Artist Spotlight: Sigrid
By Erin Christie
Sigrid Solbakk Raabe, aged a mere 21 years old, has come a long way within her short moment in the spotlight, a time that is certainly to be extended for a much longer period. Having achieved international acclaim with her single, “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” earlier this year, Sigrid has only continued to gain traction with each passing day. She recently joined the glittery, technetronic duo, Oh Wonder, on their tour through Europe this past month, which lines up what looks to be a promising future for her.
Having begun her career as a singer in 2013- this time marked by the release of her debut single “Sun,” Sigrid was immediately dubbed as a national gem in her home country, Norway, having yet to break through international airwaves. Since then, Sigrid has continued to hone her craft, signing to Island Records—home to mega-artists such as Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Florence + the Machine, Taylor Swift, and many more— in 2016, this being the start of her rise to widespread relevance and recognition.
On November 9th, Sigrid released her most recent single, “Strangers,” polished and revving to go and never falling short of expectations from the already thriving soon-to-be pop icon. This single takes her signature sound to a whole new level, bringing about an entirely new sense of what makes pop music so great and so versatile today. Her ethereal voice sets the scene, drawing the draping, velvet curtains back and opening with the line cool and calm, “We’re the broken beauties,” creating a setting enveloped in intrigue. Soon, the hook breaks through the silence, the perfectly curated indie-pop verses seamlessly meshing into the abrupt change in tone. One can find themselves listening to this track for hours and feelings like no more than a minute has passed- that’s how greatly hypnotizing it is.
As people so often do- as cliché as it is- we often fall in love with the idea of someone, rather than the person themselves, and that is something that Sigrid explicitly touches on within this track. “We’re falling head-over-heels for something that ain’t real,” she notes with melancholy (despite how utterly danceable the track itself is). Romance is something that is far too complicated to explain in black and white, and even in her young age, Sigrid knows that and express so perfectly well. Though our relationships with the ones that we love can appear to be perfect and set in stone, everything can change in an instant and people can turn out to be something different than we thought. Relationships, in a word, are incredibly complex and in the end, the one we’re with can turn out to be a stranger, something that is quite tragic, but not uncommon. Even so, with this in mind, this heavy topic is supported by an intensely dynamic production, urging listeners to want to roll their shoulders and dance instead of curl into a ball and contemplate the validity of their own relationship.
“Strangers” details one of the hardest parts of life- dealing with the fact that love doesn’t come with an instructions manual—and even so, she manages to discuss this harrowing topic whilst simultaneously urging her listeners to get up and dance in spite of their tears. As she stated within an interview with NME, “My favorite pop tunes are always the ones that make you wanna cry and dance at the same time,” and with “Strangers,” she has achieved just that in a manner that is incredibly refreshing.
Today, the industry continually attempts to tear women entering the music scene down, it is so incredibly important and wonderful to see artists like Sigrid thrive. Despite this oppressive system, aiming to shove the true talent and wonder of women under the rug, Sigrid shines through like a sugar- coated needle within a haystack of mediocrity, and that is something about her that cannot be ignored.
Make sure to keep up with Sigrid through her social media to see what she’s up to!
- Facebook, Twitter, and Twitter: @thisissigrid