Ana Diaz wrote songs for the likes of Britney Spears and One Direction before staking out her own career as a bona fide pop star with her 2016 EPs Lyssna del 1 and Lyssna del 2. When she played a sold-out show at Kulturhuset in front of her home town crowd, we were of course there.
Ana and her band started the proceedings fittingly with Jag kan låta mätaren gå, which got the crowd shouting Stockholm! along with the chorus. Keeping the audience in her grip, she went on to Mammas tango, singing about her Finnish mother’s advice (and if you have followed any of my writing, you will know having a Finnish mom always gives bonus points).
Going further Ana delivers one perfect pop tune after the other. Along with the finely crafted melodies, her music draws strength from totally relatable lyrics dealing with relationship drama and very human emotions.
The 20-something girls filling the front-rows are singing along to every word, showing clearly how these clever lyrics speak to them.
We also get to hear some new tunes. In Molnen she brings out Michel Dida to feature with his rap stylings and the crowd loves it. Another new tune is saved for the encore, Det kommer dö. In this gem of a tune Ana sings with emotion about a relationship needing CPR, or else it’s gonna die.
Pretty self-evidently the last song of the evening is Nästan där, which has the crowd singing along with lots of emotion especially in the anthemic woo-ooh-ooh-aahs.
If I can waste my time on Facebook
I can also water our plants
We have a love that people ask for
We are almost, we are almost there
Totally relatable everyday romance, right?
