Marie Ulven Ringheim (born 16 February 1999) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and record producer, known for her indie pop project Girl in Red (stylised in all lowercase). Her first EPsChapter 1 (2018) and Chapter 2 (2019) were recorded in her bedroom and feature songs about romance and mental health. Released majorly through AWAL, 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. She then signed to Columbia Records and released her second major-label album, I'm Doing It Again Baby!, to moderate success in 2024.
Girl in Red has been cited as a queer icon by Paper,[2] and "one of the most astute and exciting singer-songwriters working in the world of guitar music" by The New York Times.[3] She has sold over five million certified digital units in the United States according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[4] She was awarded the Telenor Culture Prize in 2022 for her "artistic distinctiveness and explicit messages of boundless love".[5]
Early life
Marie Ulven Ringheim[6][7] was born in the town of Horten, Norway on 16 February 1999.[8] She grew up with her sisters and her divorced parents,[9] and described Horten as "quiet and kinda boring" in an interview with Triple J in October 2019.[10] Her mother worked with technology and her father worked as a policeman.[3] Her grandfather could play the guitar and piano; however, she grew up without instruments in the home.[11] 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.[2] 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.[10] She credits her grandfather for sparking her interest in music.[10] Ulven taught herself piano, guitar and music production in her bedroom.[12] She began by writing and releasing Norwegian music and planned to study music, but never concluded that she was going to become a musician.[2]
Career
2015–2019: SoundCloud and EPs
After getting a Blue Yeti microphone from her father in 2015,[10] Ulven began writing and releasing Norwegian music to SoundCloud under the moniker of "Lydia X".[2][13] She stopped attending guitar lessons after six months once her teacher refused to acknowledge her interest in songwriting and producing.[10] Ulven coined the stagename "girl in red" after attempting to identify herself in a crowd to a friend via text.[14] Using the new moniker, she published her debut single "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" on SoundCloud in November 2016,[15] where it got about 5 thousand streams within five months.[16] Following the single's feature on the Norwegian music website NRK Urørt, "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" amassed thousands of streams and gained Ulven a large online following.[17]
Ulven's 2018 singles "Summer Depression" and "Girls" gained millions of views and streams online.[18] In early 2019, she won her first award when she was presented with "Norwegian Newcomer of the Year" at the 2018 GAFFA Awards.[19]
Ulven released "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" on Apple Music in March 2018.[20] "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" was listed at number 9 on The New York Times list of "The 68 Best Songs of 2018"[21][22] and won "Untouched of the Year" ("Årets Urørt") at the 2018 P3 Gull awards.[23] Ulven opened for Clairo 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.[24][25][26]
Ulven embarked on her first North American tour supporting Conan Gray in March 2019.[27] 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 company AWAL.[28][29][30] She embarked on her first international headlining "World in Red" tour in September 2019, performing in cities such as Dublin and San Francisco.[31][16] Ulven was nominated for "Newcomer of the Year" at the 2019 P3 Gull awards.[32]
2020–present: If I Could Make It Go Quiet and I'm Doing It Again Baby!
In December 2019, Ulven signed a worldwide recording contract with British music company AWAL.[33][34] In a rare phenomenon for most new label signees, her entire existing discography, which had all originally been self-released, was subsequently registered under this label on all digital music platforms. Ulven appeared on the front cover of both Gay Times and Dork in December 2019,[35][36] as well as the cover of NME in January 2020.[8] She provided the single "Kate's Not Here" for the original soundtrack of the 2020 supernatural horror film The Turning.[37] Ulven was nominated for the "Newcomer of the Year" award and, as a result, the Gramo scholarship at the 2020 Spellemannprisen, also known elsewhere as the Norwegian Grammy Awards.[38] In May 2020, Ulven was included in the annual Dazed 100 list after her single "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" passed 150 million streams.[39]
In mid 2020, girl in red became a popular symbol of queer identification on the online platform TikTok, 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.[40][41] In November, she released the standalone holiday single "Two Queens in a King Sized Bed",[42] shortly before she was awarded "Artist of the Year" at the 2020 P3 Gull Awards.[43] Ulven released her debut studio album, titled If I Could Make It Go Quiet, on 30 April 2021.[44] The album has thus far been supported by four singles: "Midnight Love", in April 2020,[45] "Rue" in August 2020,[46] "Serotonin" in March 2021,[47] and "You Stupid Bitch" in April 2021.[48] The cover artwork for the album, made by Norwegian painter and artist Fredrik Wiig Sørensen, was originally an oil painting on a 80x80 cm canvas titled The Antizero.[49] The artist was not credited in the physical release.
Girl in Red opens for Taylor Swift at The Eras Tour in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 2022, Ulven signed to Irving Azoff's PRO, Global Music Rights (GMR).[50] In February 2022, Ulven signed a record deal with Columbia Records, following the success of If I Could Make It Go Quiet.[51] The label confirmed the signing to American media company Variety.[52] On 14 October 2022, she released her latest single, "October Passed Me By", which is a sequel to "We Fell in Love in October".[53] Ulven was an opening act on multiple shows of the U.S. leg of Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour (2023).[54]
Artistry and influences
The subject matters of Ulven's music range from romance and heartbreak to mental illness and the experience of being queer.[55] She named Taylor Swift as one of her biggest musical influences.[56]
^I'm Doing It Again Baby! did not enter the Dutch Album Top 100, but peaked at number nine on the Dutch Vinyl Albums Chart.[69]
^I'm Doing It Again Baby! did not enter the Sverigetopplistan Albums chart but peaked at number eight on the Sverigetopplistan Physical Albums chart.[70]
^"I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" was originally published on Girl in Red's Bandcamp and SoundCloud in September 2017, before being released on Apple Music in March 2018.[84][20]
^"We Fell in Love in October" was released as a two-song EP with the song "Forget Her".
^"Two Queens in a King Sized Bed" did not enter the UK Single Sales Chart, but peaked at number 23 on the UK Physical Singles Chart.[90]
^ ab"girl in red | Official Website". World in Red. Archived from the original on 25 October 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2019. i'm marie, im 20 years old and from norway. i write, record and produce everything in my room. i started the girl in red project september 2017 and IM STILL GOING STRONG
^ abMosti, Janina (30 November 2019). "Vinnerne av P3 Gull 2019". NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
