On A Date With: Bríet

The acclaimed Bríet takes a look back while charting her new course

After another eventful year for pop star Bríet, the Grapevine took her on a date to hear about her creative process, Birnir and Bríet’s Grapevine Music Awards-nominated film 1000 orð, her personal style and upcoming music.

“It’s felt like a whole lifetime these past five years,” Bríet tells me as we sip on filter coffee in Prikið. “I’ve been at this place where it’s just like, I’ve built up a very safe environment, something that I’m very familiar with. And now I’ve thrown it all up in the air, and I’m just looking at it. Sometimes from the ground up, or from the air to the ground. Like, ‘OK, I’m putting the puzzle back together.”

Bríet is at a turning point. During our interview (or, erm, on our date), she reflected on the rapid and overwhelming success of her 2020 album Kveðja, Bríet, which she credits as a major part of the whirlwind that has landed her here today. But again, she’s at a juncture and knows it, stating, “I’ve just been sailing that boat for a while and now I’m ready to jump on another boat.”

Bríet began releasing music in Iceland at just 17-years old. Now, at this high point in her career, she’s chosen to shift to English. “It’s important for people, more people, to understand what you’re saying,” she explains of this decision. She’s been travelling to write songs, noting her time spent in Sweden and in the U.S., specifically the music mecca Nashville. Fans have been getting a taste of the new Bríet, with the bonafide popstar performing her new song “Cowboy Killer” during recent live shows.

The song is soft, a foil to the techno, dance-driven 1000 orð album, or the poppy and synthesised track “Takk fyrir allt”.

“I’m going a little bit back to my roots,” Bríet says of her more recent creations, “which is more singer-songwriter, pop stuff, a little country here and there. I’m just trying to collect that Bríet back together.”

Despite eyeing the international stage, Bríet speaks highly of the Icelandic music scene. Though the artist has played multiple concerts in Harpa and major festivals this year, she counts private and small performances among her favourite moments of the year.

“That’s what I think is very special about Iceland, because you’re never too big to not be a part of something” she notes, adding “you can be at the top — and I’m not saying that I am —  but still, that’s not closing doors to moments that are very precious to me, whether it’s performing at a school, or performing in a wedding.”

The gesamtkunstwerk of it all

While hearing about live performances is exciting, Bríet is also apt to talk about the planning that precedes performance. “I have this whole circle. It’s not just the song, it’s gonna be the video, and it’s the concert, and it’s the whole – there’s a word for it in Germany, I forgot what the word is now, but it’s just the full circle of doing one art, and that’s what is so fun about doing art. It’s so many variations of finishing the project.” We figure out later that she’s speaking about the word “gesamtkunstwerk” – which roughly translates to “total work of art” and is exactly how she explains it: a work of art where multiple mediums coalesce into a whole, singular piece.

A prime example of this in practice is 1000 orð, the album and short film Bríet released with Birnir in 2024. The two first planned to make a song together, but Bríet describes how a song became an album, then they thought of making a music video, “then, ‘wait, what if it’s a short movie?’ Because we have so much to say about this specific feeling, as I was going through a heartbreak.” The collaboration culminated in a choreographed, uncanny film that was the opening film at the Reykjavík International Film Festival in the fall of 2024.

Embracing an openness to changing course is at the core of Bríet. At multiple points in the conversation, she reflects on the conversation itself and points out throughlines as if identifying themes in a songwriting session. “I’ve come to the conclusion that every time I try to decide something, something totally different happens,” she says, nodding to her presently uncertain but exciting bearings. “So the only thing I know is I’m just gonna write — and then life takes you on a journey.”

Come along on our date by watching “On A Date With: Bríet” over on YouTube.