All Rise for the Return of Norway’s Most Exciting Pop Star, Sigrid

“Mirror” is a true Song of the Summer contender. Photo: Universal Music Group

Maybe you haven’t heard of Sigrid, a 24-year-old Norwegian singer-songwriter who’s as musically popular in Europe as Rita Ora is tabloid famous. She’s had some success Stateside since making a killer first impression four years ago with “Don’t Kill My Vibe,” a simmering pop treat deserving of all the outdoor-festival stages and group karaoke sing-alongs (remember karaoke?) about to return. In 2017, she landed a prime Justice League sync with a somber opening credits cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows,” which introduced her to legions of superhero fans with no allegiance to the then-ousted original director, Zack Snyder. Two years later, she gave us a knockout debut album, Sucker Punch, establishing herself as one of pop music’s most exhilarating and singular voices to emerge in recent memory, blending her Scandinavian roots with sounds she picked up from other influences like SOPHIE (“Business Dinners”) and Adele (“In Vain”).

Lately, though, all had been quiet on the Sigrid front, give or take a few TikToks — until today, as we’ve been presented the fruit of the singer’s past several years of work in the form of the in-your-face disco bliss-bomb “Mirror.” Equal parts ABBA, Max Martin, Stuart Price, and Billie Eilish — and arriving just months after the Dua and Kylie–led Disco Renaissance of 2020 — “Mirror” marks another milestone in Sigrid’s continued crystal-clear vision. It’s a self-empowerment anthem swaddled in swelling pianos and synths, not so much a reinvention as a reignition for the young performer, who was on the front lines of the genre’s reascension before the Main Pop Girls climbed onboard a year later.

On its surface, “Mirror” seems a standard pop construction: vocals, piano, a steady drum, recurring strings, and a synthesizer. But Sigrid’s consistency in couching complexity in a simple-sounding exterior is what sets her apart from her peers (such as Dua Lipa, with whom she shares close collaborators like Emily Warren and Sly); “Mirror” is a disco ball of a song that refracts and reflects further than the eye can see. There’s the vocal distortion she deploys casually and confidently, warping her singing so seamlessly that you won’t notice unless you’re listening for it; and there’s the bridge, an homage to disco legends of yesteryear (with shades of Giorgio Moroder and Chic), it drops everything but its kick drum and piano, hoisting her technically pitch-perfect singing to the forefront. Then there’s the fact that “Mirror” clocks in under the three-minute mark — not because it couldn’t sustain itself for longer, like so many TikTok hits of late, but because Sigrid is the consummate host, never overstaying her welcome, aways keeping her audience craving extra dessert.