Week

End

Anna Delory, better known by her stage name Anna Domino, was born a cosmopolitan. Born in Japan in 1955, her family moved to Ann Arbor and Florence in the US before settling in the Canadian capital Ottawa. But the notoriously conservative city never felt like home: young Anna was stifled by its narrow-mindedness, later expelled from school, and ended up hitch hiked to Mexico and California. After studying synths and sound recording, she moved to New York in the late 1970s. Post-punk was just taking off in the Big Apple, and figures such as Brian Eno and the Talking Heads were her icons. She soon began producing music herself under the name Anna Domino: tender, multi-layered art pop with finesse that sounded more like Western Europe than North America. This was no coincidence, as the EP East and West, which marked her breakthrough and included a wonderful cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Land of My Dreams”, was recorded in Brussels. It was a good fit with the Belgian capital’s exciting scene at the time, which revolved around bands such as Tuxedomoon. Simultaneously, Anna Domino’s music understanding is also evidenced by a fine sense of affinity with the British post-punk scene and acts such as the Marine Girls, Durutti Column, or the scintillating synth-pop of Gary Numan.

Her self-titled debut album from 1986, also recorded in Brussels and produced by Alan Rankine and Marc Moulin, continued in this vein, with songs such as “Rythm” which become a cult favorite. With her ever intimate voice, Domino has since combined jazz undertones and subtle grooves with lyrical depth. A quiet icon of literate pop, Anna Domino’s influence endures through reissues, collaborations, and a dedicated cult following that continues to rediscover her timeless, genre-blurring sound.

Week-End Fest is proud to present Domino’s first show in almost 15 years—a special concert in which she and her partner Michel Delory will be accompanied by a band of local musicians to perform a broad selection of songs from her 40+ year career as well as a few new ones. We really are looking forward to this!