Ana Štajdohar published a song before going on maternity leave

Before going on maternity leave, singer Ana Štajdohar decided to reward the audience with a new song. After more than a year, the electro-pop single "Samo ti" arrives, for which she wrote the music with Srđan Tanasković, and the lyrics with her constant collaborator Boban Janković.

"I set myself the difficult task of working on a new song and music video in the sixth month of my pregnancy. Well, I finished it and now the audience will be able to listen to it until I return from maternity leave", says Ana Štajdohar for "Vijesti".

After his return, for which the audience will wait at least a year, he plans to release his first solo album.

"It will contain all the singles I've released so far and some new ones," she promises, adding that it's not easy for her to find a song.

"A set of various factors influenced the fact that I work slowly and release a single in a year or two. I was always glad to be not only a performer, but also the author of my own songs. However, the process of writing a song you're happy with, if you're self-critical and a perfectionist like me, can take time. Only I know how many songs I have started, which maybe I will finish someday, and maybe they will stay that way", she reveals, noting that it is difficult for her to find songs by other authors as well.

"For now, I haven't found someone who would write songs in my style, the way I want, and exactly that electro-dance-pop is the style I want to express myself with." I was never guided by what was in demand and what brought money, nor did I want to record songs according to the taste of the majority in the Balkans. I don't like what's being heard here, and I don't want to outdo anyone just to be popular, to record folk songs or songs that flirt with that genre. Simply, I don't want to make a compromise on this issue and I don't think in the style of 'if you can't beat them, join them,'" the "Vijesti" interlocutor points out.

This is precisely the reason why she has not released an album since leaving the group "Tap 011", in which she sang in the last line-up.

"I know that my stubbornness and desire to fight for the musical direction I love is a battle with windmills, but I am more satisfied myself than recording anything. The direction I'm working in is commercial in the world, but here, it just doesn't go well here," comments Štajdohar, adding that it's a mystery to her that people listen to songs in English that have the same sound as hers, and choose folk songs from local ones. "I think the radio stations are also to blame with their song selection policy. It happened to me that I send a song to a radio station that plays foreign music and they tell me that they like the songs, but they don't fit the concept, because the lyrics are in Serbian. When I send it to radio stations that play local music, they don't have space for this music genre, so I find myself in an awkward situation, because I'm not on either side," concludes Štajdohar.

She is not interested in the foreign market

Although she also sang her first big hit, the composition "Neko kao ti" in English, the singer states that she has no intention of conquering the foreign market.

"That song didn't take off too much, because I didn't deal with it. It was more important for me that the audience accepted the connection in our language. Otherwise, regardless of the genre I chose, I'm not interested in the foreign market. I'm more interested in the territory where I live, that's why I want to live here and, therefore, create for the audience in the Balkans, so I guess it won't always be like this, but one day the taste of the majority will also change", hopes Štajdohar, who started her solo career in 2008, after left the group "Tap 011"