Sigrid Fills The Robyn-Sized Hole In Our Hearts With Her ‘Raw’ Pop

Two years right after bursting onto the pop scene with the searing anthem "Don't Kill My Vibe," Sigrid is still churning out unabashedly trustworthy bangers. The 21-year-old can seemingly sniff out (and then call out) bullshit from a mile away — it's there on the kiss-off anthem "Plot Twist," the irresistibly dancey "Strangers," and, perhaps most conspicuously, on the self-assured title track from her upcoming EP, Raw (sample lyric: "I just wanna be pure / You know I'm terrible at putting up a show... I just wanna be raw.")


"Being raw for me is like showing all of the good and the bad sides of someone," Sigrid — who is the MTV Push artist for the month of June — told MTV News correspondent Meredith Graves. "I think it's so crucial having real relations, whether that be companions or love interests, or working, or whichever it is. It's so key to be straightforward together and with yourself, and some days being truthful is showing sides of that you could might not directly like."


Exploring the ugly underbellies of relationships is Sigrid's specialty, and — like other Scandi-pop stars — the Norwegian singer gives those tough themes fashionable sonic backdrops. In recent years, Scandinavia has become a hotbed for effortlessly cool, boundary-pushing, female-led pop music (see: Robyn, Tove Lo, Icona Pop, etc.), And Sigrid is no exception. Nevertheless she doesn't just rely on monstrous choruses and sugar-rush hooks to get her message across — her songs have real grit to them, which, according to her, doesn't happen accidentally.


"I habitually attempt to catch that nerve once we're recording," she explained. "We often just be using the demo vocals because that's once you could hear that the lyrics are fresh in mind and that you're singing the lyrics more than you're singing technically. And that's what I love."


Now, with a recent Lorde cosign in her corner, Sigrid is prepping for the release of her Raw EP. The latest taste of the five-track project is "High Five," a candid tell-off aimed at a narcissist: "Ooh, they keep saying you're the ideal / You ask and so they mention yeah / Ooh, any time while you add up all that's left / The high five is all you got."


"This song is about how essential real relations are," Sigrid mentioned. "A high five, for me, is a symbol of... Whenever you get high fives, it's superficial. Like, as soon as you only get the positive sides of a relation and not the real, negative sides also. In case you only have that, it's not as good as having those real yet tough relations."


Check out Sigrid's exclusive, high-energy efficiency of "High Five" below.