Girl In Red releases banging new single ‘Midnight Love’ and gives update on debut album

Girl In Red has shared a taster of her hotly-anticipated debut album with new single ‘Midnight Love’, which she tells NME marks “the start of a new phase”.

• The NME Big Read: Girl In Red – “World domination, that’s what I want”

After ranking among the NME 100 2020 and scoring our first Big Read of the year, the rising Norwegian singer-songwriter (real name Marie Ulven) has declared this year as hers to carry out what she calls ‘World In Red’ – a quest for global domination. To start, she has shared the tender and cinematic new track ‘Midnight Love’.

“This song is about me making someone feel really small,” Ulven told NME. “I have a really close friend that’s had this dude calling and texting her all the time, every night. At 3am, he’s like, ‘Are you awake?’ He’s not necessarily using her intentionally, but it’s become this relationship where he’s kinda calling her to get laid. That reminded me of something that I was doing to this girl.

“When I was on tour I would just call her every night. It was a very unhealthy thing for me to do to someone – to make them feel like they weren’t worth that much. It’s just me reflecting on how I made this person feel.”

Ulven continued: “I met up with her a couple of weeks ago after I sent the song. She wanted to meet up because she was like, ‘Wait – did I make you feel like this? What’s going on?’ But then I explained that I was actually writing it from her perspective.”

With ‘Midnight Love’ as her latest song complete this year and “very much a signpost of how she feels right now”, Ulven is ploughing ahead with completing her first album.

“I worked on a couple more ideas after ‘Midnight Love’ and I’m getting more of a direction for the whole record,” she told NME. “The album is still cooking and I want to be sure that I put the best stuff on there. I want it feel present and close to me. I’ve got plenty of bangers that are still on the table.

“Coronavirus ain’t gonna stop World In Red, baby! I’ve got some pretty dope-ass plans for the winter. I’m gonna be fucking mad if they don’t happen.”

This comes after Girl In Red kicked off 2020 by sharing ‘Kate’s Not Here’ from the acclaimed soundtrack to horror movie The Turning.

Check out Girl In Red’s guide to beating quarantine boredom here.