Anneli Tõevere surprised by warm response to musical return

Anneli Tõevere has said she did not expect such a warm response after returning to music following a 25-year break, ERR reported in its Hommik Anuga programme.

Tõevere last performed on stage in 2001. Last month, she released the single “Las siis ollagi nii” under the stage name Anna. The song has already begun receiving radio play.

In the 1990s, Tõevere was a member of the disco group Duubel+. She said she had not considered whether there was still a place for her on stage. Her initial aim was simply to return to music and find out what her singing voice sounded like after so many years.

“I thought I would try, see what happens and go to the studio. Somehow, it all grew from there. I did not expect this kind of attention, or that the media would get so involved and that there would be so much interest,” she said. “Now people want to take songs from me before I have even finished them.”

In the meantime, Tõevere has worked in communications and marketing, written collections of poetry and published a collection of short stories. She said she had also experienced intense love and loss, with the death of her first husband, Toomas Kaur, having affected her most.

“We were together for almost 30 years, just a few months short of that. For six long years, while he fought a serious illness, I was by his side,” Tõevere said. She recalled seeing his courage and empathy towards others in the same situation.

During that difficult period, Tõevere repeated to herself that life was wiser than she was. “It meant to me that life does not end at that point. I had to come to terms with losing him. Then I told myself that life is wiser than me. Just be, wait, there is still more to come in life. It does not end at this point.”

Tõevere is now married to a man from Iran who found her on Facebook after reading her poetry. She said she initially did not know how to respond to his messages, which sometimes remained unopened for days. She later learned that they had a mutual acquaintance in Estonia: her schoolmate is the partner of the man’s brother.

“My schoolmate said he was very much in love, and that he talked about me with his family. Then he became a real person to me,” Tõevere said. She was also impressed that he managed to leave Iran and come to Estonia to be with her.

He first had to travel to Turkey to apply for a visa because Estonia does not have an embassy in Iran. A background check was carried out in Estonia, and he found a job. He now works as a barber.

Tõevere said the most difficult part for him was being separated from his family. “He did not expect how much he would miss his family and loved ones. The challenge for this marriage is that I have beside me a person who is constantly stressed and worried, and who is experiencing from afar everything that is happening there,” she said.

The couple speak Persian to each other. At first, they had no common language and used a communications app that translated their spoken words. Tõevere said she learns languages quickly and that Persian is her fifth foreign language.