Aurora Aksnes

Aurora Aksnes was born in Stavanger, Norway, and spent her first three years in Høle, a small town in Sandnes. Her family later moved to a remote woodland area near Bergen, where she grew up surrounded by forests, mountains, and limited access to cars and the internet. She has compared the setting to the fictional land of Narnia and has often connected her creative life with nature.

Her parents are May Britt Aksnes and Jan Øystein Aksnes, and she has two older sisters, Miranda and Viktoria. Aurora is the only musician in her family. She began playing piano at six after discovering an instrument in the attic, started creating melodies at the same age, and began writing lyrics in English at nine. "Runaway" and "I Went Too Far" were among the songs connected to this early period.

Aurora initially considered studying molecular biology or physics rather than pursuing music. A recording of her song "Puppet" was posted online in December 2012 and gained attention on a national chart. She was hesitant when a manager contacted her, briefly considering songwriting for other artists, but ultimately chose to develop her own career as a recording artist.

Her early releases included "Awakening" and the singles "Under Stars" and "Runaway." Released in February 2015, "Runaway" reached one million Spotify streams in six weeks. Her debut EP, Running with the Wolves, followed in May 2015, and her cover of Oasis' "Half the World Away" for a John Lewis Christmas advertisement brought her wider recognition in the United Kingdom. She left upper secondary school in 2014 to concentrate on music.

Aurora's debut studio album, All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, was released on March 11, 2016. She supported it with a worldwide tour and made her American television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, later appearing on Conan, The Howard Stern Show, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Aurora's music has been described as indie, electropop, and folk, although it resists a single category. Her recordings often combine spacious synthesizers, layered vocals, reverb, and driving or multi-tracked drums. She also incorporates ambient sounds into her productions, including natural or everyday noises, and is closely involved in the production of her recordings.

Her influences include Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Enya, Björk, Grimes, the Chemical Brothers, and melodic metal. Her lyrics frequently draw on nature, childhood ideas, death, grief, love, gender, and environmental politics. Songs such as "The Seed" express concern about ecological destruction, while "Queendom" presents an inclusive message for LGBTQ listeners and other people who feel oppressed or excluded.

Aurora's songs often use different perspectives rather than presenting a single autobiographical voice. "I Went Too Far" portrays a girl affected by unrequited love, while "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" is written from the perspective of a mercy-killing victim. Her live performances can also substantially alter the tempo and arrangement of her recorded songs.

Aurora released Infections of a Different Kind - Step 1 in September 2018, followed by A Different Kind of Human - Step 2 on June 7, 2019. The second release continued her atmospheric sound while moving toward more danceable rhythms and more overt political themes. She also contributed vocals to three songs on the Chemical Brothers album No Geography and worked with Norwegian band Wardruna on "Helvegen."

Her vocals appeared alongside Idina Menzel on "Into the Unknown," the theme song from Disney's Frozen II. The song received an Academy Award, and Aurora and Menzel performed it at the 92nd Academy Awards. Aurora also recorded projects with artists including Pomme, Gundelach, Sub Urban, Qing Feng, and Tom Odell, and contributed to the soundtrack of Frozen Planet II.

The Gods We Can Touch, Aurora's fourth studio album, was released on January 21, 2022. It included songs such as "Exist for Love," "Cure for Me," "Giving In to the Love," and "Everything Matters," the last featuring Pomme. The album was followed by The Gods We Can Touch Tour and the concert film A Touch of the Divine.

Aurora's fifth studio album, What Happened to the Heart?, was released on June 7, 2024. Singles from the project included "Your Blood," "The Conflict of the Mind," and "Some Type of Skin." She followed the album with a festival tour and the What Happened to the Earth? tour, while a deluxe edition arrived in 2025.

Aurora won the Norwegian Solo Artist of the Year award at the 2015 GAFFA Awards and the European Border Breakers Award. At the Spellemannprisen, she won Newcomer of the Year and the Gramo scholarship for 2015, Pop Solo Artist for 2016, and International Success of the Year for 2021.

She also won the 2016 GAFFA Norwegian Album of the Year award for All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, the 2017 Spellemannprisen Music Video of the Year award for "I Went Too Far," and the 2022 P3 Award. Her later nominations included categories for The Gods We Can Touch, "A Temporary High," "The Devil Is Human," and What Happened to the Heart?.