Down to earth vibes and unapologetic lyrics: why Sigrid is Scandinavia’s hottest export

Frankie McCoy meets a Gen Z girl doing pop music her way  
Frankie McCoy8 November 2018

I’ve walked into an epic dance-off at Hackney’s Moth Club. Before a non-existent crowd, 22-year-old Norwegian singer Sigrid Raabe stalks, shimmies and does Michael Jackson-worthy spins as Scandi pop blasts over the sound system. Then she’s on a table —hands in the air, hands on hips, hey, Macarena! — as a photographer snaps rapturously.

The pop star has been in this windowless club for five hours but she still has brilliant energy, switching from serious to sweet in seconds.

Sigrid (she dropped her surname when Island Records, the label behind Florence + The Machine, PJ Harvey and Amy Winehouse, signed her in 2016 after an intense bidding war) is hot property. Named the BBC’s Sound of 2018 in March, she is the singer-songwriter behind last year’s joyful earworms ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ and ‘Strangers’. Her latest track, ‘Sucker Punch’, debuted in October as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World. On Monday, she will play her biggest UK show yet at O2 Brixton Academy — sold out weeks ago — after a month of warming up at The Royal Variety and Radio 1’s Teen Awards. Next year sees the release of her new album, as well as tours supporting George Ezra, Maroon 5 and, although she can’t say, possibly a second bash at Glastonbury after storming the Park Stage last year.

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Not bad for someone who was once rescued in tears from her kindergarten choir and who was ‘very, very shy as a kid’ (Sigrid’s English is perfect, although her Norwegian accent gives a bizarre, endearing, Irish-like inflection to her words: ‘shy’ comes out as ‘shoi’). She grew up in the port town of Ålesund, the daughter of an architect and an economist, and while both parents loved music, neither had showbiz ambitions for their children. Sigrid was, admittedly, guilt-tripped into learning piano aged seven — ‘We had an old upright piano and my mum was like, “It’s such a shame no one’s using it...”’ — but it wasn’t until 13 that she started singing. And a star... was not born. At first, she laughs, ‘I was not a good singer. I kind of sounded like a crow?’ She caws convincingly. ‘But I started taking lessons and my vocal coach was very cool. She didn’t put me in a box and that was very important to me. Teachers have been some of the most important people in my career.’ She launches into an ode to teachers. It’s nerdy, and utterly charming.

Another teacher, for piano, was equally important, introducing her to the chords that meant ‘suddenly I could play my favourite songs’. She printed out music befitting a pre-teen fan of mid-Noughties indie pop — Coldplay, Keane, The Kooks, with Adele thrown in for good measure — and did covers with her own arrangements and melodies. At the age of 16 her brother invited her to play with his band, on the condition that she write her own original song. ‘He knew I could write, I just needed a deadline,’ she smiles. She wrote ‘Sun’ in two weeks and uploaded it to the Norwegian version of BBC Music Introducing. It was played on national radio and suddenly, Norway was in love with Sigrid. She is now stopped on the street so often back home that she asks me not to name the new town she’s moving to, because ‘I just want to be able to go to the store’. Record labels courted her and she eventually signed with indie label Petroleum, after a year of meetings: ‘I need time to think. And I think a lot.’

Chloé jacket, £1,415; top, £655, at net-a-porter.com

That maturity (what 16-year-old doesn’t leap salmon-like into the first record deal dangled?) also kept her at school until she was 18, getting her grades while releasing three singles. At various points she wanted to be ‘a teacher, a lawyer, a journalist’ and even began a degree in politics at the University of Bergen. But after two months, she met her music management, Made, at a corporate gig she was doing to pay her rent, and dropped out. Made started flying her to London to write songs and it was at one of these sessions that she found the inspiration for her breakthrough track, ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’. ‘I was in a writing session that was difficult. I didn’t feel welcome and I felt that my opinions weren’t as welcome as the opinions of the two older male producers,’ she says, frowning. ‘I was pissed off with myself because I thought I was the type of person who always spoke out if I wasn’t respected. It was like, why the f*** did you even invite me if you’re not going to listen to what I have to say?’

She adds, perhaps wary of sounding a wee bit snowflakey, that ‘I know it’s dramatic in the song but I’m a songwriter. It wasn’t a good session but it wasn’t the worst day of my life.’ Even so, when she met her co-writer Martin Sjølie, he suggested her frustration was interesting, especially combined with what Sigrid calls her ‘scream-singing’. ‘For a while the people I’d been writing with, when I’d been like...’ — she roars, shaking her flaming hair like a gleeful lion — ‘they wanted me to tone it down. But Martin was like, “You should shout more.”’

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The result was a ridiculously catchy anthem, simultaneously assertive and fun, an ode to speaking — or shouting — up for oneself, and refusing to be put down by the patriarchy. The sound of 2018, indeed. Its release sparked an all-out bidding war by major labels, with Island Records emerging victorious. Another track, ‘Strangers’, followed, hitting number 10 in the UK charts, as did a cult music video (currently at 40 million views on YouTube), which confirmed Sigrid’s signature style: T-shirt, jeans and trainers, a clean-cut antidote to the ballgown ‘n’ booty-baring MTV norm. The moment the photo shoot finishes today, she swipes off the lipstick and pulls on a white T-shirt and Levi’s. ‘I thought if I was going to be an artist I needed to look like myself and I needed to recognise myself,’ she says. Her favourite T-shirt is one given her not by a brand hoping for Instagram love, but by airline KLM during a cancelled flight. There’s down to earth for you.

Happiness is of utmost importance to this member of Generation Z. Sigrid is no wild child facing burn-out by 27. Her tour bus is more about Sims 4 and sensible bedtimes than sex and drugs. ‘I’m pretty boring on tour,’ she states, unapologetically. ‘One of the most important things for me is being able to say, “Stop, I’m going home.”’

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Ultimately, she says, ‘I’m very ambitious. But my overall goal, above ambition, is that I want to be happy with what I’m doing and I want to be happy with myself.’ If this is the sound of sensible, self-caring Gen Z, it’s pretty damn catchy.

Sigrid’s debut album is out early next year

All make-up by Bea Sweet using Maximalisme de Chanel and Chanel Sublimage Strengthening Essence.

Hair by Hiroshi Matsushita using Kiehl’s.

Fashion assistant: Jane Chankira.

With thanks to Moth Club

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