She moved back to Stockholm in 1983 and broke through as a solo artist that year with the eponymous album "Anne-Lie Rydé."

Anne-Lie Rydé was visually inspired by Punk and Nina Hagen, but musically she played rock.

She toured in 1983–84 with Dan Hylander, Py Bäckman and the Raj Montana Band, and in 1985 received a Rockbjörnen and a Karamelodiktstipendiet, a scholarship awarded for innovation in music in Swedish.

She had serious problems with her vocal cords in 1987 and almost had to stop singing, but managed to recover with "Mellan ljus och mörker" in 1989.

She participated in Melodifestivalen in 2004, with "Säg att du har ångrat dig", 2005, with "Så nära", and 2007, with "Första gången", a duet with Svante Thuresson, failing to reach the final on all three occasions.