. Where was the girl who enjoyed riding dirt bikes that we came to know on The Voice? But when the video was sent to me I figured I should stop jumping to conclusions and actually give it a look. God I wish I hadn’t.
The song is called “I’m So Excited,” yet Anja’s face never cracks a smile through the run-time of this clip. If she’s excited I really can’t tell. The track is really formulaic, but if it had an energy to match its lyrics I might not have minded too much. Instead this just feels like another song to roll off the will.i.am production line.
It’s disappointing because I remember Will on the show championing acts like Gabrielle and Cecilia and ZK, exclaiming how different they were and how that excited him. Anja never felt very different to me. She felt like another diva with an impressive set of pipes and a gorgeous package. I felt she was very commercial, but she wasn’t for me. But the thing is, what Will’s done here is stamp out what little individuality she did have and make her some kind of robotic pop princess.
I’ve heard people trash The Voice, and they probably wonder why I expected better. But I did. Anja has real talent, even if it’s a little vanilla, but we see none of it here.