So, How Was Your 2020? is a series in which our favorite entertainers answer our questionnaire about the music, culture, and memorable moments that shaped their year. We’ll be rolling out these pieces throughout December.
Tori Amos was scheduled to go on a book tour during the spring, timed to the release of her bestselling memoir, Resistance: A Songwriter’s Story of Hope, Change, and Courage, which came out this past May. In fact, the book offered great insight and guidance to many fans — with its message that “we can out-create the destructiveness that is all around us” — as thousands took to the streets during the pandemic to advocate for police reform and as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The singer-songwriter also released a four-song holiday EP, Christmastide, this month via Decca Records that includes illustrations by graphic artist Rantz Hosely, along with a special Christmas card and message from Amos. Here, she shares her love of vegan cooking, her favorite books, movies, and music alongside the things that shaped this very weird 2020.
The album I listened to the most in 2020 was:
Reviewing the Beatles catalogue.
My favorite TV show to stream during quarantine was:
MasterChef Australia.
The song that will define “2020” for me is:
“I Will Survive” — Gloria Gaynor — it works on so many levels…!
I’d define my current state of mind as:
Cautiously hopeful.
The viral video I kept coming back to in quarantine was:
“Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self.”
The old-favorite album I returned to for comfort this year was:
Rickie Lee Jones’ first album. It never gets old.
The old-favorite movie I returned to for comfort this year was:
North by Northwest, with Eva Marie Saint and Cary Grant.
A new hobby I picked up in quarantine was:
Vegan cooking, because my daughter is a vegan.
The celebrity I’d most want to quarantine with is:
Why would anyone want to quarantine with a celebrity?
The most interesting thing I learned to cook during quarantine was:
Vegan potato salad by @mississippivegan.
The best book I read in quarantine was:
Democracy in Chains, by Nancy Maclean.
Something positive that happened to me that nobody noticed was:
Being better organized.
The mistake I learned the most from this year was:
Knowing when to turn the news off.
The biggest hero of 2020 was:
Husband.
A word or phrase I never want to hear again is:
Fake.
The thing I’m least looking forward to in 2021 is:
Practicing for the tour.
The thing I’m most looking forward to doing when the pandemic is over is:
Touring.
My biggest hope for 2021 is:
To get back out on the road and see all the amazing people who I miss so much.
From Rolling Stone US
