Weird. This is one of the qualifiers that we would use to evoke this astonishing musical phenomenon. electro-pop that will (without a doubt) bewitch Rock en Seine on Sunday 28 August. Weird, then. The term is also used by Aurora’s sister, Viktoria Aksnes, to describe her younger sister when she was a child. To 26 years old, the artist is still a bit. She is on the side of the strange, the unique, probably the genius. The Scandinavian goddess with blond hair only sees herself as the transmission belt of a superior force, music (or something else?). As if equipped with antennas, she captures the essence of what surrounds her and injects it into her creations. Starting with Bergen, her hometown, to which she pays tribute in her very first music video Runaway released in 2015, when he was 18.
The video now has 452 million views on YouTube and was a hit on Tik Tok, six years after its release. This is a perfect introduction to his universe: an enchanting voice, electro-folk sounds, a bird’s cry and plenty of snow. “It was very cold the day of the shoot. We filmed outside for hours”, she recalls in a video published by the British media NME. The lyrics – written when she was just 11 – tell of the need to come home. “The more I grow up, the more they make sense”she says.
Aurora likes to be at home, alone. Small, her bedroom is her haven of peace. She only comes out of it to escape the too strong smell of fresh paint. The one she uses for drawing, a passion she shares with her father. “We come from a creative family with lots of artists, including a boat builder, tells us about his sister Viktoria. Our parents always wanted us to be able to do whatever we liked.” As a result, the three daughters of the family all flourish in an artistic profession: the two oldest, Viktoria and Miranda, are respectively stylist and make-up artist for Aurora.
It was thanks to Miranda that the young Norwegian discovered the power of music: she unearthed her sister’s old keyboard in the family attic at the age of 6. She then began to compose her first melodies, then three years later her songs. Sitting in front of her piano, the budding artist forgets the passage of time. “From my childhood, I remember a totally different perspective of time. When you’re little, you don’t think about the next hour”, she says in an interview for the British media spindle.
His imagination leads the child into a universe filled with magic. “I took a lot of pleasure in making the world more exciting, I told myself that the wind was a woman, that the trees could speak”she remembers for B-Sides. She appreciates the silence and the space offered by the forests of her Norwegian fjord. The calm of the place allows him to dive into his own interiority. There alone, she really feels she exists. Her enchanted walks develop in her a particular affection for “Mother Nature” which she considers to be one of her greatest sources of inspiration… ahead of Leonard Cohen and Enya!
Many of his songs pay homage to nature such as The Seedfrom his second album, A Different Kind Of Human – Step 2 (2019). For the chorus, the artist is inspired by an Indian proverb: “When the last tree has been felled, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we realize that money is not eaten.” In 2021, Aurora participates in COP 26 in Glasgow as a singer. The donations collected during her performance are donated to the charity organization EarthPercent. During the event, she then dreams of meeting Greta Thunberg. The teenager fascinates her, in particular by her way of going on stage, of being transformed for a fight that is beyond her.
Aurora has also transformed. Back in 2014, during his very first performance for his high school party. She plays one of her creations entitled I had a dream, guitar in hand. A friend records it and posts the video on the Internet. The young girl was quickly spotted and signed with Made Management, then the Glassnote and Decca labels. “My mother used to say that Aurora couldn’t keep her music to herself, that she could help people”, remembers his sister Viktoria. So she launches and releases her first album All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend in 2016. His career start is dazzling. The artist even makes the heart of the famous Katy Perry beat faster, who shares her enthusiasm on Twitter.
Finally. New music that makes my ❤️a flutter. Check this 17 yr old angel @AURORAmusic RUNAWAY https://t.co/KLZRLeSiVk pic.twitter.com/scJvDfDgSU
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) March 4, 2015
“It was thanks to Katy Perry’s tweet that I discovered Aurora’s music. I became a fan instantly”, slips Maeva Damas, one of the biggest French admirers of the singer and responsible for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts dedicated to the artist. She attends one of her first concerts in France at Les Vieilles Charrues and meets Aurora after her show. “We had talked on the networks before the festival. When we saw each other in person, we started running towards each other. We hugged and then we talked for a few minutes. It was a very sweet encounter.”
Since then, she has attended all the concerts given in France by the Norwegian and has been able to observe her development. At first, celebrity oppresses Aurora. If his meeting with Maeva went well, discovering in the flesh chilled fans is difficult for the eternal loner. “She didn’t want this career, she just wanted to make music. At one point, she even wondered if she couldn’t just write the songs and have someone else sing them for her” , narrates her big sister, Viktoria.
On stage, the singer finds it difficult to relax, clutches her clothes, remains static. “She was shy, she danced but didn’t dare to go too far, comments Maeva Damas. The fan sees a real difference during a performance at La Cigale in 2018.”She had just released her music video Queendom and she had dancers with her on stage. It was impressive. Today, she dances as she feels, as she interprets the meaning of her songs.” In Queendom, a liberating song, it is for all introverts. She, on the other hand, has gained confidence and is establishing herself as the queen of her own kingdom.
In the clip, one of her furry white tops – the wool of which comes from a sheep grazing on the island of Osterøy – is one of her sister Viktoria’s creations. Gradually, Aurora creates a style of her own. “When she was younger, she was embarrassed by the idea of being sexy, showing her skin, states Victoria. With age, she is more comfortable with this idea. Her style today is very feminine. She wears long, flowing dresses and corsets emphasizing the waist. Each of his albums has a different style palette. “The colors are linked to the lyrics of his songs.”
The outfits she wears for the music videos for her second album – A Different Kind of Human (2018) – and his third – The Gods We Can Touch (2022) – are much happier, like his verses. Less dark than All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend (2016), they deal with emancipation, feminism, and the society in which we live. She looks at minorities and speaks out more for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.
His last album The Gods We Can Touch (2022), recorded in a Norwegian castle, one of whose ceilings is completely lined with microphones, is more danceable. Aurora shares one of the titles – Everything Matters – with Pomme, French singer. Sto rhythmic music,their slender voices intertwine in angelic high pitches. Recorded remotely, their duo reunited for the time of a video for the magazine Modzik. Aurora appears there all dressed in red. “A color she didn’t wear before,” comments his sister Viktoria. That of an enthusiast. “She speaks so passionately, even when it comes to politics, the environment. In two words, a powerful woman.”
AURORA is in concert on Sunday August 28 on the Grande Scène de Rock en Seine at 5.30 p.m., at the Domaine national de Saint-Cloud, with a selection of (re)broadcasts of concerts on the france.tv platform with Culturebox at this address. She will also perform at the Trianon on Monday August 29 at 8 p.m.