Rosa Linn is well on her way to becoming Armenia's first global music artist and its first woman music producer. Selected to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2022, Rosa Linn’s song “Snap” quickly became a fan favorite, taking on a viral life of its own with millions of streams on Spotify and millions of fan remixes and tributes on TikTok.

Now poised to go on tour with Ed Sheeran, Rosa Linn connected with The Current Morning Show host Jill Riley to talk about the sudden rise to fame, the people she’s met along the way, and the importance of being authentic no matter what.

Watch and listen to the interview above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for clarity.

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current, and I've got a guest with me: Armenian singer-songwriter Rosa Linn. Now this year she represented her country of Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest, where she performed her song, "Snap," and she plays 20th in the contest. Now, the big victory was how the song took off on TikTok and Rosa Linn found herself with an international hit, a record deal, now an opening slots on Ed Sheeran's North American tour. That's pretty incredible! Rosa Linn, how are you?

Rosa Linn: I'm feeling very well, thanks for having me. How are you?

Jill Riley: I am — I'm great. I love talking to people; I love talking to people with an interesting story, and you certainly have one. Now, before we talk about the Eurovision Song Contest, because I'm interested in hearing about that, you know, as an American, I certainly, I kind of get the history of it, but it's obviously not quite what it is here as it is in Europe, right? So before we talk about that, I'd like to get to know you a little bit more; we've gotten to know your song "Snap" quite well, on the radio, and here in the U.S. So if you could tell me, you know, where did you grow up? And when did you start playing and writing music?

Rosa Linn: I grew up in small town, Vanadzor, in Armenia. I started making music when I was 11. But I kind of was introduced to that wonderful, magical world when I was six — my parents took me to a musical school and I learned to play the piano. And I started in classical music, which I still adore. But I was kind of, you know, I was a teenager and I was, you know, a rock and roll kind of a fan. Still am. And I heard you know, people like Ozzy Osbourne, Steven Tyler, you know, Axl Rose, and all the, you know, Sting, all the geniuses and I fell in love with that music. And I started also playing guitar, and, you know, and songwriting kind of happened naturally. I think it was just meant to be me kind of trying. It was a, first of all, it was a self expression. I, you know, I just found it very satisfying to talk about my feelings and, you know, sing it out to kind of cope with it. And that's how it kind of became a thing for me. I tried to create a band in my hometown; didn't work out. Because there wasn't a lot of options for musicians, and especially in the genre that I wanted to be. But luckily, during one of my performances with my so-called band, Tamar Kaprelian, who's my manager now, heard me and she suggested working together. And of course, you know, she was from the U.S. — she's Armenian, but she was from the U.S. — and she had all these wonderful connections. And I was like, I have to take this chance. Like, this is my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And we started working, and here I am.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and here you are! I love — you're speaking my language with all the rock stars that you mentioned. And I think, as somebody — you know, like you who's classically trained — I mean, classical music, rock music, really, when it comes to composing a song, I mean, you can apply you know, both with the composition and the ability to like write a really great hook, which I think that you have proven. Now you mentioned Tamar?

Rosa Linn: Yes.

Jill Riley: Now, so how do you get from that point, to becoming like a contender to represent your country in the Eurovision Song Contest? Like, I don't really know what that process is like.

Rosa Linn: Well, each country selects the representatives differently. Some of them do like a smaller kind of version of Eurovision for their country. Like in Sweden, you have Melody Festival and Italy you have Sanremo. But, and we did — Armenia also did that past years, but they kind of swapped the way of choosing the person for Junior Eurovision and the girl won. They did it internally. And my year, they — of course they knew Tamar; she was on Eurovision too — and, you know, they knew about me and they reached out to me saying, "Hey, we're looking... you know, we have like six artists that we're kind of choosing from; would you want to submit a song?" And we sent "Snap," and everyone loved the song.

And it was also, they took a risk sending me because I was nothing like our other representatives. Like, I didn't have any traditional kind of Armenian things. It was literally like a classic American-style folk music. They took a chance. And it seems like it didn't work out, but I feel like it did work out in the end. Because right now "Snap" is the third most-streamed song of Eurovision history on Spotify, and I feel like we're getting closer to the second one. The first one is my dear dear friend Duncan Lawrence, who I have a single with! So it's just magical. I honestly, people think... for a long time after Eurovision, people were like, "Oh my god, what? Like, it's so unfair, blah, blah, blah. We're so sorry. You were very great. Like don't, don't give up. Don't be disappointed. Don't be upset." And I was not upset at all. I absolutely loved every moment of me being on Eurovision.

Jill Riley: I'm talking with Rosa Linn here on The Current. And you know, I mentioned when I was introducing you, you know, that both are a victory. I mean, that kind of platform and then what it has led to, and then a platform like TikTok, which, my mind is so blown by how powerful of a social media, you know, service that is and what it has done for a lot of artists. I mean, I think I read that you have, what? Six million user-created videos related to your song. I mean, that is wild! I mean, how do you react to that?

