AURORA speaks out against injustice and calls for equality at emotional Royal Albert Hall show
AURORA performed a sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall last night (Wednesday October 2), using her career-spanning set to speak out against injustice and call for equality. Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.
Touring in support of her acclaimed fifth album ‘What Happened To The Heart?‘, AURORA called into London for an “overwhelming” gig yet ahead of her biggest UK headline show to date – when she will return to play Wembley Arena next May.
“Hello, are you awake?” began the Norwegian alt-pop phenomenon after an explosive opening of ‘Churchyard’, to roars from the capacity crowd. “I didn’t know that there were gonna be people all the way up there,” she continued, pointing to the higher balconies. “It looks so strange. It’s nice to be scared sometimes. It reminds me of being in love.”
The singer-songwriter would often return to the theme of love throughout the evening, as well as paying tribute to how special a show this marked due to the history of the building and having her family in the audience. “I really like that it’s round because it’s like we’re in a soup,” she said of the venue. “If this is soup then I am a cannibal.”
Introducing “a song we haven’t played in a long time,” in the form of the fan favourite ‘’Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)’ from her debut album ‘All My Demons Greeting Me As A Friend’, AURORA described the “tragic song” as feeling like “an opera in this room”.
Another highlight came for fellow debut album track ‘Runaway’ – which became a viral hit on TikTok a few years ago – a song which AURORA said was about when we “let our minds get the better of us” and “being human is too much”. “It’s a human sport, just living,” she said. “We are all athletes. I am so glad you are still here.”
She went on to dedicate the song to the children of the world who are suffering and in need of safety, namely those in the Congo, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. “I can’t imagine how it is to long for home and safety as a child,” she added, “but I accidentally wrote a song about it.”
‘Echo of My Shadow’, ‘The River’ and ‘The Seed’ all came with accompaniment from resident Royal Albert Hall musician Anna Lapwood on the venue’s iconic organ, before the first set was brought to an emotional climax on ‘Queendom’ and ‘Giving Into The Love’, before the rainbow flags continued to fly and AURORA got the vast majority of the seated crowd up and dancing for ‘Cure For Me’.
“It’s strange that it’s so hard to be different in this world because everyone is different,” she said, leading into another dance-heavy rendition with ‘Some Type Of Skin’, before a more tender closer.
“It’s a song for our core,” she said of the gentle finale of ‘A Little Place Called The Moon’. “It’s a song that may cut you in two, but it’s good because wounds are a part of being human. They need to be seen, even though they suck dick.”
AURORA’s Royal Albert Hall setlist was:
‘Churchyard’
‘Soulless Creatures’
‘A Soul with No King’
‘Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)’ (Acoustic)
‘Heathens’
‘When the Dark Dresses Lightly’
‘Exist for Love’
‘Dreams’
‘Echo of My Shadow’ (with Anna Lapwood, arrangement with live organ)
‘The River’ (with Anna Lapwood, a capella arrangement with live organ)
‘Runaway’
‘The Seed’ (with Anna Lapwood, arrangement with live organ)
‘Starvation’
‘Queendom’
‘Giving In to the Love’
‘Cure for Me’
‘Some Type of Skin’
‘Invisible Wounds’
‘A Little Place Called the Moon’
In a four-star review of ‘What Happened To The Heart?’, NME hailed the album as an “epic career-high, throwing up shapes along with reasons to live and to love”.
“The world has grown so accustomed to being apathetic,” Norwegian alt-pop sensation AURORA told NME about the thought-process behind her fifth album. “Something needs to break apart,” she continued. “The least we can do is just keep being in touch with each other and ourselves.”
She also made headlines when she guested on ‘Limousine’ from Bring Me The Horizon’s latest album ‘Post Human: Nex Gen’. Speaking to NME about why he recruited her for the track, frontman Oli Sykes replied: “AURORA for me is what a pop star should be, what the next wave of pop stars should look like; someone that has the songs, but is a real person who dares to speak what they believe in, who gives a shit about the world.”
Having teamed up with Jacob Collier to perform ‘A Rock Somewhere’ and ‘The Seed’ on an iceberg to call for ocean and climate protection this week, AURORA will also release her ‘What Happened To The Heart’ companion book on October 17. Completing her UK tour in Manchester and Edinburgh this week, will return to headline London’s Wembley Arena on May 3, 2025. Visit here for tickets and more information.
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Andrew Trendell
NME
