All you need to know about the german-canadian popstar who’s topping the charts with the single No Roots
If you close your eyes and you listen to No Roots, two thoughts come to your mind: Florence Welch and fresh indie dance/pop. Alice Merton is there, somewhere in between. It took some time for the german-canadian singer to reach success, but her efforts are paying off and her song is becoming a global hit.
Alice Merton was born in Frankfurt, but she’s been splitting her life between Germany, England, Canada and the U.S. That’s what her first single, No Roots, is about: the 24 year old singer-songwriter had a very nomadic existence due to her father’s job (he’s a mining consultant) and her mother’s wanderlust.
Merton studied music during her childhood, she attended the conservatory Pepakademie in Germany, but soon she gave up classical music to follow a different direction. After moving to Berlin, she founded a small record label together with her manager Paul Grauwinkel and, in 2016, she released No Roots, a song inspired by her rootless life. An EP, of the same name, was released in February 2017.
Although there’s melancholy behind the song, Merton turned No Roots into a synth pop gem: the opening bass line is irresistible, the rhythm is fun, the melody is catchy. The single started becoming popular in Europe late last year. No Roots topped various U.S. charts and the music video recently reached over 66 million views on YouTube.