Rosa Linn: That's a new number for me. I didn't even know; I thought it was kind of 3 million-ish. 

Jill Riley: Right here. You heard it right here, Rosa Linn. 

Rosa Linn: Thank you!

Jill Riley: Yep!

Rosa Linn: It is wonderful. I have to say, when I first started working with... you know, when you're not on your own anymore, you have a team, you have managers, you have A&Rs and everyone. I hated being on socials because I'm such an old spirit. I am all about old school and pure kind of: musician doing music, performer being onstage; like, my brain just was fighting the idea of, I need to be ... am I a blogger now? Am I a... Who am I? Because nowadays you have to — an artist has to do social, everything else plus the the core job of being an artist.

Jill Riley: Right, being a creator, right.

Rosa Linn: Yeah.

Jill Riley: Creating music! Yeah.

Rosa Linn: Yeah! And also creating — it's also, I'm not just an artist; I write each and every one of my songs. I'm in the room with people. So it's actually a lot of work. And it's, by the end of the day, like you're just so, you're just exhausted physically and mentally, and now you need to like, have your phone, turn the selfie camera and smile and always be positive. And I remember like I told myself, that I don't... the fact that I needed to fake something, I was like, "If you want me to do this, I'm not going to fake. I'm not going to be the girl who smiles in the camera always." I do smile on the camera in my own way; when I'm sad, I'm sad. When they tell me like, "Send us a facial expression video" or like, "Send us a video of you." If I'm sad, I'm just recording myself being sad. Or I'm just you know, because I — one thing that I hate the most in this world is fake. I just can't stand it. And I definitely don't want to be fake for my audience. Because, you know, it's just when when you're someone on social media, and then people come to see you on stage, and then you're the complete opposite. It's just a dissonance. You know? So I really tried to, you know, also play by the rules of social media, but also try to stay authentic to myself. 

Jill Riley: Yeah, and that's the exact word. I was hoping you were gonna say that. I mean, I think that is so important. Especially now when, you know, there is so much; we have access to so much music. I mean, we can listen to whatever we want, whenever we want, but there's something about people being real, and an authenticity that can help you. I mean, it really does, like help you, you know, float to the top of everything that's available. And when you describe that, I mean, you know, TikTok and any social media, it's nice to hear that you have this, you say you have this old soul and that you, you know, it's about performing on stage and being an artist because, I mean, a lot of this, it's targeted to people your age. I mean, what are you like 21? 22? Something like that. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, it's cool to hear you say that about being real, because, I mean, that's exactly what I hear in the song "Snap." It's about being real. I mean, when did you first start writing that song?

Rosa Linn: I just came back to Armenia from the U.S.; I was an exchange student when I was 17, and you know, a lot of... and I told this, like, 100 bajillion times, like what "Snap" is about; probably everyone knows already. But I was going through a lot. And I was 18. And I wrote the song. The original idea of "Snap": When I was 18, and I didn't even have it recorded, I was just playing it. And after meeting Tamar and being on the songwriting camp in Armenia, she brought like producers and songwriters from the U.S., it was like, wow! You know, you get to work with people who wrote like, "...and on the airplanes..." dah dah dah... I was, like, blown away. And I was in the room with Larzz [Principato], Allie [Crystal] and Jeremy [Dusoulet], who are the cowriters of the songs, and I played it for them. And we tweaked it. But it was a year after me having the original idea. And we wrote it. And we had this demo. And what was very interesting about "Snap" and kind of what it ended up being, we... First of all, it was just waiting for its time on the shelf for two, three years. And then, when they chose it, they heard the demo, it was just the guitar and this, my very bad-pronunciation vocals. It's much better now!

We tried to do different versions; we had like probably 20 versions of "Snap" produced a bit less. We tried to kind of like fit the Eurovision format, which does exist really, and we ended up using the version that was the closest to demo. I think we just did the demo. And the reason behind it was every version that we tried, just — it just lost the spirit of the song, that kind of effortless... "Snap" is so effortless. And it's just so genuine and pure, and when you tried to produce it, it just like completely turned into a very bad song. Like, nothing like it is now. So sometimes, you just need to, like, try everything to convince yourself that the original version is the best one and convince everyone else that that's the one.

Jill Riley: Yeah, and I love hearing that, kind of getting behind the, the creative process and you know, realizing that you have something pure, you can shine it up, and you can make it sound any way you want. But then like stripping all of that away and realizing, "Well, no, it was in its pure form to begin with." And again, that's the version we have. And it's you know, its lyrics. It's got this great, you know, hook to it. It's catchy. It's really a great song. And it's a song that you performed, oh, not long ago, you made your U.S. TV debut on James Corden. Excellent! You've got your mug! I love to see that. And what I love about the performance is that you brought a little piece of home with you with the instrumentation. And I was kind of trying to zero in on what those guys were playing. You know, what was your plan? When you want when you were going to introduce yourself to the U.S. audience on TV, what was kind of your vision for that? Because it was cool to see those instruments brought in.

