The indie revelation

MÁLAGA, 23 years old
Anni B Sweet

At the other extreme, but with the same concerns, is Ana López, better known as Anni B Sweet, the great revelation of independent music. At barely 20 she moved from Fuengirola to Madrid to study Architecture, always with her guitar in tow. Her friends heard what she was writing in English, urged her to show her work, her Myspace page took off, she started singing in small bars, recorded a demo… and before she even had an album out, with barely three band gigs behind her, she found herself on stage at the Benicàssim Festival.

The British school where she studied was fundamental to her career. She started writing at nine with no particular ambition, but after moving to Madrid to study Architecture everything took on another colour.
Although she won a music magazine’s demo contest, the growth of her Myspace page sparked a label’s interest. She started playing live and her sixth show was FIB 2009, even before releasing her album.
She has won several awards and played the country’s main festivals, but in 2011 she will leap into the international market: although she has already played in France, the UK or Argentina, her album will appear in Japan, Canada, Germany, Switzerland or the UK.
She is the only Spaniard whose videos are regularly aired by the international channel VH1, and a regular on MTV France.
Two of her songs play in cinemas, on the soundtrack of «Tres metros sobre el cielo».

«I studied at a British school and my references are Anglo-Saxon, so I always write in English. I didn’t think about it — it just comes out that way», she says.

And once her label signed her and she recorded Start, restart, undo, her growth has been remarkable: she has played every major festival, has just begun a run of international shows in the Netherlands, her album has been released in places as far-flung as Canada, Taiwan or New Zealand, and she is the only Spanish artist whose music is aired by the worldwide channel VH1. «If I’m honest, I’m not feeling it the same way everyone else is. I see it as something big, yes, but I haven’t stopped and maybe I still haven’t quite taken it in. If I had, I don’t know what would happen».

«I RECORDED THE FIRST ALBUM THINKING IT WOULDN’T GO ANYWHERE, BECAUSE I WASN’T LOOKING FOR IT», ANNI SAYS.

She admits that if three years ago someone had told her what was going to happen, she would have thought it was a mistake. But everything has rolled out naturally. «What’s more — she says — I promise I recorded it thinking it wouldn’t go anywhere, because I wasn’t looking for it. Now I have to try to keep all this from changing whatever comes next, because I’m already thinking about the second album». Now she travels a lot, has left her flatmates to live alone and has less time, but she is happier than ever because she keeps being surprised by the audience’s response at her shows. Or, as happened the day she went to see the hit film «Tres metros sobre el cielo», where two of her tracks play: «I thought there was a radio on somewhere… I don’t know, it felt weird».

That unselfconsciousness even shaped the choice of her name. Because Ana López from Málaga could have been a copla singer… «Of course, I had to give it meaning. Anni B Sweet comes from a Chuck Berry song I like, but honestly I never thought it would be more than a Myspace nick…».

Discover the making-of of this feature and the videos of its protagonists at mujerhoy.com.

Source: mujerhoy no. 616, 29 January 2011.