vara – PRESHOW RITUALS

In this Preshow Rituals segment, the pop rock artist, vara, reveals what they do before taking the stage. You can check out the rituals, after the break.

I’m an extremely anxious person so the hours leading up to a show can sometimes be the worst, especially when I’m waiting by the side for my cue to enter and I can catch a glimpse at the audience. That being said, most of my pre-show rituals are to help relieve some of that anxiety and replace it with adrenaline. Right, when I arrive at the venue I find a space to do 20-30 minutes of physical exercise, whether that be running around backstage or running up and down venue stairs, I must get cardio in. My voice is very sensitive to weather and air conditioning so on tour, I’m pretty specific with eating/drinking on days I have shows; no dairy, no cold drinks/food, no soda, lots of marshmallow or licorice root tea, lots of greasy foods (my fav), etc. I warm up about an hour or two before every show for 30 minutes. A lot of my anxiety centers around less-than-ideal vocal conditions so when I can take steps to prevent that, things run a lot smoother. When I’m getting hair and makeup done I always listen to a hype playlist that just gets all my bad bitch juices flowing (Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha, Fergie, you get the vibes). Then I’ll always try to do something physical to get my body warmed up, usually jumping jacks (which is so awkward but I don’t care it works). This one’s kind of a secret but sometimes I’ll look in the mirror after I’m done getting stage ready and just practice faces because I have a tendency to either smile the ENTIRE set or resting sad face so I gotta practice. And sometimes if I’m feeling it, I’ll do the Lord’s Prayer in Greek (that’s just how I was raised to say it) for good luck. Overall, I just try to be mindful and thankful leading up to a show because I know I’m incredibly fortunate and lucky to do what I love to do.

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