AURORA

Early life

Aurora Aksnes was born on 15 June 1996 at Stavanger University Hospital in Stavanger, Norway, the youngest of three daughters to midwife May Britt Froastad and garage door salesman Jan Øystein Aksnes. Her eldest sister, Miranda, is a makeup artist and former teacher, while her other sister, Viktoria, is a fashion designer, stylist, and blogger. Aurora spent her early years in Høle, a small town where her parents had lived for 15 years, fostering her love for nature and traditional clothing, such as hats and long skirts, before the family relocated to Drange, a remote village in the woodlands of the Os mountains in Hordaland, near Bergen and Lysefjord. She described her childhood home in Drange as a quiet, car-free area with abundant trees...

2012–2013: Career beginnings

Initially, Aurora kept her music private, as her parents did not encourage it as a career or hobby. She also explored other ambitions, including becoming a doctor, physicist, or dancer, and trained in dance from ages 6 to 16, performing in a contemporary dance group at the Norwegian Youth Festival of Art to songs like Paramore's "Decode" and Michael Jackson's "Ghosts". Her dislike of her own voice initially deterred her from considering a singing career.

Influences

At home, she did not have access to radio or music channels on television; she admitted that she had listened to very few artists at the beginning of her singing career. She has mentioned Ane Brun, Björk, Bob Dylan, Enya, Johnny Cash, Kate Bush, Leonard Cohen, Oasis, Susanne Sundfør, The Beatles, and Underworld as her major influences. She said that the first album she bought was Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. She also talked about heavy metal as a major inspiration for her from a young age, citing French band Gojira as her "favorite band", and she has attended two of their concerts. She first listened to one of their songs when she was around 11 years old and described it as "so hard and so intense and dark, and it felt like an explosion."...

Musical style and themes

Aurora's musical style encompasses a diverse range of genres, including art pop, Nordic folk, synth-pop, electropop, electro-folk, dark pop, avant-garde pop, alt-pop, folk-pop, and new-age. Critics have described her music in various terms: Haley Weiss of Interview characterizes her as a "poetic author of art-pop" and an "unaffectedly curious artist," while John Murphy of MusicOMH notes her songs blend "sizzling synth-pop" with Nordic folk influences. Michael Cragg of The Guardian identifies her sound as "dark electro-pop," and Cyclone Wehner from Music Feeds highlights her "darkly romantic electro-folk" and distinctive eccentricity, which have attracted a cult fanbase. Mathias Rosenzweig, writing for Paper, likens her to "Scandinavia's...

Runaway

"Runaway" is a song by Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora, included in her debut extended play (EP) Running with the Wolves (2015) and debut album All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend (2016). It was released on 7 February 2015 by Decca and Glassnote Records as the lead single of both projects.

The song was written by Aurora with Magnus Skylstad and produced by the latter with Odd Martin Skålnes. Musically, "Runaway" is a downtempo folktronica, synth-pop, electronic, and electropop song with influences from Nordic-folk music.

Background and development

Aurora began playing piano at age six, and she wrote most of the songs of her debut album, including "Runaway", at a young age. According to her, she wrote the song when she was 11 or 12 years old and created the melody on a piano she had at her home, which took approximately an hour. "Runaway" was originally composed for a school assignment when Aurora was in ninth grade. However, she preferred to keep her music private at the time she wrote the song.

Composition and lyrical interpretation

"Runaway" is a downtempo folktronica, synth-pop, electronic, and electropop song with influences from Nordic-folk music. A "tenderly catchy" tune, its sparse production contains "echoing water droplet effects, creeping screeches, and windswept transitions." Sheet music for "Runaway" sets the key of A minor with a moderately slow tempo of 58 beats per minute. Aurora's vocals span a range between the notes of A3 and E5. Her vocals were compared to those of Emilie Nicolas, Florence Welch, and Joni Mitchell. Aurora said she wanted to place "Runaway" as the opening track of All My Demons Greeting Me As a Friend because she felt the song "puts people in the right mood and mind for the rest of it."

Release and reception

"Runaway" was first originally released through Aurora's SoundCloud on 9 February 2015. On 16 February 2015, the song was released for digital download and streaming as the lead single on Aurora's debut EP Running with the Wolves. Additionally, promotional CDs were issued in the United Kingdom. The single was later re-released for her debut album All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend (2016). Aurora also released two acoustic versions of the song: a guitar acoustic version on 5 March and a piano acoustic version on 11 March. An edited version titled "Runaway (Lvl. 2)" was released on 7 May 2021. Glassnote Records issued a 12-inch vinyl single on 11 November 2022, which contained the original version of the song and the "Lvl. 2" edit.

Background and release

A music video for "Runaway" was directed by Kenny McCracken, who would later be the director for three other singles of All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend ("Conqueror", "Half the World Away", and "Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)"). The video was filmed in early 2015 in various landscapes of Bergen near Aurora's hometown and took three days to film it. About filming the video, Aurora told in an interview with NME: "It was extremely cold... I didn't have a lot of clothes. We were stood in the middle of the snow for a lot of hours. I was sick for a lot of time after, which I always am after a video because I insist to have them outside in the cold." The clip was released on 26 February 2015. When asked by Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet about...

The Flood

"The Flood" is a song by Norwegian singer-songwriter Aurora from the deluxe edition of her fifth studio album, What Happened to the Heart? (2024). It was released on 4 April 2025, through Decca and Glassnote Records.

Background

On 4 April 2025, Aurora released the song as the fifth single and the deluxe edition single from her album. Alongside the release, Aurora announced six additional arena shows as part of the UK and Europe leg of her world tour, including her largest sold-out show to date at London’s OVO Arena Wembley on May 3.

Composition

Aurora explained that the song explores the concept of an "invisible enemy"—the internal sources of anger, anxiety, and sadness that lead one to withdraw rather than confront the world. According to Aurora, it reflects the human tendency to seek something or someone to blame, despite knowing that the resolution ultimately lies within oneself. The lyrics reflect a state of internal and external overwhelm, as heard in lines such as "I’ve been under pressure all my life and I feel like I’m losing all my fights."