Aura Dion (real name Maria Louise Johnsen) is a songwriter and popular singer from Denmark. Her music is a real phenomenon of combining different world cultures.
Although Danish in origin, her roots go back to the Faroe Islands, Spain, even France. But this is not the only reason why her music can be called multicultural.
Aura travels the world and is inspired by the cultures of different countries and peoples, using their musical instruments and motifs in her work. The love for experiments arose from an early age.
Childhood of Marie Louise Johnsen
According to some sources, Maria Louise Johnsen was born in New York, according to others - in Copenhagen. Throughout her childhood and adolescence during high school, she was a citizen of Denmark.
When the girl was 7 years old, her family finally moved to permanent residence on the island of Bornholm (located in the Baltic Sea and belongs to Denmark).
According to one version, her parents and their daughter moved here after long trips around the world (during which Aura was born in New York).
The reason for such wanderings is simple - her parents were hippies. Hence, by the way, French (maternal) and Spanish (paternal) roots.
The cultural affiliation of the parents influenced not only the taste preferences of the girl, but also her upbringing in general. It was her parents who introduced Aura to music at an early age.
It was on the island of Bornholm that Dion wrote her first song. At that time, the child was only 8 years old. Here she graduated from high school, then moved to Australia.
The beginning of world recognition
It was Australia, with its extraordinary and little-known culture to Europeans, that influenced the final development of Aura as a singer. Here the young singer met with the indigenous people, got acquainted with their culture, music and way of life.
The impression from what she saw was so huge that in 2007 she released the song Something From Nothing, inspired by the Australian atmosphere and Aboriginal culture.
The single Something from Nothing passed by the general public. Much more successful was the next single Song For Sophie. These compositions were later included in her debut solo album Columbine.
The album was released in 2008, and the main song in it was the composition I Love You Monday.
It was thanks to this hit that the singer topped the music charts in many European countries (Germany, Denmark, etc.), gained wide popularity and attracted the attention of famous producers.
Strengthening positions on the world music scene
After the success of the debut album (which owes much to the composition mentioned above), Aura received offers from famous producers.
By the way, it was they who called the girl such a pseudonym. The word "aura" is associated with a precious stone that shimmers in different colors - shades of various world cultures.
The second studio album Before the Dinosaurs was released three years after the debut solo album. The genre of this album can not be called unequivocally.
This is folk music again, using instruments and motifs from several world cultures, but with a more pronounced pop sound (this was undoubtedly affected by the participation of famous producers).
The people who participated and directly influenced the success of the albums of such stars as Lady Gaga, Tokio Hotel, Madonna and others worked on Aura's second disc.
Geronimo is the most famous song from the album. The single gained crazy popularity in Germany and confidently stormed the charts in many countries around the world.
Aura also won the "International Breakthrough" nomination at the annual European Border Breakers Award for emerging musicians, which then had a fairly high status.
Features of musical style
Despite the involvement of pop producers, even on the second and subsequent third albums (Can't Steal the Music), Aure managed to maintain the originality of his style and not plunge headlong into pop music.
The musical works are based on not too pronounced folk, which, thanks to the “softened” pop sound, sounds equally interesting for both lovers of popular music and connoisseurs of experimental sound.
Despite the predominance of "live" instruments from all over the world, the arrangements often used electronic sounds that harmoniously complement the overall image. They sound very dynamic due to the serious work on the rhythm.
The last album of the singer was released in May 2017. After its release, Aura suspended the release of new material for some time, but in 2019 she returned with the single Shania Twain, which was warmly received by the public.
Then came the single Sunshine, followed by the song Collorblind.
In March 2020, the singer presented the mini-album Fearless Lovers. Today Aura is actively touring Europe (special emphasis is placed on Germany) and continues to record new material.
