”Ihlis is a star in her own right, with her eyes lost in the ceiling she sings so beautifully that you wonder if it’s really a rain drop left on your cheek. Her voice wanders effortlessly between crystal clear strenght and intimate whispering” This review was written at the beginning of Annas path of performing her own songs at the Swedish music festival Way out West. Also the same year as her first album was released I Stay Awake...Good Morning. Album number two Long Before My Hair Got Black followed up in 2012. After that her songwriting changed focus and she began to write lyrics in swedish. Känslomässig kull was released 2015. The sound developed into a landscape where the music and production lifted the lyrics. Avskedet 1864-2018 is an album with the poems from Nobel prize winner Erik Axel Karlfeldt(1864-1931) and music by Anna Ihlis. ”She reaches out to Karlfeldt in her own way. As if she were a Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyron or Cat Powers”Summer 2020 she released her fifth album Röd a collaboration with Daniel Ögren. 
Anna Ihlis songwriting has its roots in pop music but expands towards other genres. It starts with Anna by the piano, but in her head there is always a bigger production and more instruments involved.