![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/How-Maya-Angelou-inspired-Fiona-Apple-to-become-a-singer-My-singing-self-was-born22-Far-Out-Magazine.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Maya Angelou \/ Sachyn Mital)<\/p>\n
Mon 29 December 2025 5:00, UK <\/p>\n
In 1997, upon accepting her award at the MTV Video Music Awards for her single \u2018Sleep To Dream\u2019, earning her the title of \u2018Best New Artist\u2019, Fiona Apple<\/a> approached the stage.<\/p>\n She begins by apologising for not preparing a speech, but acknowledges that she was glad she didn\u2019t because, in her words, \u201cI\u2019m not gonna do this as everybody else does it\u201d. <\/p>\n She then quotes Maya Angelou: \u201cSee, Maya Angelou said that we, as human beings, at our best, can only create opportunities. And I\u2019m gonna use this opportunity the way that I want to use it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Apple goes on to give a legendary speech<\/a>, with the immortal declaration of, \u201cThis world is bullshit,\u201d followed by the sentiment, \u201cGo with yourself\u201d. <\/p>\n Just before her 20th birthday, Apple saw her platform as a chance to share an honest perspective on the music industry and the downsides of fame, though her speech would later be ridiculed. Still, all was led by Angelou\u2019s guiding words, a call to action for a young Apple who found herself tangled in the web of a media frenzy. <\/p>\n From when her first single, \u2018Shadowboxer\u2019<\/a>, debuted to the world in July 1996, Apple was trapped in a paradox: she was controversial on account of her looks and age, deemed too \u201cwaifish\u201d in the eyes of the media, and her candid lyricism, which was interpreted as too \u201craw\u201d and too eloquent to have possibly been written by her.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the way that Apple presented herself to the world was done entirely on her own terms, done in a tactful, present way that reflected a young life that had endured enough pain to last a lifetime. She once said<\/a> that writing, for her, was not a \u201cfun\u201d experience; it was a necessity. To grow from such experiences, Apple turned to writing and singing as a means of reclamation. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have a huge relationship to poetry, but when I come across poetry that gets me, it gets me,\u201d Apple explains to Pitchfork<\/a>, \u201cAnd I love the idea of a poem of all of the power that can go into a space between two words or a repetition of one word, these tiny things that can mean so much and feel so huge\u201d. <\/p>\n