Marie Ulven Ringheim (born 16 February 1999) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer, known for her

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and su ...

project Girl in Red (stylized as girl in red). Her early EPs ''Chapter 1'' (2018) and ''Chapter 2'' (2019) were recorded in her bedroom and feature songs about romance and

mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental hea ...

. Released through

AWAL AWAL (an initialism of Artists Without a Label) is a British music distribution company owned by Sony Music Entertainment. The company serves as an alternative to the traditional music label deal, offering deal structures to artists and independ ...

, her debut studio album '' If I Could Make It Go Quiet'' (2021), was a critical and commercial success, and won three Norwegian Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Girl in Red has been cited as a

queer icon A gay icon is a public figure who is regarded as a cultural icon of some members of the LGBT community. The most widely recognized gay icons are often actresses and singers who garnered large LGBT fanbases, such as Judy Garland as a gay icon, Judy ...

by ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...

'', and "one of the most astute and exciting singer-songwriters working in the world of guitar music" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. In January 2021, her singles "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" (2017) and " We Fell in Love in October" (2018) were

certified gold Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

in the US.

Early life

Marie Ulven Ringheim was born in the town of Horten, Norway on 16 February 1999. She grew up with her sisters and her divorced parents, and described Horten as "quiet and kinda boring" in an interview with

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greater emphasis on broad ...

in October 2019. Her mother worked with technology and her father worked as a policeman. Her grandfather could play the guitar and piano; however, she grew up without instruments in the home. While in high school, Ulven was curious about becoming a teacher before she was introduced to the guitar and songwriting at the age of 14. Ulven received her first guitar as a Christmas gift from her grandfather in 2012, but didn't start playing it until 2013 after losing interest in fingerboarding. She credits her grandfather for sparking her interest in music. Ulven had taught herself piano, guitar and music production from the comfort of her bedroom. She began by writing and releasing

Norwegian music Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pil ...

and planned to study music, but never concluded that she was going to become a musician.

Career

2015–2017: SoundCloud and "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend"

After getting a Blue Yeti microphone from her father in 2015, Ulven began writing and releasing Norwegian music to

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...

under the moniker of "Lydia X". She stopped attending guitar lessons after six months once her teacher refused to acknowledge her interest in songwriting and producing. Ulven coined the stagename "Girl in Red" after attempting to identify herself in a crowd to a friend via

text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

. Using the new moniker, she published her debut single "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" on SoundCloud in November 2016, where it got about 5 thousand streams within five months. Following the single's feature on the Norwegian music website ''

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

Urørt'', "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" amassed thousands of streams and gained Ulven a large online following.

2018–2019: ''Chapter 1'' and ''Chapter 2''

Ulven's 2018 singles "Summer Depression" and "Girls" gained millions of views and streams online. In early 2019, she won her first award when she was presented with "Norwegian Newcomer of the Year" at the 2018

GAFFA Awards ''Gaffa'' (stylized as ''GAFFA'') is a free Nordic music magazine with local editions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ''Gaffa'' is Denmark's largest and oldest music magazine. It has been published since 1983 and has 320,000 print readers an ...

. Ulven released "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" on

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

in March 2018. "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" was listed at number 9 on ''

'' list of "The 68 Best Songs of 2018" and won "Untouched of the Year" ("") at the 2018

P3 Gull ''P3 Gull'' (in en, "P3 Gold"), is a music show and an award ceremony organized by the Norwegian radio station NRK P3. P3 Gold was first held on 29 November 2013 at Sentrum Scene in Oslo. It dealt Awards in four categories: "Newcomer of the Year ...

awards. Ulven opened for

Clairo Claire Elizabeth Cottrill (born August 18, 1998), known professionally as Clairo, is an American singer-songwriter. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Carlisle, Massachusetts, she began posting music on the internet at age 13. Clairo rose ...

in Dublin and Paris in September 2018. Ulven released her debut EP, ''Chapter 1'', on 14 September 2018. Ulven released the standalone single "We Fell in Love in October" in November 2018, which would peak at number 14 on the US Rock Charts in October 2019. Ulven embarked on her first North American tour supporting

Conan Gray Conan Lee Gray (born December 5, 1998) is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Lemon Grove, California and raised in Georgetown, Texas, he began uploading vlogs, covers and original songs to YouTube as a teenager. Gray signed a record ...

in March 2019. She released ''Chapter 2'', her second EP, as well as ''Beginnings'', a compilation of her entire single catalogue into one exclusively vinyl album, on 6 September 2019 through the music distributor

. She embarked on her first international headlining "World in Red" tour in October 2019, performing in cities such as Dublin and San Francisco. Ulven was nominated for "Newcomer of the Year" at the 2019 P3 Gull awards.

