Norwegian pop phenomenon Anna of the North is navigating a new era

“I’m gonna buy a keyboard, a microphone, and become a superstar :)” This was the Facebook status of Anna Lotterud, now better known as Anna of the North, almost 10 years ago. If we ever needed proof that the power of manifestation is real, just look to the North Star, that is the Norwegian artist’s ascent to greatness.

Originally, Anna and I had planned to connect at the studio in London where she is making her new album, but they had already closed up shop for the day. In classic Norwegian fashion, crafting pop music stops at 6 pm. Then it’s time for a drink. And so, we meet at the pub.

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Outside, a local band tunes their guitars and their harmonies to The Beatles’ “Blackbird’ as I spot Anna inside through the window, sitting at the bar drinking a cider. She turns her head and spots me, smiling and waving before I even pass through the door. She wears relaxed blue jeans and a navy jumper, with a very large handbag filled to the brim, spilling over with notebooks and trinkets.

Before long, I have a pint in hand and we find a table outside, where the gentle strumming of the band and the hum of traffic passing by acts as the backdrop for our conversation on a balmy summer’s eve. “Yeah, it's not Scandinavia, is it?” Anna says with a laugh. We complain about the lack of easy access to water for a quick swim before taking a sip of our cold drinks and diving in.

Born and raised in Gövik, Norway, about two hours north of Oslo, Anna grew up in a musically inclined, “supportive and loving” home. Originally believing that music was just going to be a hobby, she went to high school without a clear direction in mind. She hated it. Before long, she negotiated to swap classes with a girl studying media and communication. With a keen eye for design and creative direction, she worked as a graphic designer whilst still continuing with her secret passion on the side: music. During high school, she also worked in a children’s store, where she met a woman who encouraged her to get out of Norway. “She said that I was throwing away my life standing there. Eventually, she would get a bit frustrated with me, like ‘why are you still here?’,” she says with a chuckle. “But I think she sparked something in me.”

Anna decided to move as far away as she possibly could so she couldn’t easily return to Norway. And so she moved to Australia, where everything clicked. “In Norway, I didn't have friends that did music, so I was alone with my passion,” she says. “Then I moved to Melbourne, and there I met a lot of people who were what they wanted to be. People were authors, even though they hadn't written a book; they were musicians, even though they hadn't released music; and they just talked a lot about their dreams and their passions. I remember I started saying what I dreamt of too.” Before long, she was christened ‘Anna of the North’, a gift from her creative Aussie circle.

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After purchasing that aforementioned microphone and keyboard, she started posting songs on SoundCloud, and, before long, she was out-performing Beyoncé on Hype Machine, a blog aggregator and one of the most significant music sites of the 2010s. “My mom was just like, ‘Oh my god, you're bigger than Beyoncé!’ And I'm like, ‘No, no mom’,” she says, laughing. “One day though.” Perhaps she wasn’t at Beyoncé’s level, but soon Anna had features with The Chainsmokers, Tyler, The Creator and Rex Orange County, and a smash hit with her single ‘Lovers’.

‘Lovers’ was one of those late-2010s tracks that became completely genre-defining; the quintessential dream pop record with airy vocals, catchy synths, and melancholic pads. Anna had the kind of success that becomes mythology: a true, overnight sensation. ‘Lovers’ later landed on the soundtrack of Netflix teen romance To All The Boys I Loved Before, setting the tone for the main characters’ first hookup. “That's gonna stream forever,” she says. “It's so cool, and I love this song. There's artists who hate their hits, but I love it. I'm proud of that.”

It wasn’t a total fairytale. Anna’s newfound success came with a price tag: the immense pressure to keep up. “I was so new and fresh. It was too early for me,” she says. “Honestly, I hadn't performed much. There were so many steps I hadn't done. Which is why I had to take a step back.” Soon, she found herself saying no to a coveted South by Southwest gig as a palpable imposter syndrome began kicking in.

Still, she kept working. In 2019, Anna released her album Dream Girl and then another in 2022, Crazy Life. Both were successful, but did not reach the cultural resonance of ‘Lovers’. She decided to take some time off writing to get back in touch with herself. It ended up being a three-year break. “I've been doing this for so long now and I just needed a change,” she says. “I feel like I was just in this loop. My last record didn't go well and I feel like that was just this major label, crazy deal.” The production felt off, and the music videos didn’t feel like her. She needed to hit reset.

Cut to April of this year, and Anna decided it was finally time to release new music. Only this time, and for the first time, in Norwegian. “First, I just cringed so much to like all my words, singing in Norwegian,” she says, noting that at first it sounded “more cliché”. “But then, when I started to manage the words, I just felt like I could go deeper than I've ever gone before in my music.” The result was a six-song EP called Hei på deg (Hello to You), an acoustic, singer-songwriter tell-all on Anna’s life in the limelight. One of the most vulnerable tracks is ‘Hollywood Hills’, which tells the story of how she received a one-way ticket across the Atlantic at the height of her initial fame. “Not everyone can live in Hollywood Hills, some people have to live in Oslo too,” she sings.

“I met Kendall Jenner once and I put that in the song,” Anna says. “I was just surrounded by really famous people and I said hi to them, and there I am. I just did not feel like them.” She notes that her goal has never been “to be the biggest artist in the world”. For her, it’s about doing what she loves. “I'm trying now, after almost 10 years, to find the innocence of that girl who just wanted to express herself,” she says.

Regardless of one’s goals, 10 years in the music industry is no easy feat – especially for a woman. The constant pressure to reinvent oneself whilst simultaneously not ageing a day remains the impossible reality for females in pop. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, about getting older,” Anna says. “I am 36 years old now, and I'm getting old, and I can see it in my face. I’ve found my first grey hair and I don't like it, but I've realised that I have to stop. I think I've tried to not move for a lot of years but now I just embrace it. I'm just gonna own that, because it happens to everybody.” Age, she says, hasn’t necessarily brought wisdom, but rather more confusion and uncertainty. There is, however, one piece of good news. “One thing I love about music though is that it ages really well,” she says. “And whatever you do, it's like a photo.”

‘Lovers’, in particular, continues to age well. Motivated by its revival on TikTok, Anna has returned to writing in English, and her trip to London has been centred on recording her brand new record. “The album is nearly done! We love it best under pressure,” she says, smiling through the stress. “It’s gonna be rooted in love. That’s the thing that I was insecure about before, that I always wrote about love, but romance is back. And I do feel like love is not always about a couple, or a throuple, but also family and friends.”

It feels like a good opportunity to pry a bit into Anna’s own love life. She hesitates before shyly confirming that she’s in a relationship, “Yeah, but I don’t speak about it publicly,” she says. “But um, yeah, eight years.” She quickly switches back to the album, adding, “I hope that people feel that they're not alone in all of these situations that we go through. Heartbreak is very f***ing tough.” This time around, she’s working with one producer, entirely trusting her own instincts.

As we bid our goodbyes, Anna’s label rep orders her some Thai food to dig into outside the pub (a tofu curry, if anyone is curious – she tries to be vegetarian when she can). She gives me a hug and then dives into her curry as I scurry away, leaving her sitting outside listening to ‘Black Bird’ in the dissipating evening sun. “I love being a creative in London,” she had said at the very beginning of our conversation. And as I look back at her before I cross the street, it’s clear she’s achieved what she set out to do. She has become a star – on her own terms. And what’s not to love about that?