“I believe you need to feel the lows in life to feel the highs, and you have to know what sucks to then properly appreciate the good stuff. It Gets Dark is an ode to that. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a single release before. It's the first song that was written for my upcoming album, and I remember the joy and relief when we figured out the soundscape. I was like FINALLY I know how this second record is gonna sound! The music video is the weirdest I’ve gone visually, and I absolutely love it. We’re playing with planets, UFO’s and rooms all made by hand, as well as perspective, time and space. It's the second time working with the brilliant Femke Huurdeman and Canada, and I’d literally do anything for that team; hence me being reborn out of a planet egg, flying in space with wind blowing in my face, punching a planet and wearing the Saturn ring on my head. It’s as ridiculously fun as it was making it: enjoy!" says Sigrid.
Off the back of winning Best Collaboration at the NME Awards 2022 for pop firecracker ‘Head on Fire’ with Griff, Sigrid shared huge new single ‘It Gets Dark’ and announces her highly anticipated second album “How To Let Go”, set for release on May 6, 2022. ‘How To Let Go’ is the Norwegian pop sensation’s follow up to 2019's critically acclaimed UK top 5 album, Sucker Punch.
The past two years have been a time of deep reflection for Sigrid, having returned to Norway during the pandemic from LA for more experiments in pop alchemy, and coming home with two very special songs under her belt; last summer's empowerment anthem ‘Mirror’, and ‘It Gets Dark’, the 25-year-olds thundering ode to accepting the bad times, so the good moments can break through: “It gets dark, so I can see the stars”. With all instruments recorded live and built around a stadium ready bassline and a sky-scraping guitar figure, lyrically ‘It Gets Dark’ pulls off that very Sigrid trick of zooming in on the personal while keeping it universal, and looks closely at the two sides of her personality and how they’ve been magnified by being in the spotlight.
The 12-track LP ‘How To Let Go’ was written at a time where Sigrid was thinking a lot about her life in Norway and her life outside of Norway. “They're two different things. The chill girl who loves to ski and hike and cook versus the other part of me that's like ‘let's go out’, or let's play massive shows, go on stage and not be scared of anything. I used to be so shy as a kid but then when I'm on stage at Glastonbury for example I love losing myself in it.”
Sigrid comments that sometimes those personalities clash and you get confused about what makes you thrive in life, wanting both parts but realising sometimes they don’t always align. This sense of differing perspectives and looking at the same thing from a new angle, is reflected in the amazingly surrealist video for ‘It Gets Dark’, which was made with Mirror director Femke Huurdeman and CANADA (Dua Lipa, Rosalia), featuring Sigrid escaping to space.
To celebrate the theme, Sigrid has teamed up with the star-gazing app Star Walk 2, which allows fans to explore the wonders of the night sky and uncover a special constellation whilst listening to ‘It Gets Dark’.
Writing huge pop songs from the heart with that rasp, and recalling great vocalists from Stevie Nicks to Carole King and Freddie Mercury, since Sigrid’s ascent to pop stardom in 2017, the 25-year-old has 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 has become renowned for her high-energy live shows, writing anthemic chorus’ for festivals that would become her definitive stage. It’s no surprise that the only place Sigrid feels truly she can take out “all those emotions” is performing live with her band.
Last summer, Sigrid was the most highly billed woman on the Main Stage on Saturday at Reading & Leeds festival, and this Winter will bring her huge live show to the UK and Ireland, headlining Wembley’s SSE Arena on Nov. 12, 2022.
With 1.3 Billion global streams and over 1 Million global album unit sales, and the Platinum certified success of pop-dance anthem Strangers, Sigrid returned to the world stage with the “empowerment anthem” (ELLE) ‘Mirror’, followed by the ABBA-inspired synth banger ‘Burning Bridges’, which showed Sigrid’s immense pop songwriting talent.
Then, having soundtracked the BBC Olympic closing montage with her stunning ballad ‘Home To You’, the pop star released the ‘Home To You (This Christmas)’ version, spellbinding families at home over the holidays with an incredible Top Of The Pops performance, and cementing Sigrid’s position as the ‘voice’ in alt-pop. But it was a chance meeting with BRITs Rising Star winner Griff at the fashion show, where the pair bonded over pizza and pop music that her biggest collab yet was born.
‘Head On Fire’ premiered as Hottest Record in the world, was added straight to the BBC Radio 1 playlist, and showed two young women in the industry supporting one another - the collaboration stemming from the power of female friendship, and now an NME Award to celebrate their work together.
"How To Let Go" Track listing
1. It Gets Dark
2. Burning Bridges
3. Risk Of Getting Hurt
4. Thank Me Later
5. Mirror
6. Last To Know
7. Dancer
8. A Driver Saved My Night
9. Mistake Like You
10. Bad life
11. Grow
12. High Note
Tickets available here
SUMMER FESTIVALS
16 June Newport Isle Of Wight Festival
24 June Somerset Glastonbury
08 July Glasgow TRNSMT Festival
21 July Hertfordshire Standon CallingUK AND IRELAND TOUR DATES
O4 Nov Liverpool University Mountford Hall
05 Nov Cardiff Great Hall
06 Nov Birmingham 02 Academy
08 Nov Edinburgh Usher Hall
09 Nov Newcastle O2 City Hall
10 Nov Manchester O2 Apollo
12 Nov London SSE Arena, Wembley
24 Nov Dublin, IE 3Arena