Anna Speller, 38, was only fifteen years old when she auditioned for Starmaker. With her involvement, she ends up in the popular K-otic group and experiences all kinds of weird scenes. In “Better Than Ever,” she talks about this special, but also intense period in her life.
“I’ve been on TV with my head up since the age of 16 and that works for you too”
Piepjong is Anna Speller when she joins the program Star. For three months, she was kept isolated from the outside world in a house to work on her singing career: “So you sit in a house for three months and don’t come home.” This is very uncomfortable for Anna, but even though she misses the house, she is having a great time: “We had a great time together.”
The K-otic quickly grew into a massive hit in the Netherlands, but Anna didn’t get much out of it: “I remember when we were all on a bus and we were actually going to do an autograph session. It was in a record store, but it turns out the whole street was packed.” Indeed. And it turns out that was us.” Anna still remembers that moment: “People started pushing and pulling the bus.” The entire squad watches in disbelief.
Read also:
Danjil from The Voice had to wait two years to get a new liver
Anna soon discovers that as a member of the group, there is an unintended focus on her appearance. Something she wasn’t ready for at that age. When K-otic filmed the music video for “Damn, I Think I Love You,” something Anna didn’t like happened: “I was wearing a jacket and it had a pin on it because we had to run. That pin came off and that whole jacket came off.”
As a result, her top slowly drops, revealing more of her cleavage than she intended. “If you saw it that way and said you didn’t like it, it was said, ‘You have to use that and that’s also your role in the group.'” At that moment all her feelings came out: “I really cried a lot for this.”
Eventually, Anna played with K-otic for two years, until the band fell apart after Sita Vermeulen’s departure. “We decided to stop ourselves, but then you have to see how your own path continues.” Anna is sure that she wants to continue her career in media and does preparatory education in drama school. As a result, she soon landed many lead roles in several broadcasts. After that, it became quiet around Anna. During this period, she gave birth to her daughter Maeve (5). She’s glad she hasn’t been in the spotlight since then: “I’ve been on TV with my head up since the age of 16 and that also does something for you.”
Read also:
Idol Marlies look back on a difficult time in ‘Better than Ever’: ‘My husband went blind’
Now Anna is doing the show again for the first time in seven years and she also has doubts about it: “I felt a certain threshold and fear.” However, Anna takes her involvement with both hands: “It’s an opportunity to jump into the deep end.” Sing the beautiful song Not only By Tino Martin, which she dedicated to her ex-husband and father of her daughter, with whom she still has a good relationship.
The nominees were impressed by Anna Speller’s performance
03:43
✕
better from never Can be watched every Thursday at 8.30pm on RTL 4. The Grand Final is next week.