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The flame-haired Finnish artist ALMA has a gift for surging, story-telling pop. It’s a talent that has already amassed over 650 million streams and a Platinum-certified UK breakthrough hit in the shape of ‘Chasing Highs’. And it’s also a skill that has seen her hand-picked as co-writer for iconic, empowered female artists such as Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Lana Del Rey,Charli XCX and Tove Lo.
ALMA’s brand new single ‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ follows ALMA’s recent track ‘I Forgive Me’ and comes as she prepares to release her long-awaited second album in 2023. Listen HERE. Watch the official video HERE.
Emerging as longer autumn nights begin to draw in, ‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ finds ALMA remembering how a past summer went horribly wrong - the lyrics “Fucked up in July / Missed you in August” show just how quickly things disintegrated.
But while ‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ is a song of guilt and grief, ALMA expresses those emotions into a song that’s utterly euphoric. Weaving her heartfelt topline around an irresistibly pulsating synth-pop melody, it charges pure pop infectiousness with regret for what has happened with a nostalgia for everything that has been lost.
ALMA says, “In ‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ I go back in time, I think it was summer 2018/2019 when I really felt like I lost my control. I was doing show after show and going out a lot. That mix is just not great. We’re all human and when life gets too much we tend to do things that hurt us and others. I think for me the biggest lesson that summer was that I’m so privileged to have such an amazing group of friends around me. Even if I lose my control they will always be there to back me up and help me come out the other side. We are there for each other, we support each other no matter what.”
‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ was the only song that ALMA started working on via Zoom during lockdown, and she later completed it in Sweden during sessions with Elvira Anderfjärd (Taylor Swift, Tove Lo).
Elvira Anderfjärd is also one of ALMA’s main creative collaborators for her upcoming second album, along with Swedishproduction duo Decco who are in the process of following their huge credits (Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez, Calum Scott) with their own upcoming debut artist album.
While ALMA’s debut album , ‘Have U Seen Her?’, was intimate and confessional, her new music is even more personal. The process was therapeutic: a chance to express things previously unspoken but also to learn to understand and forgive herself for the mistakes she’s made. It was also born from the personal touch of working with select collaborators close to home, rather than travelling the globe for shorter but less immersive sessions with a selection of big names.
As with most of ALMA’s forthcoming new music, ‘Summer Really Hurt Us’ is fun but vulnerable, spirited yet self-analytic, escapist and entrancing. Just like its creator (and indeed everyone), it is at times both fantastic and flawed. Pop music performed by an artist with a star talent who is otherwise just like us.
ALMA also announces a European headline tour this November. Tickets for the shows, listed below, are on sale HERE:
NOVEMBER
15th – Netherlands, Amsterdam, Maschinenhaus
17th - Germany, Berlin, Maschinenhaus
18th - Finland, Helsinki, Tavastia
23rd - UK, London, Omeara
25th - Sweden, Stockholm, Bar Brooklyn
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