Alma-Sofia Miettinen says she was bullied as a teenager, which led her to discover how therapeutic songwriting could be. “When a pop hit goes big, it goes fucking big,” says the Finland native, 23. “Even haters have to listen.”
In 2013, she placed fifth in the Finnish singing competition Idols (part of the Idol franchise) and began releasing her own edgy, electro-pop music as Alma, signing to Universal Music Group in 2016 (and Warner in the Nordics). She has since built up an impressive history of collaborations including Justin Tranter, Charli XCX, ZHU and even Lindsay Lohan, whose Instagram DM earlier this year led to their collaboration, “Xanax,” in September.
In November, Alma shared the first of her three-part debut album, Have U Seen Her? -- a release strategy aimed at appealing to “people who want the whole album, and people who care about singles” -- and is now opening shows on Christina Aguilera’s U.K. tour. Alma says that her networking skills stem from her Finnish background: “I come from a culture where if we’re friends, we’re going to be friends forever.”