After years of classical training in Italy, Kristina Menissov decided to leave the pursuit of perfection behind and embrace something more spontaneous on “Summer,” her 13th single. Blending Afrobeats influences with a lighter, more conversational vocal approach, the artist, model, and producer turns summer into a state of mind and reframes female freedom as something that does not depend on approval, validation, or the male gaze.
In the interview, Kristina opens up about artistic independence, female friendship, and taking greater control of her career, including owning her masters and executive producing her projects. She also explains how her fashion background helped shape the cinematic aesthetic of “Summer” and reflects on the experience of recording “Anyway You Want” on Frank Sinatra’s piano for the film Ashes in the Sand — a moment she sees as the transition from honoring history to beginning to write a chapter of her own.
“Summer” is your 13th single and introduces a new sonic chapter, blending Afrobeats influences with a lighter, more conversational vocal style. What inspired this shift away from your classical opera roots?
Opera taught me how to be perfect. “Summer” taught me how to be free.
I trained for years in Italy to hit every note perfectly. But when I got in the studio with my producer and co-writer Andrew Lane and my vocal producer Cooper Phillip, we made a decision: we don’t need perfect. We need human.
I wanted to sound the way I actually talk to my girlfriends on a beach day; light, breathy, a little giggly. Not a performance. A conversation.
The Afrobeats pulse came from my roots. I’m half-Ethiopian, my son is half-Italian, I live between rhythms. I didn’t want another big ballad that proves I can sing. I wanted a groove that proves I can feel. Classical is my foundation, but “Summer” is my personality.
You describe “Summer” not simply as a song about a season, but as a state of mind. What does that concept represent to you personally?
Summer as a state of mind is: I’m not waiting anymore.
It’s not June to August. It’s that moment when you decide you don’t need permission to enjoy your own life. I’m 33, I’m a mother, I’m independent, I’ve lived all over the world. I spent years waiting… for a label to call back, for a casting director to choose me, for summer to officially start.
“Summer” is when you stop waiting and you say: my life is already beachfront. My phone is off. My girlfriends are here. It’s 80 degrees in my mind even if it’s raining outside.
The track reimagines the idea of a “Hot Girl Summer” as an expression of feminine freedom that does not depend on approval or the male gaze. What message do you hope women receive from the song?
My message is simple: You don’t need to be chosen to be hot. Just Be Hot.
The older industry standards dictate: be hot to be chosen. I hated that. I wrote “Summer” as a permission slip. No performing for an invisible man on the beach. Just women who own their houses, their businesses, their masters, in swimsuits they own.
If you listen and you text your girlfriends “let’s go offline this weekend”, then I did my job.
In one of the statements surrounding the release, you say that women are not asking for a seat at the table, but building their own beach. How does that image connect with your experience as an independent artist and a woman in the entertainment industry?
I sat at a lot of tables where I was the decoration. Beautiful, quiet, waiting to be approved.
Building my own beach meant becoming executive producer, not just talent. I paid for EastWest Studios. I own my masters. I hired Bakhodir Yuldashev because he shoots women like cinema, not content. I approved every cut.
A seat at their table can be taken away. A beach you built? That’s yours. That’s independence. That’s what 13 singles without a label taught me.
The music video was filmed at Aliso Beach and throughout Malibu and features your real-life friends, emphasizing that true luxury cannot exist without sisterhood. Why was it important to portray female friendship authentically in this project?
Because you can’t fake sisterhood. The camera knows.
Those are my real friends. CEOs, mothers, artists, women who work 80-hour weeks. We weren’t acting happy. We were happy. No one was performing for anyone’s attention or waiting to be noticed.
True luxury isn’t a Birkin or a yacht. True luxury is having women who will hype you up in a bikini, who will drive 3 hours at 6AM for your dream. If we looked like we were having the best day of our lives together, it’s because we had the best day.
Your career bridges high fashion and contemporary music. How did you use styling, visual aesthetics, and cinematic storytelling to expand the world of “Summer” beyond the song itself?
I asked Anna Gupta to style “Summer” like a Vogue campaign, not a music video.
I’m a Fashion TV Award-winning model, and Glamour Bulgaria International Woman of the Year Award winner, and you might have seen me on the cover of Vogue, so I know a thing or two about fashion storytelling. So we built a world from heritage, traditions and superstitions, like the blue headscarf for protection from evil eye, gold jewelry from generational love that catches the sun like we own it.
It’s not merch, it’s a mood board. Grazia Slovenia just shot the all-white editorial with me for their August-September cover because the aesthetic lives beyond Spotify. I want a girl to see the video and not just stream the song… I want her to want the lifestyle: offline, sun-kissed, CEO energy.
You are also preparing a live studio version of “Anyway You Want,” recorded on Frank Sinatra’s piano for the film Ashes in the Sand by Iliona Blanc. What was it like performing with an instrument carrying so much history, and what does that experience represent in your musical evolution?
Terrifying and full-circle.
Sinatra’s piano is not an instrument, it’s a legend. You touch it and you feel every dream that was ever recorded on it. I went from opera in Italy where I was taught to be perfect on someone else’s stage, to sitting at Frank’s piano singing my own song, my own way, for a film I’m executive producing by Iliona Blanc.
Opera was about honoring history. “Anyway You Want” on Frank’s piano was about adding my own chapter to it. What if I become one?
Follow Kristina Menissov on Instagram
