New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Last year,
Sigrid was in LA working on the embryonic songs that would become the follow-up to 2019's UK top 5 album, Sucker Punch, the critically acclaimed debut that followed the pop sensation's BBC Sound of 2018 win and the top 10, Platinum certified success of festival anthem Strangers. But when the pandemic hit,
Sigrid had to return to Norway. On the flight home,
Sigrid realised she had the genesis of 'Mirror', the immaculate disco-ball shaped new single, out today on Island Records. 'Mirror' is the extraordinary return for an artist who rewrote the rulebook on the pop-archetype and arrived onto the world stage with unofficial feminist anthem 'Don't Kill My Vibe'. Since then, the 24-year-old has toured the globe, amassed over 1.2 billion streams and sold 1 million album units, laying the foundation for a phenomenal global talent. 'Mirror' was written for the festivals that have become Sigrid's definitive stage, and the thousands of fans who will "feel the bass in their chest" says Sigrid, adding, "I walk into the studio and know I want to make a big chorus!" 'Mirror' is a track evocative of Sigrid's talent of zooming in on the personal whilst speaking to the universal: "I love who I see, looking at me in the Mirror".
'Mirror' was finished in Denmark - having started life with longtime collaborator Emily Warren - with some of the biggest songwriters and producers who had been expats in LA, returning to Scandinavia and getting back to basics.
Superstar songwriter Caroline Ailin (Dua Lipa, Julia Michaels) and producer Sly (Jonas Brothers, Dua Lipa) worked with
Sigrid on finishing the song, having started life - as all of Sigrid's music has done - at the piano. "I'm not an artist without being in the studio, writing, and I'm not a writer without being on stage". The studio has always been the pop star's safe space, but the pandemic meant the studio became symbolic, and the stage became her inspiration and intention: getting back to her fans, and a new era of glorious experimental pop was born.
The video for 'Mirror' is a remarkable collaboration with director Femke Huurdeman at award-winning production company CANADA (Rosalia, Beck) and represents self-love in the aftermath of a relationship, through a cinematic visual feast of dance and movement. In Sigrid's own words: "We wanted to explore how conflicting it can feel to have different sides of yourself competing against each other, and not working together. And as I can't stand still whilst singing, there's a lot of dancing, running, driving - you can tell I had a great time on the shoot :)".
"It can be quite liberating to reinvent yourself after getting out of a relationship. This journey of finding your core, coming to terms with who you are and radiating this from oneself is at the heart of the concept of the video. For me, it's always important to showcase a 3-dimensional image of a character. We built together on a language of movements, and different moods for each scene, all rooted in Sigrid's own style of performing. She can be empowering, humorous, sensitive, playful, captivating and bold, and that's something I think you can feel throughout the video," says director Femke.
The past year has been a time of deep reflection for Sigrid. Since her ascent to pop stardom in 2017,
Sigrid achieved every accolade a young artist from a small town off the coast of Norway could ever have imagined. From releasing her critically acclaimed debut EP Don't Kill My Vibe, to winning the Sound of 2018, performing across the globe at The Royal Variety Show, the Nobel Peace Prize, headlining her first
Arena show at 3Arena in Dublin to 12,000 fans, and that Glastonbury performance to 30,000 festival goers and millions at home:
Sigrid lit up stages with her non-conformist and progressive attitudes to the femininity in pop. Ending 2019 with a 5* (The Times) headline show at London's Eventim Apollo,
Sigrid hadn't stopped in four years, but when the world stopped,
Sigrid had an identity crisis, as the world turned inwards. "The thing that was most important to me was taken away; touring and travelling and being an artist. I thought, who am I without the music? My self-worth as a human is not just work, but who am I without my job? But last year made me realise I don't want to do anything else. I wanted to do this for the rest of my life."
As the world moves again, we are all ready to see
Sigrid dance across the global stage, with Mirror in hand.