2020–present: ''If I Could Make It Go Quiet''

In December 2019, Ulven signed a worldwide recording contract with British music distribution company

. In a rare phenomenon for most new label signees, her entire existing discography, which had all originally been

self-released Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author at their own cost, without the involvement of a publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (pr ...

, was subsequently registered under this label on all digital music platforms. Ulven appeared on the front cover of both ''

Gay Times ''Gay Times'' (stylized in all caps), also known as ''Gay Times Magazine'' and as ''GT'', is a UK-based LGBTQ+ media brand established in 1975. Originally a magazine for gay and bisexual men, the company now includes content for the LGBTQ+ comm ...

'' and '' Dork'' in December 2019, as well as the cover of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' in January 2020. She provided the single "Kate's Not Here" for the original soundtrack of the 2020 supernatural horror film '' The Turning''. Ulven was nominated for the "Newcomer of the Year" award and, as a result, the Gramo scholarship at the 2020

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizat ...

, also known elsewhere as the Norwegian Grammy Awards. In May 2020, Ulven was included in the annual ''

Dazed ''Dazed'' (''Dazed & Confused'' until February 2014) is a bi-monthly British style magazine founded in 1991. It covers music, fashion, film, art, and literature. Dazed is published by Dazed Media, an independent media group known for producing ...

'' 100 list after her single "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" passed 150 million streams. In mid 2020, Girl in Red became a popular symbol of queer identification on the online platform

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

, where users would adopt the common phrase, "Do you listen to Girl in Red?" as a way of discreetly asking if someone is a lesbian. In November, she released the standalone holiday single "Two Queens in a King Sized Bed", shortly before she was awarded "Artist of the Year" at the 2020 P3 Gull Awards. Ulven released her debut studio album, titled '' If I Could Make It Go Quiet'', on 30 April 2021. The album has thus far been supported by four singles: "Midnight Love", in April 2020, "Rue" in August 2020, "Serotonin" in March 2021, and "You Stupid Bitch" in April 2021. The cover artwork for the album, made by Norwegian painter and artist Fredrik Wiig Sørensen, was originally an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

on a 80x80 cm canvas titled ''The Antizero.'' In 2022, Ulven signed to Irving Azoff's PRO, Global Music Rights (GMR). On 14 October 2022, she released her latest single, "October Passed Me By", which is a sequel to "We Fell in Love in October". Girl In Red will be an opening act on multiple shows of the US leg of

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

's upcoming

The Eras Tour The Eras Tour (stylized as Taylor Swift The Eras Tour) is the upcoming sixth headlining concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Having not toured for her studio albums '' Lover'' (2019), ''Folklore'' (2020), and '' Evermore'' ...

Artistry and influences

The subject matters of Ulven's music range from romance and heartbreak to mental illness and the experience of being queer. She named

as one of her biggest musical influences.

Personal life

Ulven now resides in the

Grünerløkka Grünerløkka is a borough of the city of Oslo, Norway. Grünerløkka became part of the city of Oslo (then Christiania) in 1858. Grünerløkka was traditionally a working class district; however, since the late 20th century the area has increasi ...

district of

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

. She identifies as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

and queer. She studied music production and songwriting at Westerdals Oslo School of Arts, Communication and Technology. Ulven revealed in 2021 that she has been diagnosed with

obsessive–compulsive disorder Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental and behavioral disorder in which an individual has intrusive thoughts and/or feels the need to perform certain routines repeatedly to the extent where it induces distress or impairs general ...

and

generalized anxiety disorder Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about events or activities. Worry often interferes with daily function ...

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

Videography

Other appearances

Television

Awards and nominations

Tours

Headlining * The World in Red Tour (2019) * Make It Go Quiet Tour (2022) Supporting * Fall Tour (2018) (

) * The Sunset Shows (2018–19) (

) * Happier Than Ever, The World Tour (2022) (

Billie Eilish Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell ( ; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer-songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single " Ocean Eyes", written and produced by her brother Finneas O'Connell, with whom ...

) *

(2023) (

)

Notes

References

External links

* * *
Girl in Red
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

* {{Authority control 1999 births Living people Musicians from Oslo 21st-century Norwegian musicians Norwegian Internet celebrities People from Horten Norwegian LGBT musicians Norwegian LGBT singers Queer musicians Indie pop musicians Indie rock musicians Bedroom pop musicians Musicians from Horten 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people People with obsessive–compulsive disorder