This just a messy thing I threw together, I binged Midnight Mass last night again and it made me wanna draw something with vampires. I was also listening to Aurora + wanting to do a softer vibe, so I was shooting for more of a romantic vampire thing rather than horror vibes. I loveeee the gaussian blur + soft light layer combo.
ALSO YAY FOR T4T VAMPIRES :D
Anyways. Another win for the AURORA x RDR community (I make up the entire population of that place.) The lyrics I used are from To Be Alright but Exist for Love is the feeling I was trying to convey with this piece.
Yapping incoming:
A small very self indulgent project back from May 2025 of a Sky: Children of the Light Aurora. I was being eaten by the brainworms so I've been thinking 'what if for her in-game collab return in June we got new cosmetics inspired with her most recent album...' and here is the result! Second image is a version with the item icons.
Noel Gallagher and Aurora Aksnes, Glastonbury, 2024
For a song that first appeared as a CD-only B-side to a single that didn’t feature on any album, ‘Half The World Away’ has been punching above its weight for some time. Now, it’s the soundtrack to this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert, something which, if your annoying mates on Facebook are anything to go by, is a key event in the festive season.
The cutesy, uber-twee cover is performed by Aurora, a 19-year-old Norwegian singer who released her debut EP earlier this year and is signed to Glassnote Records. Hardly a nobody, but nowhere near the status of Lily Allen and Tom Odell, singers of the past two John Lewis Christmas ads. Yesterday she had just over 11,000 Twitter followers. Expect that to change, dramatically, very soon.
Half The World Away’ – How This Once-Unloved B-Side Took On A Life Of Its Own Andy Welch 6th November 2015, NME
How did the John Lewis advert come about?
It was quite a random thing. I was playing a show in England in July, and I think one of the guys from John Lewis was there at my London show and apparently they liked something about me and my band and later we got a mail offering us to record this song – and we did! I really liked the song, so I said yes.
So what did you think when you first heard it?
It’s a beautiful song. The lyrics are very good, so I thought, ‘This is something I can sing; I can stand for these words because they’re beautiful words.’
Aurora Q&A – Meet The Little-Known Singer Covering Oasis For John Lewis Leonie Cooper 6 November 2015, NME
Did you record it specially for them? Did they choose the song?
They sent me an email asking me to record a version of Oasis’ ‘Half the World Away’. They wanted it to be open and emotional, we did the best we could. They liked the direction but wanted it a bit more quiet and simple, so we worked at it for them. I think it’s a brilliant commercial. The song is very me as well. I probably would have added a little bit more spice but I like it. I doesn’t steal any attention from the video.
Did you know what a big deal it was when you did it? Were you expecting such a big reaction?
I didn’t know at all. I just knew it was a commercial and that was it! Now I understand that it’s kind of a big deal over here. But I didn’t know before, it was kind of a shock. I’m just a girl from Norway – it’s very strange!
Did you cry when you watched it?
Yeah I did, I cried. Me and my band, we all watched the video and cried. Very moving. I cried just telling people about it. I’m really emotional, I cry a lot.
Interview: Aurora, John Lewis advert singer, 25 November 2015, Brixton Blog
Aurora gained a more window-shopping sort of fan base when she sang Oasis’s Half the World Away for the John Lewis Christmas ad in 2015. The single was perfectly fine, heralding the rash of breathy, bloodless cover versions that now dominate television advertising. Her answer, when I ask if she performs the track as part of her set, seems revealing. “Maybe at the first show after the ad came out, I played it then, in the UK. But I haven’t since. There’s a line in there that I don’t like, ‘This old town don’t smell too pretty.’ It doesn’t sound like me. I like many of the other lines, it’s just that one that bothers me, and it made me think, ‘OK, not again.’”
Aurora Aksnes interview: the singer on wildness and whimsy, Dan Cairns, 12 August 2018, The Sunday Times
