'People are more scared of activists than of a war'

Ahead of her intimate show to raise money for War Child, Norwegian singer Aurora tells Hannah Ewens how 'brain dead' social media has ruined our capacity for empathy, and how she uses her neurodivergence as a 'superpower'

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Aurora Aksnes is not naive about her mission to be a musician and an activist. Ten years ago, this was a variant on the cool multi-hyphenate job description in everyone's Instagram bio. Now, not so much. The current cultural moment is something she describes as a kind of collective dip: a time when public political expression feels unfashionable, even suspect.

“People are more scared of activists than they are of the world dying,” she says, with what sounds like genuine bewilderment. “More scared of activists than of war. Isn’t that interesting?” She pauses and wrinkles her nose, but it’s not a rhetorical question – Aurora is nothing if not curious.

This intersection of activism and music, she says, is made more complicated by who is speaking - look at how people responded to Bob Vylan’s calls for an end to the Israeli military. Most people are generally accepting when a preternaturally youthful white woman talks about Palestine, but not a Black man.

“It’s really sad how scared people are to be in touch with someone who is speaking up against the large forces of the world. It makes us so weak,” says Aurora. “But with Bob Vylan, I was so surprised by how the industry reacted and how the people reacted. Two very different things.” After the duo’s Glastonbury performance, when frontman Bobby Vylan chanted “Death to the IDF” (the Israel Defense Forces), they were dropped by their agent, and their US tour was cancelled after their visas were revoked. Large pockets of the general public were supportive of them, as well as artists like Amyl & the Sniffers, Fontaines D.C. and Massive Attack.

Sitting in the