Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
18-year-old Norwegian artist Astrid Smeplass could be the next Tove Styrke. Like Tove, Astrid is a talented blonde singer with a pretty yet strong voice, who did well in the local version of Idol as the season’s quirky pop girl. After the show, she got a major label deal and recently released the lead single from her debut album. 2am, which she co-wrote in Stockholm, is not the predictable pop song by an Idol artist, but instead fits with the cool, unique electro-pop that Norway is doing so well at the moment. However, she’s keeping her options open in case she wants to go more mainstream, as she is, slightly randomly, featured on a track called Air on the forthcoming Shawn Mendes album, Handwritten. In a recent interview, she spoke about international opportunities and said she wants to be as big as Britney, but sees herself as a different kind of artist. She was one of the buzz artists at Oslo’s recent by:Larm festival, reportedly attracting interest from the US and UK, and 2am has already been released to iTunes US. She is still finding her place in pop, so I don’t think her big breakthrough moment is here quite yet, but 2am and her Idol performances show such great potential that I had to feature her.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ydh5YcQ7g]