A bona fide national treasure in her home country and ever-broadening global fan base – Astrid S has near to 1 billion streams on Spotify alone.

In her five years in the studio so far, Astrid S has learned that it is sometimes the best songs that come fastest. ‘I knew it was something special,’ says Astrid S of her forthcoming pop smash, “Emotion”, ‘because I took a sneaky demo of it back to my hotel that night and couldn’t stop playing it.’ “Emotion” is an ebullient smash hit in the wings, a rush of pop blood to the head.

The journey for Astrid S toward superstardom is one of escape and destiny. She was born in the tiny Norwegian hamlet of Berkåk. ‘In the heart of Norway,’ she says, ‘quite literally.’ Music was her first love, soccer her second. She dropped out of a football school to enter Norwegian Idol at 16 and promptly earned her first indigenous top 10 hit, “Shattered”.

She signed to Sony ATV Music Publishing as a songwriter that year. Since, Astrid has been honing her brilliant ear for a pop chorus and identifiable, genre-bending lyric. ‘I had this idea that I wanted to make something modern and hopefully stand the test of time,’ she says. ‘It’s so great to have got there.’ With “Emotion”, she intends to break a few more rules. ‘Boys can sing from any perspective, you notice that a lot. I want to be able to, too.’

Astrid S recalls exactly what pop music made her feel like as a young girl in a small town. ‘The moment I put a Discman on I was in another world. It was magical.’ Now she is ready to translate that early metamorphosis for her own fans. ‘To give them a world to get lost in as well.’ She is ready to colonize pop music with her own indefatigable energy. ‘Now I feel ready to fly.’