Born in 1994, Maggie Rogers is perhaps best known for the way she gained a reputation on the music scene. This came about in 2016, when she was taking part in a master class exercise. Studying music and recording technology at New York University, Rogers was working on one of her demos when the superstar Pharrell Williams turned up to offer advice. A video of him listening to Rogers' song “Alaska” went viral because of his reaction to the tune. “Wow, I have zero notes”, he said to her, impressed by her songwriting and production style. Having won the admiration of one of the globe's leading recording artists, Rogers has gone on to record and tour in her own name, garnering much praise among the music critic fraternity.

Maggie Rogers history

Originally a harpist, Rogers began playing music from the age of 7 and developed an early interest in the works of the baroque composer Vivaldi and the 20th century luminary, Gustav Holst. She has since said that other influences in her appreciation of music were due to her mother's love of singers such as Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu. As a schoolgirl, Rogers went on to learn the guitar and banjo. She enjoyed folk music and studied at a summer programme run by the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Rogers made her first album, entitled The Echo, in 2012 and reportedly used nothing more sophisticated than a cupboard to act as a recording booth. It was this recording that was used to assist her application to New York University, where she studied under the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. During this educational programme, she recorded a second album, Blood Ballet, a heavily folk-influenced work of 2014.

Following a trip to France, Rogers began to experiment, blending her folky sound with electronica. Ultimately, this led to her recording “Alaska” as a demo. A song that took just a quarter of an hour to write, it was this one that launched her into the public's consciousness, thanks – in no small part – to the intervention of Pharrell Williams. Subsequently released as a single, “Alaska” achieved a number 13 ranking in the Adult Alternative Songs chart in 2016. Two further singles were released for digital download. They were “Dog Years” in 2016 and “On + Off” the following year. A third album, Now That the Light is Fading, came about in February 2017. It was made available on CD and as a vinyl LP, as well as digitally.

Similar artists to Maggie Rogers

At StubHub, you can find tickets for acts such as Beth Orton, as well as Carly Rae Jepsen, who both have their own distinctive sounds.