Ann Vriend

Canadian AV (Ann Vriend) is a two-time Maple Blues Award songwriting recipient; an Edmonton Music Award and Alberta Centennial Award recipient; winner of the “RnB Single Of the Year” Award at the Edmonton Music Awards; a "Keyboardist of the Year" nominee at at Maple Blues Awards; and has sold more than 30,000 albums off-the-stage in her under-the-radar yet critically acclaimed international career.  She is also the bandleader, lead singer, and arranger for the newly formed soul/roots group AV & the Inner City, who just won an “Emerging Artist" award at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, at the end of a highly successful multi-festival 2023 summer tour. AV has been hailed by NOW Magazine as a musician who "turns soul on its head, belting out delicate introspection in the form of fire”. Known primarily for her incredibly powerful and dynamic vocals she is actually first and foremost a songwriter, and her many awards spanning her career are almost exclusively in that category.   AV's last tour before the pandemic was a six-night opening slot for UK star Lisa Stansfield, where each night Stansfield's crowds were captivated into complete silence before the end of AV's first song.  In the course of those 6 concerts she sold nearly $20,000 (CAD) worth of merchandise. That same year her song "Hurt People Hurt People" reached #58 in the Top 100 pop radio charts in Germany-- something virtually unheard of for an independent artist. To quote the Toronto Star: "Don't miss her."