Rosa Linn: The initial idea... the creative directors of my team. But of course, I'm always, I feel like it's not even my mission, it's just my desire. And it's part of myself; like, I want to be who I am. And how can we show it? Like, how do we show where I come from? How do we share my story? In the little details. And I want to talk about my country a lot because I feel like it's important. There's not a lot of Armenians who have this. I mean, it's true, like, I have some kind of an audience that I can speak to about what's happening. And it's not, it wasn't only the traditional instruments, we also had the rugs from actually 1800s. The rugs on the floor are Armenian rugs. And I mean, the necklace that I — everything was in the details. And honestly, I have to say that that version of "Snap" is my favorite, not because it's kind of Armenian or whatever; it just sounded very mature, more mature than... because I grew as an artist a lot, too; like, it's four years. Like, I wrote it four years ago. And I was very happy to do my first TV appearance with that strong statement of who I am, what can I do as an artist, what I appreciate in this world, and, you know, I think it was just a strong kind of statement. And I really, I'm really trying to carry that with me throughout the, you know, the next performances or whatever. Yeah. That was a very, very happy moment for me, being on the Late Late Show, it was just, I mean, it was just so cool.

Jill Riley: That's great to hear, and so many more people are going to be seeing you perform here in the U.S. I'm with Rosa Linn here on The Current, and I know that I have to let you go pretty soon. But I can't let you go without mentioning that recently, it was announced that you're going to be doing a bunch of opening dates with Ed Sheeran on the North American tour. I mean, how did that come together? How are you feeling about that? That's very exciting. And that opportunity for people to get to know you on stage as a performer.

Rosa Linn: Well, I'm, first of all, I'm very lucky to have Tamar and Alex [Salibian] as my managers, because they bring the best, the best people in the business. And I have a great agent, Marty Diamond, who made it happen. And I just can't believe... you know, everything in my head, like my plans, okay, like, in two years, I'm gonna do this in five years, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be able to be here. But it just happens so much faster. Like, I would never think that I would open for Ed at this point of my career. And I like, I just, I was doing a lot of covers of his songs, and now I'm gonna open for him. It's just crazy! Coming from Armenia! It's just, I mean, this is like — it's just impossible, you know? I'm very, very privileged to, honestly, to work with people that I work with. It's every day. The other day, I was in the studio with Diane Warren and I wrote with Dan Wilson twice.

Jill Riley: Oh, Dan Wilson! He's from where we are, in the Twin Cities. We know, Dan.

Rosa Linn: He wrote, what, I mean, the songs that he wrote, are on my top list, and just me having an opportunity to work with these people. And I mean, I can say, like, a lot of names, and I'm just: What did I do to have this? And what's the sacrifice? The sacrifice is a very big thing. Like, it's kind of scary, too! Like to think of, "OK, why is this so good? What's gonna happen next?" You know? I'm that kind of a person. I'm like, when something's good. I'm like, oh no.

Jill Riley: When's the bottom gonna drop out, right?

Rosa Linn: Right!

Jill Riley: Yeah. Oh, I love that you got to do some songwriting with Dan Wilson. I absolutely love that. And it sounds like you have such good people around you, and the way that you, you know, acknowledge the people around you, again, in that word, authenticity. I mean, you just, you just keep rolling with that and riding that wave. You know, you've got a major label deal now, you know, then that would probably indicate at some point that you'd be ready to put out a record, and I don't know if you have anything to share, but that's the conclusion that I can kind of come to at some point.

Rosa Linn: I am. I spent two months already in the U.S. writing every day, literally every day. Sometimes it's a double session. So I'm working very, very hard on this album. I think it's going to come up in spring. And it's just amazing, I love each and every one of the songs that I wrote, and it's gonna break my heart to choose from whatever we have now, but it's very close. It's very close. The songs are almost done, and it's gonna be wonderful. I am in love with this project. It's gonna be amazing.

Jill Riley: Rosa Linn here on The Current. Really, really nice to talk to you and to meet you and I wish nothing but the best for you. And, again, you'll be on tour, and we look forward to hearing more from you with a new record, possibly in the springtime. We'll see!

Rosa Linn: Thank you so much.

Jill Riley: All right, well, Rosa Linn, yeah, you take care and I appreciate you talking with us this morning.

Rosa Linn: Appreciate it. Thank you.

Credits

Guest – Rosa Linn
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Rachel Frances
Video – Erik Stromstad
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor