“People don’t ever know what to expect from what I put out,” she affirms. “Every song is different. It’s never the same recipe. I don’t want to get stuck in a regular pattern of producing or writing. I love keeping up the suspense,” laughs Dagny.
As a result, she nimbly maneuvered her way to the cutting edge of the zeitgeist. Her steady rise began with the 2016 breakout single “Backbeat,” which leapt past 40 million cumulative streams. Championed by Beats 1 tastemaker Zane Lowe, NME, Idolator, Baeble, and Forbes and dubbed an “Artist to Watch” by Apple, Spotify, Tidal, and VEVO, she maintained a steady output of successful singles such as “Wearing Nothing” and “Used To You.” Amplifying her voice, she also joined forces with SEEB for the hit “Drink About”—streamed over 200 million times by 2019 and recently won an award for most streamed and most played song in Norway. Not to mention Dagny has been nominated this year for Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2019 Spellemannprisen Awards (Norwegian Grammys) - this is the third year in a row Dagny has been nominated.
In fact, the shows would set the stage for her next evolution.
Often “road-testing” new material, audiences became accustomed to 2019’s “Hit Your Heart” months before she even finalized it in the studio. Accompanied by none other than production powerhouse and icon Steve Aoki, she capped off the song with his golden touch punctuated by horns and organic percussion.
Meanwhile, her voice takes flight with a soulful promise, “I’m coming back to you like a bullet.”
“The song is about a very relatable situation,” she admits. “You have a person in your life who needs to just take some time off from everything and realign. This person goes through a transformation and comes back stronger and healthier with more to give. It’s like you’re watching a phoenix rise from the ashes. The individual has this new determination to become a better person. It’s a really powerful story overall. ‘Hit Your Heart’ has been a favorite of the fans, and Steve helped me get it 100% right, so it’s time to share this one.”
Meanwhile, the follow-up single “Paris” continues this tradition of unpredictability. It offers a sweetly subdued take on true love about how, “When you’re in love you don’t need all of those extra things like lavish holidays in Paris—you can eat croissants in bed on a Sunday morning and feel like you would if you were in some expensive holiday!”
In the end, Dagny keeps everyone guessing, and that’s why her music makes such an enduring impact.
“I personally play music in order to get myself going, feel stronger, or escape,” she leaves off. “It makes me feel like I can do anything. I want to share that with people, by doing what comes naturally. It’s spreading this same feeling every time I work on something new.”
