58 | SATURDAY | 30.04.22 | The Guardian
CULTURE
Raising
the^
roof
I
n 2020, Sigrid had a crisis of
confi dence. Forced back to
her parent s’ house in Norway
by the pandemic, she found
her old teenage insecurities
creeping in. As a kid, she
had never considered herself cool,
often choosing to play piano at home
rather than socialise with friends.
Then her life changed: she became
a successful pop star, one with hit
singles, 1.3bn streams and counting
and fans all over the world. “With
the success, I had that feeling that
maybe I was cool,” she says. “Then ...
boom! Isolation. Back home with
my parents, in my childhood
bedroom, remembering cringe
moments of being 14.
“I got a bit scared of how quickly
I adapted to this completely alternativelife, where I was waking up in the
morning, having breakfast with my
parents, going for a hike and skiing,”
she admits. “Like, the whole day
was about getting to the peak of
a mountain, skiing down and then
coming home to talk about how the
snow was while having dinner. There
were no emails. There was no stress.
I had this serene, alternative life,
but there was this really scary thing
going on at the same time. I think
that’s how many people felt.”
Speaking from her apartment in
Oslo, bright-eyed and eager to chat ,
she doesn’t seem like someone fi lled
with self-doubt. Since she released
her debut single, aged 20 – 2017’s
triumphant rejection of music industry
sexism Don’t Kill My Vibe – Sigrid
found herself on an unstoppable roll:Word s: Alim Kheraj
Portrait: James Perrols
MUSICMUSIC
For singer Sigrid, spending lockdown
at her parents’ home in Norway
sparked an identity crisis – and
a thrilling new disco direction