Why AURORA Belongs on the Apple Music Hall Stage

Apple Music Hall opened inside Battersea Power Station on 28 September with Elton John, and it holds just 600 people. The venue says it was designed “intentionally to close the gap between intimacy and production value”, and it’s exactly the kind of room I’d love to see AURORA play.

She isn’t on the bill, but I’d still love to see it happen, and I’d love another chance at a ticket. I haven’t been to Apple Music Hall yet, but I’ve been keeping track of it, and I’ve got my eye on Charli xcx’s show on 2 December.

Bigger venues, less intimacy

AURORA has grown into much bigger venues over the last few years, which is fantastic. It’s great that so many fans are discovering what a brilliant artist she is. As a venue gets bigger, though, not always, but quite a lot of the time, some of the intimacy is lost.

Her songs keep coming back to the same moral compass: connecting people, living kindly and protecting the planet. A set of hers moves between songs that are soft and tender and others that are really powerful and moving, and I think a more intimate venue would allow the audience to connect with all of that and really feel it.

The Union Chapel show I couldn’t get into

I haven’t seen AURORA live myself. I’ve tried for tickets a couple of times without any luck, including her War Child show at Union Chapel in London last December, where I donated a couple of times hoping for a place. I’ve watched the clips from that night since, and seeing her in a setting like that is a big part of why a 600-capacity hall appeals to me so much.

A voice made for a room this size

Her whole performance is quite ethereal, and as I put it in my decade feature, she “moves from a whisper to full power without strain”.

The arrangement I’d want is a mix of stripped-back and full band, and from the performances I’ve watched, it’s a balance she already strikes really well. The band and backing vocals come in when a song needs to be powerful, and everything pulls back to her when it needs to feel tender and soft.

‘The Seed’ and ‘Runaway’ would top my setlist

Picking a setlist is really difficult, because she has so many amazing songs, and to be honest I’d love to see all of them live. If I had to choose, ‘The Seed’ comes first. I’ve seen clips of her performing it at the Royal Albert Hall with Anna Lapwood, and it’s really powerful.

‘Runaway’, whilst I suppose quite a cliché pick, is another one I’d love to see performed live.

Apple Music already knows her well

Part of why the idea came to me is that AURORA already has history with Apple Music. She’s been a guest on Zane Lowe’s show and on The Travis Mills Show, and when TOMORA, her project with Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers, released ‘Somewhere Else’ earlier this year, it premiered on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show alongside an interview with both of them.

Shows at the hall are also livestreamed through Apple Music.

Getting an Apple Music Hall ticket won’t be easy

Tickets are sold through DICE, and the first shows sold out almost instantly. From what I’ve seen they’re around £40, which I think is very reasonable for a room like this. I imagine an AURORA show there would sell out very quickly too.