Do we like Aurora Aksnes?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of backing queer fans, children hit by war and the planet, with one clumsy 2019 tour-booking row the only real blemish.
Aurora Aksnes is the Norwegian art-pop singer who went from posting a song on YouTube at 16 to signing deals across Norway, the US and the UK in 2014. Her 2016 debut topped the Norwegian charts, and she later sang on Frozen II's Into the Unknown. She was born in 1996.
She grew up in a small Norwegian village, with a sailor dad, mountain hikes, kayak trips and a head full of troll stories. That shows in the music, and in how she talks about nature. In a 2018 interview she said humanity has killed so much beauty, with her fans (her “warriors and weirdos”) urged to fight for what they care about.
The one real stoush on record is from 2019, when two Tel Aviv shows were left off her tour page. Her manager said that was deliberate, to limit enquiries. Norwegian and Palestinian artists criticised it. She said she liked to blend politics and music, and the manager later took responsibility and called it the wrong way to handle things. Where you land depends on whether you read it as dodging or as just wanting to play to fans.
On the harm test, there is nothing against her. Gay Times has reported she was inspired by gay, trans and drag communities for an album, though the full interview was behind a paywall. At Glastonbury 2024 she dedicated songs to people dealing with isolation and oppression because of their sexuality. I found no work with anyone who pushes harm, and she was not in any court cases or allegations I could find.
At that same Glastonbury set she played The Seed as a tribute to children in Gaza, holding a War Child sign. She also said she could not believe the shitty people who hurt our future. Some will cheer the politics and some won't, but it was aimed at world leaders and the cost to children, and she backed it with actual fundraising.
That fundraising is the good stuff. She is a War Child ambassador, and in December 2025 she headlined a charity show at London's Union Chapel for children hit by war. She has also won Norway's Spellemannprisen several times, and an Edvard Prize in 2025 for her last solo album.