Walking with Maggie Rogers
On a freezing cold night back in 2013, my best friend convinced me to ditch my homework for a show instead. The memory is a fuzzy one, but I remember entering Sullivan Hall in the West Village and seeing a girl with a short blonde bob pick up a banjo and softly sing her heart away. That girl was Maggie Rogers.
Three months ago, I, like the rest of the world, saw a video of the same blonde—no longer a short bob—girl play her heart away in the form of her single, "Alaska", to a famed singer and producer. He was speechless; and that absence of words was all it took for the video to go viral, amassing over almost 2 million views on YouTube.
Over the past few months everyone has waited in anticipation for the official release of "Alaska," and last week that wait came to an end. Since it's upload to Soundcloud last Wednesday, the single has reached over 1 million plays. On Friday, within 24 hours of being on iTunes, it immediately climbed into the Top 100. And to top it all off, last week she was the face of Spotify's New Music Friday, beating out the likes of Kanye West and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Everything is moving at a hundred miles per hour for Maggie, so before it all changes, she takes us on one last walk home through the East Village to remember things as they are right now.
