About ten years ago, Canadian singer-songwriter Anjulie was riding a wave of success. Her catchy pop songs dominated Canadian radio and MuchMusic. She had won a Juno Award and was writing for major stars like Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson.
But at the peak of her career, Anjulie made a surprising decision — she walked away from the music industry. She chose to step back and focus on healing personal wounds she had long ignored.
In a recent interview with Q’s Tom Power, Anjulie shared that her early desire for fame and success came from a deeper emotional struggle. Growing up in Oakville, Ontario, she was often the only person of colour at her school and faced frequent racial slurs.
“I lost all self-esteem very, very young,” she said. “My only way of trying to assemble it back together was through music — through listening to music or making it. I fantasized that that would be the thing to bring me power in this world.”
Determined to turn that fantasy into reality, she moved to New York City and began performing anywhere she could — on street corners, in subway stations, and even in record label lobbies.
“Anyone I would meet, I would ask for their email so I could tell them where I was performing next,” she said. “Once, I waited outside a manager’s office for ten hours just to give him my demo or sing for him. That didn’t work, but I was hustling.”
Her cultural background, she explained, helped open some doors — but also created barriers. “My ambiguity helped me get into different rooms. But as an artist, it held me back because there was no one like me for the industry to compare me to,” she said.
Anjulie eventually found her footing. Her song Boom was featured on The Vampire Diaries, and major record labels were no longer questioning her presence — they were competing to sign her.
However, just as her career was taking off, she began to feel uneasy. After filming a music video in which she felt overly sexualized, she realized she no longer wanted to be part of that version of the music industry.
“I tried to be this person that a lot of people were banking on me being, and I couldn’t,” she said. She asked her label to forgive millions of dollars in debt and release her from her contract. They agreed.
“I really had to mourn it. That pop star dream had to die, and it was painful.”
Anjulie turned to therapy, including a year in an addiction program. She began to rebuild her sense of self — not as a pop star, but as a person.
She eventually returned to music. In 2024, she released Chai and Sunshine, a song that reflects on what might have happened if she had continued chasing success without taking care of her mental health.
“I think the price would have been my mental health,” she said. “If all those dreams came true and I never had my intervention … I think I would have been in a bad, bad place.”
Today, Anjulie is back to recording music, giving interviews, and winning awards. She recently received a SOCAN Foundation Her Music Award. But her definition of success has changed.
“I care about the music doing well because it’s my livelihood,” she said. “But I’m no longer attached to it in the same way. That workaholism is gone — and that’s the relief.”
Now, she’s approaching her career with a new mindset.
“There’s something I missed the first time around,” she said. “This time, I’m really going to ground myself.”
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