In preparation for this weeks’ blog post I got a chance to really reflect upon my own childhood. I had a lot of wonderful thoughts about my parents and their overall support throughout my school years. They were very supportive of me and of course I can now reflect and truly appreciate what they did. Of course, once I in turn became a parent, I acquired a different viewpoint. It helped me appreciate the efforts of my parents even more.
Yes, the reason for all of this reflection is that Weekly Music Commentary is featuring singer Anna Clendening. The thing that makes her story more compelling than others is her childhood. Clendening received more than support as a musician. Her parents exhibited the unconditional love that you only see in the most stable family units. Yes, Anna Clendening is very grateful. In order to truly understand it all we might go back to her younger days and examine what made the young Singer/Actor turn to such a demanding industry.
Anna Clendening was born March 12, 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to parents Vickie Moore Clendening and Michael Clendening. In an interview with Flaunt.com she explained much about her upbringing. “I was always an anxious kid growing up, my anxiety started becoming very prevalent in sixth grade. After my grandmother passed away in 8th grade, I went to a doctor and said “I really don’t know what’s wrong with me.” He said “oh you have anxiety.” I started seeing a therapist, started to understand what it was. My first panic attack felt like a heart attack at 14. I went to the nurse and tried to explain what’s going on, didn’t know how to explain it. She said “oh you didn’t eat, do you need to lay down?” Honestly, I might die right now. [chuckles] It was off and on throughout high school. Wasn’t so bad during college but when I dropped out of college, things got super bad. I became agoraphobic, you have a fear of leaving your house due to being afraid of having a panic attack or no control of your outward surroundings.”
“Weirdly around that time, I started doing 6-second musical covers on Vine. One night I was in my PJs singing a version of “Gas Pedal” on my guitar, it blew up. I kept singing online.”
A while back, while featuring singer/songwriter Summer Walker, Weekly Music Commentary focused on her issues with social anxiety. The struggles with things most of us take for granted are real. For Anna Clendening it’s a problem she knows all too well. In fact, there may be some of you reading this post today who might be suffering through symptoms of anxiety without ever being diagnosed. The Mayocliniic.org provided some information about anxiety disorder that might be helpful.
Experiencing occasional anxiety is a normal part of life. However, people with anxiety disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks).
These feelings of anxiety and panic interfere with daily activities, are difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger and can last a long time. You may avoid places or situations to prevent these feelings. Symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years and continue into adulthood.
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Anna Clendening’s parents provided a lot of support during her childhood and into her adult years. She explained further just how she found music, and the difference it made in her life.
“It’s been years of me trying to figure out what I’m going to do in years, years of social media and finding myself. Music really did save my life. I was in a very dark spot , I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. Dropped out of college, I was living at home with my parents. Had no concept of who I was, what I was going to do. It wasn’t my favorite part of my life, but to be able to have a purpose was really life-changing, and that being music was even better. Music’s such an amazing way to express myself, but also to touch people across the world which is a little mind-boggling. In a nutshell, it’s saved my life over and over.”
Anna Clendening’s music started to to take hold and find a larger audience. Then she decided to enter America’s Got Talent, a reality show for aspiring entertainment artists. There was Clendening, at twenty-one years old on one of the largest platforms; a national television audience. Can you imagine what it took to overcome her anxiety in order to perform? Yet she did, with her parents right there providing support.
Now the perfect ending would have been for her to win the contest. Nevertheless, Clendening was eliminated after five episodes. As most understand now though you might not win, the elimination is not necessarily the end of the story. In fact, it seems to many times be the beginning. In Anna Clendening’s case, it certainly provided the bump needed to reach the next level. Clendening’s debut EP, “waves”, was released on February 22, 2019, on the East West Records label. In April 2019, Clendening embarked on The Waves Tour, performing in eight U.S. cities.
In June 2020, Anna Clendening signed with Atlantic Records, and released her second EP Evolve on October 9, 2020. She went on to discuss what it meant to her to release this newer music. “I’m feeling good, the year’s been very weird. Been sitting on this music for a while now, it’s good to finally have it out. A few setbacks where I took a step back and dealt with my mental health, some deadlines and release dates were pushed back. That made me really sad but at the end of the day, everyone’s super supportive. 2 different categories: people I don’t know listen to my music and support me, that’s crazy to have people I’ve never met across the globe. Also to have my friends and family message me saying “I heard your song on this radio station, or this playlist. So good.” ”
What might come next in the career of Anna Clendening is not known. She seems to be on the right track for delivering more music. COVID-19 has changed so much for us all. For Clendening it altered her opportunity to play shows for live audiences. However, she has continued to work hard and set goals for herself musically and more
“I want to put out more music honestly, now that I’m with Atlantic and I have my first EP out. I’ve already in my mind decided the next 3 projects I want to do. Helping more honestly is the goal for the rest of my life. Whether it’s one person or 2 billion people, at the end of the day as long as I can help one person feel less alone, that’s always the goal.”