The story behind of my first song "Remember"

I believe I’ve always been singing. As a child and teenager, I had been on stage in school musicals, usually with a solo or leading role. But it wasn’t until I started traveling that people told me things like, “Hey, you’ve got a beautiful voice, do you do anything with it?” No, I didn’t. Not yet. But something definitely started to sparkle…

Me happy at my first song performance in The Netherlands

That little spark turned into a flame at the start of 2021, in a canoe on a small river in South Africa, where I was living at the time. On the riverbank, I saw the word Sibuya. I asked my local friends what it meant. “We will return,” they said, in the local Xhosa language. Those words moved something in me, and I started writing my first song "Sibuya" right there in the canoe. And not just a line or two, as I had done in the past, but the whole song just came rolling out of me, the lyrics, the melody — all at once. But at the same time, another song came through. Before the end of that canoe trip, Sibuya was half finished, but "Self Love" was done and when back on land, I recorded on my phone the first version of my very first song. And further that week, five other songs followed.

Since then, I’ve been writing songs — often at unexpected moments, at a beach walk, thinking about a moment, just finishing my meditation, or when I feel something is missing - like a conscious birthday or Christmas song!

My songs are always about believing in and empowering ourselves, about gratitude, and about connection with the world around us. Sometimes inspiration comes from feeling different, and learning to embrace my own uniqueness — which became the song Just One You.

From the moment I started writing music, I knew: I want to record and share these songs. I don’t write them just for myself — they’re messages I want to pass on to others. I performed here and there, but singing my own songs still felt scary. “Is my voice good enough? Are my songs good enough?” And my piano playing... well, I didn’t feel it was anywhere near the level I thought suited a real performance (and honestly, I still don’t, haha!).

Is my voice good enough? Are my songs good enough?

Yet over the past years, I never stopped making music. Piano lessons, organizing jam sessions, writing, singing. I even spent two days in a studio — but I really didn’t like how my voice sounded in the final mix. Still, I didn’t want to rush it or force anything. Deep down I always felt: the right moment will come, and when it does, it will just flow.

Then, last August, I returned to the Netherlands (where I'm from) for a big family reunion and temporary work. I’ve been doing that for about ten years now — living abroad, and then spending two months a year working in the Netherlands as a freelance chef. But this time, I didn’t leave again so quickly.

Even before heading back to the Netherlands, things already felt different. Work as a chef was hard to find, and when I arrived, it was crazy smooth how I kept finding free housing as a catsitter. It was as if the Netherlands wanted to keep me here a little longer! And somewhere I felt, maybe this has something to do with my music dream...

My plan was to continue on to Australia after this trip to Holland — I’ve wanted to go back there for years. I imagined working with Aboriginal communities in the outback. But jamming, starting a band, or finding a producer there would there be much more difficult, or almost impossible, and I wanted my focus to be different there. So no, if something was meant to happen with my music, it would happen in the Netherlands. And if it was meant to happen, this was the moment.

And then, in mid-October, I ran into Adrian Kuipers again. We’d met briefly a year before, when I attended one of his powerful breathing concerts, and I had given him a pair of my Earth Sole shoes — hoping that, as a fellow barefoot fan with a big following on Insta page, he might share something about them. Since then, we’d occasionally exchanged messages about spirituality, photography, nature, music, and living authentically. Nothing more. He lived in Poland, me in South Africa.

But then that October, by “coincidence” (or maybe not :)) we both ended up at the same Ecstatic Dance event near Amsterdam. We reconnected, and a few days later Adrian said to me, “Anouk, you need to release your songs.” I said, “I know, and I’d love to! But I'm waiting for that right push or person.”

Adrian decided to take on the project himself, despite his packed schedule. We recorded the song Remember in three different homes — from living room to broom closet — while I moved from one catsitting job to the next. Things started to happen! On December 19th last year, my very first single came out: Remember — listen here. That same weekend, I performed for the first time in the Netherlands and sang Remember live, along with a few other songs of mine. The next day, I was on stage again — this time at an event with two wonderful musicians from De Meemakers, in front of about eighty people. I was nervous - would I remember my lyrics, will it go well?- but I felt the connection with the audience and then I got such warm reactions, I suddenly felt it: I’m ready. I’m a singer. I want to share my music more!

And that’s how the adventure began — and of course, it continues. Thank you for following my journey. For further updates, come follow me on Instagram or sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t yet. It comes out about once a month, with updates like this one and upcoming gigs.

With love,

Anouk Anansi

P.S. In my next blog post, I’ll share the story behind my first single Remember — and what it’s really about.

May you follow your heart, and the rest will follow.

Album Cover voor our first song Remember. Would love to hear what you think of the song!