AKA Neomi

AKA Neomi, formerly Neomi, is a Slovenian pop band from Ljubljana, built around singer and songwriter Saša Vipotnik and guitarist and producer Mario Babojelić. It started in 2007, when Vipotnik first played her songs to her cousins, bassist Jernej Kržič and guitarist Tadej Košir. They worked on the arrangements and recorded demos in Kržič's studio, and when they posted "Poglej" on YouTube in the summer of 2010 they took the name Neomi, after an Israeli girl Vipotnik and Kržič had met while travelling in India.

In 2011 keyboard player Erik Marenče and drummer Anže Žurbi joined, and the debut album Poglej came out on 20 December 2011 on Celinka, presented the same day at Kino Šiška. It was acoustic pop with a touch of jazz and soul, and "Čudovito" (2012) and "Odpri oči" (2013) followed the title song as singles. The band played Slovenian festivals such as Lent and Orto Fest and appeared on Izštekani in October 2012, before pausing while Vipotnik spent time in Istanbul, where she wrote new songs in English.

The new songs "Istanbul" and "She Knows" (2015) pointed to a new sound, and the arrival of Mario Babojelić made him and Vipotnik the core of the band. In 2017 they were among the five bands competing for a slot at Croatia's INmusic festival, and in 2018 they played MENT in Ljubljana. "Moviestar", "Beautiful Distractions" and "Family" followed, and the album Beautiful Disasters, released by the band itself in 2019, moved them into electronic indie pop with a trip hop edge; the band calls it psychedelic pop. Its international release went through the Portuguese label European Phonographic, which suggested the new name, as Neomi was already taken on the streaming platforms, so "Silent" was the first song credited to AKA Neomi.

In 2020 "The View" was chosen in Radio SI's contest for its 35th anniversary. The third album, Lepo se svetiš v temi, came out on 19 April 2024: an intro and eight songs, among them "Bakhantka", "Nočna zver", "Vroča kopel", "Tenis", "Vesolje" with Aleksandra Ilijevski, "Težišče" with Gregor Strasberger and "Svetlana". The band has also played "Svetlana" live at the Opera with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra.