With three previous tours of Australia, Norwegian artist and musician AURORA graces our shores yet again, having last toured the country in 2023.
Her work on the Disney hit 'Frozen 2' is where she first came to my attention, singing the incredible part of The Voice on 'Into The Unknown'. Each of her five studio albums contains beautiful music, admittedly some of my favourites come from the first, 'All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend'.She is someone who seems to have everything: a beautiful voice, superb storytelling capability in her lyrics, beautiful dancing, and travelling the world touring with her sisters (who run her makeup and costumes). AURORA cites a range of artists as influences, including Kate Bush and Bjork, who both come across in parts of her music, and I feel in her singing Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries sometimes comes through.
AURORA has often presented a child-like appearance, although this is less the case in recent times, and she describes her look as more viking-like. The viking theme comes across in much of her music and its poetic lyrics, and she has collaborated with another viking-influenced Norwegian act, Wardruna, who we were very fortunate to have in this same venue last month.
Given two sell-out Brisbane crowds, I'm a little surprised her impact on the Australian Top 100 has been through covers ('Across The Universe' by The Beatles, and the lovely 'Teardrop' by Massive Attack).
AURORA - image © Bill Prendergast
However, there is a huge amount of very high quality music from which to choose, and I'm struck by the number of children at this all-ages event. From what I can gather speaking to parents, it's a love of her music in general, rather than a specific Disney angle, so AURORA can assume she will remain popular in Australia for years to come.
2024's album 'What Happened To The Heart?' provides a likely source of some excellent new music for tonight's set at The Fortitude Music Hall (14 February). For the show itself, AURORA hit the stage at 9pm for an almost two-hour set, where she kept the energy at a high level throughout.
The set opened as usual, with 'Churchyard'. The lyrics are quite dark, and yet as with much of her music she delivers it in a very positive and engaging manner. The venue was bathed in blue light, AURORA taking centre stage, with a huge eyeball peering through a keyhole projected onto the screen, the vocalists, guitarist and dummer all off to the side.
'Soulless Creatures' followed, and we then experienced the extraordinary rapport the singer has with her fans. I have honestly not seen anyone who communicates, jokes and reacts with the crowd in such a free-flowing and engaging manner. She chatted about playing tennis and burning the soles of her feet, which caused issues with her dancing, before leading into a beautiful duo on 'Dreams', which was played with only AURORA and her guitarist Frederick onstage.
AURORA - image © Bill Prendergast
'The River' is another of her better-known songs, and led into the much more upbeat 'A Soul With No King', replete with brighter lighting, with a large (and beautiful, yet subtle) backdrop of the sun, in front of which AURORA played keyboard for the first time during the evening.
'Queendom' was a dramatic lift in energy, and I thought was one of the most wildly-appreciated pieces of the evening, followed by the massive hit 'Runaway', with its billion-plus streams on Spotify attesting to its deserved popularity.
After 'Runaway', she was again chatting freely to the crowd, laughing about Valentine's Day, telling the crowd that everyone in this country is so gorgeous. She also discussed the importance of her interactions with Australia's (and New Zealand's) indigenous people, thanking them for their beautiful wisdom regarding the land, which she noted is incredibly powerful – her love of the earth and simplicity in living is a theme that pervades her art (and her life), and the crowd was fully appreciative of her thoughts.
As mentioned previously, there is a dark undertone to some of her work and lyrics, and she noted that as it was Valentine's Day she would do two of her few love songs. The first she dedicated to the heartbroken, the latter for people in love.
'A Potion For Love' is a beautiful ballad, performed with acoustic guitar and backing vocals only, and her voice reached some truly exquisite places during the emotional piece. The second love song, 'Exist For Love', is another stunning ballad, the crowd had their lights out, swaying gently to the music.
A shift in gears took the show to a more techno dance piece, with heavy backing bass and a stunning ghostly dance projected onto the screen behind her. The piece was 'Heathens', and winds up with a display of AURORA's anguished face on the screen behind her.
AURORA - image © Bill Prendergast
After one more piece, it was time for another of her best-known pieces, 'The Seed', with its well-known repeated lyric, 'you cannot eat money, oh-no'. After one more song, and telling the crowd it was sad this was her last song in Australia, she picked up every one of the dozens of flowers showered upon the stage.
A three-song encore followed, and AURORA seemed genuinely sad to be winding up the tour. The crowd, mainly 30-somethings by my guess but with a decent number of teens and under-10s, clearly loved the show, and AURORA herself seems to have a strong affinity with Australia. Ethereal is a word often used to describe her music, and I feel it is perfect.
AURORA was very well supported on the tour by two acts. Hannah Brewer from Sydney opened the evening with a solo set, kicking off playing a small keyboard, the balance of the set on acoustic guitar.
She talked of being "super psyched to be here," and it seems the Brisbane crowd in particular have taken a strong fancy to Brewer, judging by the huge crowd support for her music. Her best-known song, 'Rumspringa' wound up her set, following her new single to be released in the coming weeks.
Hannah Brewer - image © Bill Prendergast
Next up was ODD LUKE (Andy Black) who hails from Glasgow, Scotland. He's built quite a reputation in the UK, touring with Lewis Capaldi and playing Glastonbury. Andy's music, delivered by a three-piece (ODD LUKE, drummer Toni and bassist Daz), was somewhat melancholy, infused with some danceable '80s-style music.
The bass and drums in particular added to the '80s feel, along with the overall appearance of the trio. Between songs, ODD LUKE shared his love of Australia with the crowd, despite getting fried in the sun, before winding up the set on his more upbeat piece, 'Disconnect'.
ODD LUKE - image © Bill Prendergast
More photos from the concert.
