Aurora (singer)

Aurora
Aurora performing at the Way Back When Festival in 2015
Background information
Birth name	Aurora Aksnes
Born	15 June 1996 Bergen, Norway
Genres	Synthpop[1]
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter
Instruments	Vocals piano guitar
Years active	2012–present
Labels	Decca Glassnote Petroleum
Website	aurora-music.com

Aurora Aksnes (born 15 June 1996), stage name Aurora (Stylised as AURORA), is a singer-songwriter from Os, Norway. Her debut EP Running with the Wolves was released through Decca Records in May 2015,^[2] receiving widespread approval from online music blogs and national press. More recently she has provided the backing track for the 2015 John Lewis Christmas advertisement, singing a cover of the Oasis song "Half the World Away". This cover appears as a bonus track on the deluxe version of her debut studio album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, which was released worldwide on 11 March 2016.

Early life

Aurora Aksnes was born on 15 June 1996 in Bergen, Norway. Her earliest musical memory is of finding an electric piano in her parents’ attic and being fascinated by the music she could produce. Her parents never pushed her to pursue music either as a career or as a hobby but as Aurora grew older, she moved on from mimicking classical music to composing her own. She cites renowned songwriters Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan as influences^[3] and, aged 10,^[4] she began writing songs for the first time. She decided to start playing her music publicly following her mother’s suggestion that her songs could help people.She wrote her song, 'Runaway', when she was 12, which she later released as a single.

Aurora has two older sisters: Viktoria Aksnes, a stylist, and Miranda Aksnes, a make-up artist. Both of them supported her at her performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2015.^[5]

Career

It was one year after her debut performance at school (Nordahl Grieg VGS) that Aurora first came to the attention of anyone outside of her assembly hall. One of Aurora’s friends heard the song, asked for a copy and then uploaded it onto a Norwegian streaming site. Made Management heard the track and quickly began working with Aurora. She signed with the management company shortly before signing with Glassnote and Decca in October 2014.

2012–present: All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend

Her first track "Puppet" was made available in December 2012, it was followed by "Awakening" in May 2013.^[6] Her first single with Decca Records "Under Stars" was released in November 2014,^[7] and ‘Runaway’ followed in February 2015.^[8] Runaway achieved success in the UK on streaming service Spotify, reaching 1 million streams after just 6 weeks. The track was also received positively by various online music blogs and national press such as the NME. Aurora also found a fan in popstar Katy Perry who tweeted "new music that makes my heart a flutter".^[9] She later continued to support the rising talent, making an appearance at Aurora’s LA show back in June.^[10] "Running with the Wolves" was released in April 2015 and received attention from national BBC stations Radio One, Radio Two and 6Music.^[11] Frequent plays on such stations propelled Aurora into the ‘One’s to Watch’ pages of the Independent^[12] and The Guardian.^[13] The excitement surrounding the young songstress propelled her onto the festival circuit and she appeared at renowned summer festivals such as Way Out West, Wilderness and Green Man Festival.^[14][15][16] Aurora’s third single "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" was released in September 2015 and has received continued support in national press, on national radio and popular online music blogs.^[17] She has been included on the soundtrack of FIFA 16,^[18] played a sold out headline show in London in September and is set to support Of Monsters and Men in Brixton in November 2015.^[19] Aurora recorded a cover of the Oasis track "Half the World Away" for the 2015 John Lewis Christmas advert.^[20] Her next single, which came after "Half The World Away", was released in January 2016, titled "Conqueror" and a music video was uploaded the following month. Her debut album All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend was released 11 March 2016,^[21] receiving generally positive reviews from critics. Her cover of David Bowie's Life on Mars song appeared on credits sequence of Girls Season 5, episode 5.

On March 14, 2016, Aurora made her American Television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing Conqueror.^[22]

Honors

• 2014.4.8: A scholarship of 50,000 Krones from the Festivalen by:Lam's Forbildepriser(Exemplar Prize) ^[23]
• 2015: Spellemannprisen This years newcomer for the album Running with the Wolves

Discography

Studio albums

Title	Details	Peak chart positions
		NOR [24]	AUS [25]	GER [26]	IRL [27]	UK [28]	US [29]
All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend	Released: 11 March 2016 Label: Decca, Glassnote Formats: Digital download, CD, vinyl	1	51	24	66	28	150

Extended plays

Title	Details
Running with the Wolves	Released: 3 May 2015 Label: Decca Formats: Digital download

Singles

as lead artist

Year	Title	Peak chart positions				Album
		GER [26]	IRE [30]	UK [28]	US Alt [31]
2013	"Awakening"	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
2014	"Under Stars"	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
2015	"Runaway"	—	—	—	—	All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend
	"Running with the Wolves"	72	—	—	—
	"Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)"	—	—	—	—
	"Half the World Away"	—	22	11	—
2016	"Conqueror"	—	—	—	32
	"Warrior"	—	—	—	—
"—" denotes a single that did not chart or was not released.

as featured artist

Year	Title	Album
2016	"Home" (Icarus featuring AURORA)	N/A

References

1. Kaplan, Ilana. "Listen to Teenage Songstress Aurora's Deft Debut EP". Noisey Vice. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
2. "Aurora Announces Debut EP Titled Running with the Wolves". pastemagazine.com.
3. "Spotlight Interview: Aurora Aksnes". Ja Ja Ja.
4. [Citation needed]
5. Aurora's Tweet
6. "AURORA - Awakening". SoundCloud.
7. AURORA - Under Stars (Audio) on YouTube
8. AURORA - Runaway on YouTube
9. @katyperry I mean thank you so much!!!! So much!!! on Twitter.
10. "AURORA - Mobile Uploads - Facebook". facebook.com.
11. "Running With The Wolves". BBC Music.
12. Emily Jupp (8 March 2015). "Following in the footsteps of Björk and Sigur Rós, the Scandi and Nordic music acts you should listen to now". The Independent.
13. Harriet Gibsone. "Class of 2015: Rat Boy, SOAK, Alex Burey, Aurora, Tink". the Guardian.
14. "Way Out West » AURORA". Way Out West.
15. "Aurora - Wilderness". wildernessfestival.com.
16. "Aurora". Green Man Festival.
17. Will Butler. "Check out chilling 'Murder Song' from Norwegian singer, Aurora". gigwise.com.
18. "FIFA 16 Soundtrack". easports.com.
19. "Upcoming Events - O2 Academy Brixton". o2academybrixton.co.uk.
20. NME.COM. "Norwegian singer Aurora covers Oasis' 'Half The World Away' for John Lewis Christmas advert – watch". NME.COM.
21. AURORA announces debut album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend
22. "Aurora guests on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon". NBC. NBC. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
23. "Forbildepriser to women in music life".
24. http://lista.vg.no/liste/topp-40-album/2/dato/2016/uke/11
25. Ryan, Gavin (2 April 2016). "ARIA Albums: Zayn Has the No 1 Album in Australia". Noise11. Retrieved 2 April 2016.
26. Hung, Steffen. "Discographie Aurora Aksnes". German Charts Portal. Hung Medien (Steffen Hung).
27. "AURORA". chart-track.co.uk. Chart-Track.
28. "AURORA". Officialcharts.com. Official Charts Company.
29. "AURORA - Chart history". Billboard. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
30. Hung, Steffen. "Discographie Aurora Aksnes". Irish Charts Portal. Hung Medien (Steffen Hung).
31. "AURORA - Chart history". Billboard. Retrieved 23 March 2016.

External links

• Official homepage
• Official Twitter Account