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“The blues and I go back a long way,” says Belgrade-born Ana Popovic. “My father has a huge blues collection. I was hearing English before I could translate it.”
One of the genre’s most intriguing young stars, Popovic’s meteoric rise to prominence never would have left the launch pad without the influence of her father, a one-man Serbian blues scene who held frequent jam sessions in his garage. Popovic, 34, picked up the guitar at fifteen. A natural aptitude, a few private lessons and she was off. Hush, the band that she formed at nineteen, became a regional sensation. In 1999, Popovic shelved ideas for a future in graphic design and moved to her current base in the Netherlands where she studied jazz guitar for two years at the Utrecht Conservatory of Music. A trio of highly successful CDs with Germany’s Ruf Records laid the foundation for a stratospheric tour schedule and even greater fame on Eclecto Groove Records in America. Her latest is 2009’s twelve-track blues hit, Blind for Love.
While paternal input played a role in directing Popovic towards a career in blues music, Balkan politics moulded her as a song writer. Having witnessed first hand the cultural oppression and racial violence committed in war-torn Serbia under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, the lyrics of her compositions are filled with sensitivity and thought provoking social commentary.
As a guitarist, Popovic can play everything from languorous jazz and nasty slide grooves, to white hot blues rock. Her solos are well constructed; she rarely overplays and excels at matching tone to mood. Vocally, Popovic possesses a soulful, sultry voice full of exotic Eastern European charm and phrasing.
An artist with an inbred aversion to categorization, Popovic speaks frequently of “my music,” a reflection of her determination to let her unique creative voice light her way. “I just want to play what I feel at the very moment, and to be honest with my audience,” she proclaims. “They need to get 100% of Ana – her music, her ideas, her doubts, her guitar playing.”
The only continental European ever nominated for a Blues Music Award for Best New Artist (2003), she was nominated as Blues Artist of the Year in 2007 by the readers of BluesWax E-zine.
Popovic steps on stage with a simple and direct plan of attack. “I’m here to steal the show,” she vows. What’s more, she isn’t concerned about deflating overblown male egos. “The whole female approach is different than the males,” she explains. “With a woman you have more troubles with just confronting your audience and saying “look this is who I am, I going to play with balls and this is it like it or not.” I think women need to have this courage.”
One of today’s hottest blues acts on either side of the Atlantic, Ana Popovic is an unstoppable confluence of charisma, energy and excitement that never fails to impress. Caught in the spotlight of exhilaration between a great band and a cheering crowd Popovic exclaims, “God, this is the best job there is!” www.anapopovic.com
Ken Wright
