Glowie

Glowie, Iceland’s brightest shining star, has all eyes on her. Her distinctive sound mesmerises audiences worldwide with its freshness and infectious energy. We caught up with Glowie to talk about her inspirations and the journey ahead.

Where did the name Glowie come from?

The name came randomly, I just wanted to have a different name as an artist and have my real name, Sara, just for me personally. In real life, I’m a very quiet person, speaking in front of people scares me so having a different name helped me get into a whole other character when going on stage and doing interviews. For the last two years, I feel like Sara and Glowie have become the same person - it was just one person this whole time, but I don’t need a different name anymore to be able to do my job, which is a good thing. Now I’m just stuck with this name that I thought I needed. I’ve thought about changing it but Glowie has been such a big part of my journey, of becoming the person I am today, so instead of escaping who Glowie used to be I’m going to embrace the name Glowie and be myself, a whole new Glowie.

What were your musical influences growing up?

I listened to a lot of R&B - Destiny’s Child, Ashanti, Mary J. Blige. I also listened to rock, hip hop and even country music, a little bit of everything. My favourite artists growing up were Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Outkast and Frank Sinatra.

How would you describe your sound? Do you think growing up in Iceland has strongly influenced it?

I’m still creating my sound, but the sound that comes naturally from me is dark, strong, uplifting and has a lot of attitude. I think these things come naturally because I’m from Iceland, everything around me - the nature, the people, the architecture, the weather, the music - it all effects my sound.

Where do you get the inspiration for your songs from? Which one so far is the most meaningful to you?

I don’t write my own songs and I don’t even have a lot of songs out yet. My latest single is the one I’m most proud of because the message that I’m bringing with it is actually coming from me and it’s a message that means a lot to me. I’m just starting, there’s so much more to come from me in the future, I’ve gone through so many changes for the last few years and my latest single is like a new beginning to me. I get inspiration from anything really but mostly from my own emotions, whatever I’m going through or have gone through and whatever I feel like people need to hear from me.

If you were to collaborate with any other artist, who would it be and why?

Collaborating with Alicia Keys would be a dream, I think she has a lot of important things to say and I really think we could make something powerful together. I would also love to collaborate with Khalid, he has such a nice vibe and I think our voices would sound great together.

Where would you see yourself in 10 years time? What does success mean to you?

I have no clue where I’m going to be and what I’m going to be doing in 10 years and I don’t want to know, I like living in the moment. To me, success means being happy, I just want to be able to do what I love, to follow my passion and share my life with the ones I love the most.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about your home country?

Very often people think it’s much colder here than it actually is and that we live in snow houses which is not true. Some people are surprised when they hear that we have our own language.

What is the biggest message you would like to put out with your music?

I have a lot of messages to put into my music, none of them are bigger than the others, they’re all equally important.

What can the world expect from you next?

They should expect something unexpected.