Ana Soklič

Ana Soklič is a Slovenian singer and songwriter, born on 10 April 1984. She comes from Savica in Upper Carniola and lives in Lesce. In 2020 she won EMA with "Voda", and in 2021 she represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Amen".

She started out under the stage name Diona Dim, later Diona Dimm, a project that grew into the group Diona Dimm Team with Bojan Simončič and Gašper Kačar, who also wrote the songs with her. In those years she sang "If You" at EMA 2004 and "Oče" at EMA 2007, "Cosmo" at Melodije morja in sonca 2004, and "Otroške oči" and "Senca negra" at Slovenska popevka in 2004 and 2005. For a while she lived in Sweden, under contract with a label there. She studied singing with Darja Švajger.

In 2012 she took part in the first and only season of X Factor Slovenija and finished fifth. In the years after she sang mostly jazz and soul, among others with the Big Band RTV Slovenija. In 2014 she worked mainly in Italy and gave a solo concert in Venice with Big Band DOM, and in December 2018 she gave a solo concert in Zagreb with the HRT Jazz Orchestra under Miron Hauser.

At Slovenska popevka 2019 she sang "Temni svet", written by Hamo, and won both the expert jury's grand prize for the best song and the award for the best interpretation. In February 2020 she won EMA with "Voda", written with Bojan Simončič and Žiga Pirnat, beating Lina Kuduzović in the superfinal. The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled because of the pandemic, so she was chosen directly for 2021. There she sang "Amen", with music by Soklič, Simončič and Pirnat and lyrics by Soklič and Charlie Mason, and finished 13th in the first semi-final with 44 points. In April 2021 she recorded an a cappella version of "Amen" with Perpetuum Jazzile.

Since then she has sung at state occasions, among them the Statehood Day celebration in Ljubljana in 2020 and the closing event of Slovenia's EU Council presidency in Brussels in 2021, and the Municipality of Bohinj honoured her for special achievements. In 2023 she released "Bohinian Girl, Bohemian Woman", mixed by the British producer Troy Miller, and in 2024 "Savica", first performed at the Bled Strategic Forum.

Since 2024 she has performed with the band Soul Cast. With them and Peter Ugrin she released "Prešeren", "Oboje" and "Ameria" in 2025, recorded live in Ljubljana, and at EMA 2025 they performed a version of Magnifico's "Silvija".