The first stop is Guangzhou. The second stop is Shanghai and more stops (Beijing and Chengdu) to be expected… Are you ready? Let’s escape into the embrace of dreams with Xia Xi and immerse ourselves in music! It is not uncommon for artists to draw inspiration from the earth and nature. But some artists don’t need to deliberately seek inspiration because they are born of nature. AURORA AKSNES is one of them. Her music is as charming as the aurora that shares her name.
Ancient trees whisper in the cold north wind. The frosted ground is covered with moss and dead branches. Through the misty light, faint green spots occasionally flash. AURORA creates and dances in the quiet and desolate forests of Norway. Her ethereal singing blends with the pulse of nature. In the past, AURORA attracted attention with her cute and spiritual jellyfish hairstyle. Now she has shoulder-length short hair. The bangs are like a leaf covering her forehead above her eyebrows. Her dress is colorful and her style is quirky. She will stare at you with her big blue eyes as if peering into your soul. Her personality is also fascinating: warm, witty, enthusiastic, gentle, mysterious and full of power. AURORA grew up in the small town of Ås in Norway. It is about 30 kilometers south of the capital Oslo and not far from the sea. Surrounded by vast farmland and forests. Wild animals such as tits, hedgehogs and ladybugs often inhabit her family’s garden. She spends most of her time alone outdoors. In her words, she is a ‘person in the forest’. The forest cultivates her hobbies of nature, singing and clothing, as well as her perception of everything. She plays in the forest like an elf. When her mother wants her to come home for a meal, she even uses a very primitive way – ringing a bell to ‘summon’ her. In addition to playing outdoors, AURORA in her childhood was also immersed in all kinds of music: from classical composers such as Mozart and Edvard Grieg to pop idols such as Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. AURORA likes ‘extreme’ sounds very much. She will collect sounds that few people will notice in nature, such as soil and water. It can even be described as ‘quiet’. At the same time, she also likes heavy metal music very much. For her, the sound of heavy metal (power, loudness, intensity) is roughly the same as the synthesizer sound effect used in Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow’ mixed with folk music. Both feel like ‘a wall full of power, a natural force’. At the age of six, AURORA began to create melodies on the old piano in her attic.At the age of nine, she began writing lyrics in her second language, English. She believes that English, like music, is a universal language. Often, she writes songs with a maturity and sensitivity beyond her years, focusing on themes of the supernatural and life, society and the environment, life and death, philosophical thoughts, and emotions that flow from within. AURORA’s quirky personality and her exceptional talent in artistic creation were not always well-received. Her two sisters once worried that their younger sister would not be accepted by her peers. Despite having some friends and good academic performance, school was not the happiest time for her. She always felt out of place. At the age of seven or eight, AURORA tried to design her own clothes. She stacked many pieces of fabric together to create patterns; she also cut open socks and stretched her arms through the sock holes. When describing the reactions of her peers at the time, she refrains from using the word ‘bullying’. She believes that the whispers, laughter, and gazes she encountered then have shaped who she is today. In 2014, at the age of 18, AURORA’s song ‘Puppet’, created for her parents, and an original song advocating for world peace, which she performed with a guitar at a school assembly, were posted online and caught the attention of the record label Decca, leading to her signing with them. In 2015, AURORA released her debut EP ‘Running with the Wolves’, marking her official entry into the global music scene. The lead single ‘Runaway’ became a hit upon release, with over 870 million streams on Spotify (attracting more than 12 million listeners per month) and over 640 million views on YouTube. Katy Perry tweeted that she hadn’t felt such a heart-stopping song in a long time and called for attention to this seventeen-year-old girl. Even Billie Eilish, who was not yet in the music industry at the time, was inspired by AURORA to firmly choose the path of music: ‘When I saw AURORA, something deep inside me was ignited, that’s what I wanted to do!’ AURORA quickly rose to perform on some of the most prestigious stages in the world. Her music has been featured in the soundtracks of many video games, TV shows, and movies – you can hear her duet with Idina Menzel on ‘Into the Unknown’, one of the most well-known songs from ‘Frozen II’. Her song ‘Runaway’ also appeared in the second season of the acclaimed sci-fi series ‘Westworld’.
In November 2022, AURORA, as the award-winning singer in collaboration with the mobile game ‘Sky: Children of the Light’, launched the ‘Sky·Aurora Season’ together, and in December, the ‘Aurora Season: Concert’ was initiated on the game platform. She sings and interacts in the game room, consistently conveying beauty and love. This event has earned ‘Sky: Children of the Light’ the Guinness World Record for ‘Most Users in a Virtual Concert Themed World in a Game’. During live performances, AURORA takes you into the artistic universe she has created with her music: a blend of Nordic dark folk and electronic pop. She employs the traditional Nordic singing technique of kulning, as well as dancing that is as spiritual and naturally beautiful as her music. As her skirt twirls and flies freely, you will feel the maximum vitality and primal freedom conveyed by AURORA. Through her music, she has also established a warm global community, which she calls ‘Warriors and Weirdos’. Some people join because they love her music, while others join because they identify with the values she conveys, such as diversity, environmental protection, and freedom. However, this community is still evolving. She enjoys redefining her personality and music. For her, doing so sounds closest to freedom. Opening time is on 02/28, Friday, with the show starting at 20:15. The exact duration of the performance is subject to the live event.
