In the previous summer, Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven, known by her stage name Girl in Red, experienced a whirlwind of feelings when she stepped onto the amphitheatre of Soldier Field, Chicago. Looking into the vast 61,000-seater venue against the expansive, clear-blue sky, she felt a surge of exhilaration, anxiousness, and a sprinkle of ‘Swiftmania’.
Ulven, who was on her 2023 summer stint as the opening act for Taylor Swift, recalls the colossal magnitude of the stadium during soundcheck. As the first show began, the sheer number of attendees overwhelmed her. But witnessing Taylor’s performance, she felt she was in the heart of American pop culture.
Chosen personally by Swift, herself an ardent fan, Ulven performed in Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh as part of the North American section of the Eras Tour. With Swift, she performed a total of eight shows, captivating an audience of over half a million people – an experience Ulven describes as the most amazing thing to have happened to her, from her home in Oslo.
The Eras Tour authenticated Swift’s influential standing in the cultural scene, but it was an equally notable chapter for Ulven. Until a few years ago, she was a reticent teenager, relatively inexperienced in performing abroad, with her first international show in Dublin’s Academy in September 2018. Now, she stands at the threshold of fame, anticipating the launch of her second studio album, I’m Doing It Again Baby!. This will be succeeded by her inaugural tour of arenas, which will also see her return to Ireland.
Ulven turns to the once and future-queen of heartfelt pop for inspiration, admiring her resilience in the face of adversity, her lifelong commitment to music and her ability to routinely put out fresh tracks. “She serves as a fantastic role model for young girls globally and has motivated me since I was a child,” Ulven shares. “Anyone achieving success on that scale while maintaining their reputation usually has a strong character.”
Ulven’s latest album is an exuberant, musical love note to the craft of songwriting, marking the thrilling new phase of her creative journey that took off while she was still attending school in her Norwegian hometown. Initially, she was typecast as a “bedroom pop” artist, an oversimplified stereotype often associated with introverted young women crafting music as an escape from a harsh, indifferent outside world.
However, being labelled based on her adolescent habits well into adulthood is something she’s never felt comfortable with. In fact, she has since moved beyond that stage and has no intentions of going back. Ulven’s musical stylings, as displayed in her latest album, I’m Doing It Again Baby!, include the romantic vibes of synth-pop (A Night to Remember) blending with the hard energy of emo (Doing It Again) influenced, in part, by the joy experienced with her partner of three years.
She claims the album is brimming with energy. “The production is filled to the brim and I’ve given it my all,” she reveals, expressing her drive to build upon the exhilaration she felt with the 2021 release of her debut album, If I Could Make It Go Quiet. “The album encapsulates a plethora of feelings such as love, heartbreak, and not being welcome. It’s essentially bursting with life,” shares Ulven.
Ulven came into the world in 1999 in the southern Norwegian town of Horten. Her father’s career was in law enforcement, while her mother was employed in the tech industry. At the age of 14, she came into possession of a guitar and learnt to play it unassisted. She then started to compose her own songs, which, thanks to her mother’s persuasion, she shared on SoundCloud under the name “LydiaX”. Eventually, she adopted the moniker “Girl in Red”, a name that derived from a message she had previously sent to a friend in an attempt to describe herself amidst a throng.
The switch in alias proved fruitful. In just a few months after adopting the name Girl in Red, her songs attracted thousands of listens monthly. The early stages of her career were characterised by soft, intimate songs that resonated deeply with listeners, setting her apart as a unique talent. Her style mirrored several other Gen Z musicians, including Clairo and Beatrice Laus (known as Beabadoobee), who also crafted their tracks from the comfort of their homes using primarily their laptops – thus giving birth to the bedroom pop genre.
“The style of music I was creating was necessarily determined by the scenario I found myself in. It was all I could manage,” Ulven recounts. “Given the chance to dedicate myself to music for the past half dozen years and compose further songs and develop my craft, it’s logical that others don’t view me in that light anymore. Many artists, including Clairo and Beabadoobee, who also started with low-budget productions, have all achieved great success. For instance, Clairo began with some beat-driven music but now boasts two albums, while Beabadoobee, who started with fewer popular songs, is now performing as the opening act for Taylor Swift and is extremely admired.”
Her sexual orientation has always been transparent in her musical career, which immediately attracted an appreciable fanbase. Her candidness particularly shone through the earnest lyrics of her early track I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend (“I don’t wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips/ I wanna kiss you until I lose my breath”). Her stage name, Girl in Red, evolved to become Internet jargon – a coded phrase to inquire if someone was interested in individuals of the same gender.
While the internet has facilitated Girl in Red in discovering her voice and identity, it has also served as a challenging space for her at times. She has mixed feelings for social media due to its positive and negative aspects. It provided her with prospects but she’s all too conscious of its damaging influences. She observes that attempts had been made to discredit her over issues rooted in fiction, enforcing her understanding that such actions are meaningless and hold no significance.
The most impactful tool for her as a songwriter has always been her emotional transparency. In 2021, she introduced her most successful work to date, a spirited synth-pop track named Serotonin. It was produced by Finneas O’Connell, well-known for collaboration with his sister, Billie Eilish. Although a well-received track, it openly discusses her fight with distressing thoughts, covering contemplations of self-destruction and ending her life. Despite initial apprehensions about releasing such explicit lyrics, she now takes pride in doing so and acknowledges the unique position it holds for many of her admirers.
The lyrics, while graphic, were well-received. The song discusses suicidal thoughts and she acknowledges there are people who have warmly welcomed it. She continues, noting that the song was unique compared to her previous work. Seeing how fans relate to it in live performances and understanding the song’s journey has been rewarding for her.
She carries on with her characteristic candidness in her album “I’m Doing It Again Baby!”. The album, while revealing, also showcases her lighter, playful side. It includes a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, a past Disney Channel celebrity whose experiences are considerably distinct from Ulven’s.
Ulven states that she’s embracing some less ‘cool’ facets of herself, professing, “I’m leaning into my cringiness…I’m having fun with things – not being hung up on what’s cool…” Her focus is on pursuing what she perceives as enjoyable and worthy, in the hopes it will resonate with her audience.
Columbia Records has launched I’m Doing It Again Baby!