Tucked behind a single bar door and a haze of Chinese lanterns were four tight rows of folding chairs and a stage that had no business holding a whole band. Somehow, it managed to wedge a full drum set, a bass amp stack and guitar rigs on it. 

The sound was not particularly great, but none of that mattered when Anna Duboc grabbed the mic.

Duboc’s performance at this cozy hole-in-the-wall dive bar, Genghis Cohen, is one moment that stuck with guitarist and music director Enzo Iannello. He has worked with Duboc for nearly five years, but that night, he found himself distracted from his job.

“The confidence — she really came into her own as a performer,” Iannello said. “I was having trouble playing my guitar and focusing on what I was being paid to do there because I was like, ‘I’m watching a concert from behind the stage.’”

Duboc, a freshman singer-songwriter majoring in popular music performance, has amassed over 50 million streams across platforms, including TikTok and YouTube. Her powerful vocals and emotionally driven songwriting have earned her recognition as a rising indie pop artist, with her song “Sinking Feeling” winning Best A Cappella Arrangement at the International Championship of High School A Cappella Awards. She has also performed alongside Katy Perry, Kenny Loggins and Andrea Bocelli. 

Music has always been a central part of Duboc’s life. She said she began performing in musical theater at age four and has appeared in more than 30 productions, later releasing her own music at 13.

Duboc’s influences span genres from classic pop and musical theater to contemporary artists like Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, according to her website. She grew up immersed in music. Her mother, a USC alum, is a jazz vocalist and songwriter who has written for artists including Patti LaBelle and Chanté Moore.

“I’ve always known I wanted to be on stage in some capacity,” Duboc said. “Songwriting just sort of came to me easily.”

Her songs explore themes of vulnerability, relationships and personal growth. One track, “Cherry Pick,” is about female empowerment and refusing to be taken advantage of, a theme she continues in her upcoming single “Lily,” set for release on April 17.

“There’s so much division. … I would just love my music to … connect people as humans,” Duboc said. “Rather than connected through a political party or connected through fashion … I would love to see a world where we’re just like, ‘Oh, hey, we’re all actually people. Let’s just connect on that.’”

Chloe Haack, a freshman majoring in pop music performance who plays bass and performs with Duboc, said Duboc’s honesty in conveying her emotions is what makes her music resonate.

“She speaks from the heart of past relationships, current events and overall outlooks on life,” Haack said. “Not only do the lyrics really reflect such honesty, emotion and experiences, but they are also reflected through the songwriting and how she crafts her songs lyrically and harmonically.”

Her knack for storytelling is something Michael Arrom, Duboc’s piano instructor and an adjunct instructor of popular music at USC, said he believes will continue defining her work as she grows as an artist.

“Every song I’ve heard of hers feels very conversational. It feels like she’s speaking directly to you, or to the person that the song is about,” Arrom said. “It feels like a good friend.”

Iannello said Duboc also has a talent for live performance, which makes working with her unusually smooth for a young artist. In one rehearsal, a day before a performance, Duboc introduced a brand-new song that had never been recorded or even fully demoed. Within an hour, the musicians had arranged it, and the song ended up being a highlight of that set, Ianello said.

“To retain all of that and take it to the stage the next day, and just kill it … takes a lot of confidence, and a lot of [previous] practice,” Iannello said. “Doing these things on the fly, and being able to make decisions that quickly, in which the artists and the rest of the band are both happy, it’s a rarity.”

Duboc will bring her stories to the stage again April 10, where she will perform a 45-minute set along with several other Thornton School of Music students. The show will feature mostly original songs along with a few covers. 

This time, Duboc and her band will step through the intimate black doorway of one of Los Angeles’ oldest clubs, The Mint. The stage may be bigger, the lights brighter and the crowd larger. But if her performances so far are any indication, the setting won’t matter.