Hot off the heels of a genre-defining gem in her fifth studio album, What Happened To The Heart?, (arguably) Norway’s biggest music sensation, AURORA, is back on Australian soil to get some answers and sing some songs. 

Sydney’s very own Hannah Brewer got the jailhouse rocking to kick things off. Smooth indie rock sounds with a chewy bubble gum twist resonate throughout. Rumspringa and The Pirate Song are a lush way to butter up a crowd before the second opener, ODD LUKE, takes to the stage. The gears shift as a higher BPM means the crowd are up on their feet, bopping to the groovy Found Life and the hip-hop-influenced bounce of Disconnect. 

But there’s something missing, a certain heavenly voice. The lights dim. It’s silent. Then, a slow orchestral melody hums from the speakers as an ethereal being strides out dressed in a skintight, sparkled silver gown. 

The rhythmic drums of Churchyard reverberate through the courtyard. Bathed in a silky blue backlight as smoke floods the stage, the song finishes with a thundering drum beat against AURORA’s stunning falsetto. “Hehehe - thank you so much. Hello, Perth; hello, Fremantle,” she says.

Being backdropped against a literal history of confinement is not lost on her. “Well, hello, everyone; I want to thank you all so much for going to jail for me and being here. This is the first Australian show of this tour. I’m feeling absolutely fabulous and so grateful that you’re here.” She cuts off as a beetle crawls by, scattering her thoughts after a quick enactment of a beetle flailing on its back and gently ushering the beetle to the side of the stage with her sock.

“This next song, I wrote in a dream a long time ago,” she explains. Infections Of A Different Kind is slow, with a subtle guitar bathed in an orange spotlight as the song delicately rises like a lush morning wave. The River flows on next as four backing vocalists join AURORA, harmonising into a mighty crescendo.

A Viking chant of a pedalling drum immediately follows as she enchants with pure witchcraft on A Soul With No King. Finally, it leads into a xylophone clink that builds into the captivating journey of All Is Soft Inside. All is not soft, however, as the final verse erupts into a full rock war cry.

AURORA is a once-in-a-generation genie when it comes to performance, able to contort her voice to fit any musical lamp of a song she wishes. The subtle notes of Dreams have you pulling in close to take in every word she whispers with a delicate hush. Before waves of brass and drum erupt in the powerful Some Type Of Skin, she roars with a ferocious tenderness, prancing around the stage like a woodland fairy.

The set design, with beautiful imagery of angelic auroras or little auroras coated in dazzling sunlight, really plays into that. Lights beam and flicker to the melodies, creating a thoughtful performance that beams into Freo as it becomes a portal in the prison to a perplexing dimension. 

TikTok’s favourite Norwegian folklore song, Runaway, sees a blue spotlight burn down on the singer before she hands out to the crowd to sing along with strange shapes beamed onto the walls of the prison. “I love you, stranger,” she giggles in response to a rabid fan before being distracted again by the little beetles.

“This is the only love song I have; I’ve never been taken by it,” she whittles, where a soft guitar strum and an orange spotlight lead Exist For Love with its lush melodies as her voice raises and falls so delicately without a fault as if calling for a lover. This is the craft of a genuine talent. “I love you, I love you.” She hushes, fading out with the song, and you believe every word.

The Seed is a cry for better respect for the land. “You cannot eat money,” she declares with such conviction you’d be foolish to disagree. Starvation is an oddity of a song that blends techno with an adrenaline rush and may as well be declared as a panic attack in musical form for the amount of BPMs. A palette cleanser comes in the upbeat and scrumptious melody of Giving In To The Love.

A dazzling, uplifting track blazing in euphoria as a dazzling AURORA beams across the prison, breaking free from her chains. It’s a testament to the way she is capable of holding a tune with impeccable precision whilst also dancing and zooming around the stage like a fully charged gazelle. 

An entranced crowd chants for more, evidently swooned by her spell, and their cries are rewarded with the jazzy dance of Cure For Me as strange humanoid figures contort and jive in a goofy manner. You can’t help but sway to this toe-tapper. 

For the first and final time, the enchantress sits behind a piano. “The farthest away from home, and I can find people I connect to; there’s almost a sisterhood between Norway and Australia”, she gleams before the delicate ballad of Invisible Wounds sees her voice echo softly around the stone walls straight from the heavens themselves. Accompanied only by the keys of the piano, it is the most beautiful lullaby to send you off to bed. 

The final words engraved in the brain for this night are the intricately and beautifully posed poetry from the lips of the ethereal star: “My favourite thing to do is read books and masturbate.” Truly a memorable performance in the strangest of stages.