If you haven't yet heard of Astrid S, you are late to the game. The young artist from Berkåk, a small town in Norway, is making her mark on the international music scene and is only expected to expand her reach in the coming year.
As talented as she is charming, Astrid S is a Norwegian indie-pop artist who might be best known for her first single “2AM” - a song that earned her 5x Platinum status in Norway, more than 100 million worldwide streams on Spotify and a sold-out Norwegian club tour. In addition, she won her first MTV EMA award as Best Norwegian Act, got two out of four awards at P3 Gull, and was nominated for Best Song at the Norwegian Grammy Awards.
Previously, she has done several collaborations with Norwegian producer Matoma. Matoma remixed her hit single “2AM”, and they also worked together on her track “Running Out” that was released last year.
Another Norwegian producer, Lido, worked with Astrid on her newest single Paper Thin – a song that is as beautiful acoustic as it is mixed and mastered.
In addition to her original songs, Astrid S has shown an impressive versatility through her participation in Norwegian Idol, her covers of artists ranging from Rihanna to Kim Cesarion and her collaboration with Shawn Mendes.
Her single "Hyde" is amazing, but not only that - the music video is incredibly unique and could be regarded as a work of art in itself.
Astrid also recorded an acoustic version of "Hyde", and the track exemplifies her beautiful vocals and the fragile vulnerability in her voice. That, to me, is how you know that an artist is talented - their vocals pair well with remixed tracks, but do not lose their power when stripped down to the bare essentials.
On April 6, Astrid guested Norwegian radio station NRK P3 as part of Christine Dancke’s “Christine Live” where she performed “Paper Thin” as well as a stunning cover of Highasakite’s “Someone Who’ll Get It”.
This cover was a match made in heaven - there is nothing better than a great artist covering great music, and that's exactly what Astrid accomplished with this rendition of "Someone Who'll Get It." Astrid's strong, yet fragile vocals work so incredibly well with this powerhouse of a song. Although her vocals are completely different from Ingrid Håvik's, both versions are absolute beautiful.
Her highly anticipated debut EP is set to be released on May 20, and I for one am excited to see if she will continue her trend of working with Scandinavian artists or if we'll see an entirely new side of her. No matter what, we'll be seeing more of Astrid S and I have no doubt that she will continue to impress in the years to come.
