girl in red

Norwegian artist girl in red started sharing her home-recorded songs as a teenager in 2017. Noted for her candid lyrics about the frustrations of everyday life and relationships, she emerged with catchy, guitar-based indie pop on early tracks including her viral debut, "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend." She released her first full-length and studio effort, if i could make it go quiet, in 2021.

Hailing from Horten, Norway, just south of Oslo, Marie Ulven began writing songs as a 16-year-old in 2015. She shared her first song as girl in red, "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend," in September 2017. The following February, the track was featured on NRK Urørt, a website dedicated to emerging Norwegian artists, leading to a surge in streams and social media followers. In the meantime, girl in red had uploaded more tracks at the rate of about a song a month. February 2018's "Summer Depression" and June's "Girls" joined her debut single in earning millions of streams before the end of the year. Mid-year, "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" was also included on Pride: A Compilation of LGBTQ Artists for GLSEN alongside artists such as MUNA, Cyn, and Pentatonix spin-off Superfruit. Around that time, Ulven relocated to Oslo for school while continuing to work on her music. "Eleanor and Park," a collaboration with fellow bedroom recordist beabadoobee (formerly Bea), followed in October 2018. Also that year, she released the Chapter 1 EP and landed at number 14 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart with her non-album single "We Fell in Love." A second EP, Chapter 2, arrived in 2019. She was nominated for Newcomer of the Year at Norway's Spellemann Awards in 2020.

In 2021, Ulven released her first album, if i could make it go quiet. It debuted in the Top Ten in Norway, the U.K., and Australia, and reached the top half of the U.S. Billboard 200. Co-produced by Matias Tellez, it included the single "Serotonin," a Top 20 Billboard alternative song that featured additional production by Finneas. ~ Marcy Donelson