Ava Max‘s “My Head & My Heart” interpolates the 2000 song “Around the World (La La La La La)” by the German group ATC. It seems like sort of an out-of-left-field choice, but Ava says it really made an impact on her as a child.
“I mean, I’ve always been in love with, like, ’90s music, early 2000s dance music,” says Ava, who was six when the song came out. “I think it’s all about what you were inspired [by], as a kid. So for me, this song has always been in the back of my head. And I did a dance recital to it when I was younger…it’s kind of crazy! It’s kind of full circle.”
And according to Ava, it was at her first dance recital, at age four, that she remembers standing out from all the other kids — in a unique, artistic way.
“There’s a picture, I don’t know if it’s out there, but everyone was wearing white leotards and I walked in with a rainbow leotard,” she tells ABC Audio. “And at first, I remember my mom said the instructor didn’t want to let me do it because we weren’t in uniform for the recital.”
“My parents were immigrants and they didn’t really understand we all had to be in uniform,” Ava says of her folks, who are from Albania.
“So I walk in with this bright, heart, pink, all-colors-of-the-rainbow outfit, and I’m just standing out and it’s just so awkward,” she laughs. “And all the other girls look at me all mad…because I didn’t know. I didn’t get the memo!”
“So that was my first dance recital,” she laughs. “I was very outside of the box!”
By Andrea Dresdale
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