Having caught the attention of more than a million viewers on “Studio Acesso Girls MTV”, Bellsavvy found herself thrust into the limelight and offered scores of amazing opportunities that saw her feature in movies and musicals and get to pursue several of her many passions. She also found herself a staple of the modelling world, but soon came to see for herself how fickle – and unfair- an industry it is.
Bellsavvy’s experiences of all but being shunned by designers and casting agents, which occurred after her body began to change – as all our bodies do – led her to write her debut single “Queen Of My Mind.” As the constant rejections took a toll on her and her mental health to the point she suffered a mental breakdown, having turned to music and song-writing to help her through the difficult time, the track is her uplifting and self-empowering anthem about overcoming these inner battles, realising who you are, accepting it and understanding it, in order to truly be at one with yourself.
As an artist wanting to use her story and platform to help and inspire others by connecting with them on both a personal and emotional level, Bellsavvy has already earned herself huge support from LGBTQ communities around the world and she spoke to PopWrapped about her song-writing inspirations, her thoughts on social media in society and the two artists she’d most like to collaborate with.
You first came to huge attention on the show “Studio Accesso Girls MTV” in Brazil, winning over the hearts and minds of almost 2 million people, a moment and period in your life that led to many other great opportunities for you. Looking back, do you have any regrets over appearing on the show and what might you do differently were you given a do-over?
Bellsavvy: Oh not really! I absolutely love everything about that day exactly how it was. I was so thrilled by that whole experience, was such a special moment! I felt completely fulfilled and supported by the public and so welcome by the judges with my performance. Was more than perfect, wouldn’t change a thing. <3
What advice might you give to anyone considering applying or auditioning for a show such as that? What traits would you say they need to have and do you think shows like that get a fair rap in the media, given the pressure the contestants often find themselves under both during the show and after it’s over?
B: Be yourself! There’s no one out there like you and if it is to be yours it will be! That would be my advice cause, I think that you need to believe in yourself beyond anything and be ready to accept the “yeses” and “no’s” that you will find on your way. There’s always 5 opened doors after that one that was shut. Believe the process and never let anyone or anything stop you to pursue your dreams.
Today you’re best known as a singer, but you’ve been an actress and professional model – how if at all might you say your other career paths creatively, personally, and professionally inspired you to work towards where you are now? Do you think you’ll ever go back to modelling and acting or is music THE career for you?
B: Definitely! Music is my love, my calling, and everything I love the most, and right now I’m completely focused on my music career. But I also love acting. It’s another art that runs into my veins and for sure have loads of plans for my acting career soon too.
How has being based in London but born and raised in Brazil inspired or impacted the music you now choose to make? Which other artists, both past and present, would you say filter through your own song-writing and creativity?
B: Everything I am, where I came from and my personal life experiences impacted a lot in my art for sure. I think that living in a foreigner country in contact with so many different cultures living so many different things is took an important part for me when is about writing my music. Lady Gaga, Demi, Depeche Mode and others for sure is also a big inspiration to my song writing.
Your mother was a well-known artist in the 80’s. To what extent did and does her own career inspire yours?
B: I think that 100% to be honest. My mother inspired and pushed me through to pursuit music on and on since I was very little. I used to love singing and performing to my family and was always very passionate and connected to music. Even in my days as a professional model, she used to always “remind me” very hard that I should give a chance to pursue the music career as she did. She is my queen.
What ultimately made you want to write and share your new single “Queen Of My Mind”?
B: “Queen Of My Mind” is a self-empowering song and It’s for sure the most intimate and personal song I have ever written in my entire career. I put my opened heart on this song sharing a real-life experience I went through at the very end of my modelling career when I was body-shamed and rejected by the modelling industry once my body started changing shape and size. That day I lost my 10 years of a successful career that I bled for, I lost my dreams, and with it also lost my self-love. The impact of being massively rejected and body-shamed destroyed me and I ended up having a mental breakdown that made me start writing “Queen Of My Mind ” at that very moment.
It gave me strength to keep going, healing and with time I found myself love back again. I came back stronger than ever, loving and accepting myself, so I decided to share it with the world, to encourage other people that might be struggling with any inner battle with themselves to find their inner strength and stand up for their self-love and self-acceptance to become the “Queen Of Their Minds”. I overcame my inner battles and I found my self-love so you also can find yours and become “the queen of your own mind.”
Having overcome your own struggles with mental health, how do you make sure you take time for yourself now, and work at keeping the darker, more critical thoughts – both your own and those of others – at bay?
B: Exercising; HIIT training and Muay Thai are my favorite allies for it and it helps me to my core with stress and anxiety. Eating healthily and having a qualified professional by my side following me up is crucial for me and of course, respecting my own mind space is key. Mental health is simple to keep. It is like any other “health care”, you need to keep it going and maintaining it.
Would you agree that more needs to be done to help those struggling with their mental health and do you think there has been much of a change in the way mental health issues and those who suffer from them have been stigmatized in the last decade or so? How would you like things to change in the coming months and years?
B: Definitely! We still have a huge change yet to come, but I feel confident with all the amazing positive changes I’ve been seeing in people about mental health awareness. We need to understand that even with a significant change in the approach of how we speak and see mental health, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Social media give us a completely unrealistic and romanticized way of life and once we still accepting it even knowing it’s not real, we gonna still have a huge challenge with mental health and we will have to keep a closer eye and keep fighting for it.
I hope that very soon, we can be experiencing an unstigmatized, opened minded and compassionate way of life and that we can look behind to this moment being proud of how fast we moved forward to help mental health awareness to become a big thing across the planet.
Would you like to see more artists and those with a considerable, often global platform do more to speak out about such an important issue, regardless of whether they themselves have been affected by it?
B: For sure! It would be a dream come true for me if artists and public figures could give more attention and offer more of their time to support this cause. Mental health awareness is something that should be freely spoken about and unstigmatized to create a lighter perception about the subject an with it encouraging people to have more information, feel more comfortable with speaking about it, and seeking for help.
How and where do you think social media fits in the mental health issues that affect so many, and with that in mind, how do you feel about the likes of Twitter, Facebook and the internet in general where people can say pretty much anything they want, to anyone, with no care or regard for the person in question or their feelings?
B: I’m convinced that social media, in general, doesn’t help with mental health issues at all. I feel very sad that people use social media to say whatever they want without measuring the consequences of it onto others and their lives. It could be used in a very positive way as a crucial engine to communicate in the right way but it disconnects you so much from reality that brings you to a place of loss of humanity and lack of empathy for others as human beings.
Have you started thinking about what your next release might be, or working towards an EP or album?
B: Yeeeees! I’m working on my upcoming single right now, and it’s definitely the next chapter of “Queen Of My Mind”, and I already started the writing process of my upcoming EP that is gonna be released at the beginning of next year. I’m super excited to share it all with you guys.
Finally then, where would you like to see yourself, personally and professionally, five, ten years from now? As a new artist, what dreams and ambitions do you want to achieve and ultimately what message do you want people to take from your music and the artistic legacy you’ll one day leave behind?
B: My dream is to see my music being shared around the globe and being able to touch people’s hearts. I always wanted to help, encourage and inspire people with my music so I hope in 5 years I can be bringing my message around the planet with my open-hearted art and being able to see that my art brings something positive to the world. I also dream so hard like my ultimate dream to be honest, that one day I can have a collab song with Lady Gaga and Demi Lovato which are my biggest 2 inspirations in music and as women too.
Give “Queen Of My Mind” below and for more information on Bellsavvy, give her page a like on Facebook or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
