Ana Djuric, Konstrakta – Courage Means Using Your Head, and Not Parroting

She came, she washed her hands, she conquered – Twitter users jokingly commented on the unexpected victory of Konstrakta in the final round of the Eurovision Song Contest Serbian national selection. With her memorable performance and song “In corpore sano”, with which she will represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin, this artist, an architect by trade, drew a lot of attention from the public – still, her success did not arrive overnight, though it may seem so to those unfamiliar with her.

Mysterious, different, unknown – this is how she has been described in the media. But Konstrakta, that is, Ana Djuric, has been present in music for over 15 years.

She started her career in the band Mistakemistake, and since 2007, she has been one of the two female vocalists of the band Zemlja gruva!, along with Zoe Kida (Ana Radonjic). With Zemlja gruva!, she already performed at Beovizija in 2009, but the song “Svejedno je” was not too successful – it placed 16th in the semi-final.

Certain parts of the audience find it difficult to remember her pseudonym, calling her Konstanta, Konkreta or Konstrukta, and this is a problem she has encountered before, which is why everybody in the band used a shorted version of her pseudonym – Konstra. As she revealed in an interview, “Konstrakta” comes from the fact that she saw the whole world as a construct.

– On the one hand, I sort of counted syllables, lyric lines and come up with new words, I was constructing, so that’s what was interesting to me. I no longer do that. On the other hand, at the time, I studied architecture, and at the Art History course, held by professor Suvakovic, there was talk of constructs, primarily social ones. So, I saw the whole world and all phenomena as a construct. Both myself and the songs. So, there’s no mystery there – she explained in an interview for 42 magazin.

Her first solo song “Zvake”, was released in 2019, and it was followed by singles “Neam samana”, “Nobl”, “Mekano”. Critics describe her music as authentic and brave. And today, she notes, it is not easy to be brave.

– Courage means taking the time to think. Courage means using your head, and not parroting. And it turns out that’s quite difficult – she stated.

When asked whether it’s possible to live from music in Serbia, several years ago she answered that it was, “although the earnings are not quite proportional to the work one puts in”. And what’s very important in her line of work is the family’s support.

– However ridiculous it may sound, in Serbia, an important factor is the support of the environment and the family. Because, being a musician – we all know where that’s heading… So, if there’s no understanding of your work in your immediate environment, the whole thing becomes very difficult, and you have to be extremely confident in what you’re doing – reveals the singer, who is married to an architect, with whom she has a daughter, Lena, and a son, Nikola.

She will especially need this support in the next two months of her preparations for Turin. She still doesn’t know what the performance in Turin will look like. What she does know, which she also revealed to the press after the final, is that, ahead of the trip to Italy, she will make a health insurance payment. Because, as she notes in the winning song – she has no health insurance card.

M. Dedic

Konstrakta

Ana Đurić

Zoe Kida

Ana Radonjić

Zemlja gruva

Mistakemistake

2022 Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Turin

Beovizija

In corpore sano

Neam šamana

Nobl

Mekano

Svejedno je

Žvake

health insurance card