When we first heard No Roots by Alice Merton we contemplated, completely reasonably I might add, "when you come across a debut from an artist that is so good that you worry how she's ever going to follow it up". I wasn't actually the one who wrote that, but our US-based CEO, but I remember sharing the sentiment at the time.

But she had my attention. For those who don't know, her No Roots single references her upbringing as a daughter in a cosmopolitan family, so she's lived in over a dozen countries, but her home market and origin is German. And so when No Roots exploded, all my German-music contacts were like "no, she's the real deal".

For me, it's always a good indication if I hear about an artist from a few completely different sources. We now already had a) the Promogogo US office which is based on the West Coast, b) the German-music industry buzzing about her. And then when it came to her London stop on her tour, I asked around who'd like to go – and many of my London friends were already excited about her all on their own.

That's 3 different markets, from one song.

The next thing I noticed about Alice Merton, was when we all went to her live show in London. I observed first hand her almost Taylor-Swift-esque stage presence. What I mean by that, is she's a storyteller. Even in a crowded room, she speaks in her normal voice, so you feel like the setting is more intimate than it is.

She kept sharing these narratives and personal stories between every song, and then proceeded to perform songs of her own writing that were so inviting and confessional and relatable. And the whole crowd got that, because she'd already given us the context for us to really get her place and perspective, and therefore the ability to participate in her story.

It really makes a big difference. I for one had listened to the No Roots song a million times by that point, but never really known the whole feeling-split between UK/Canada/Germany thing till she literally told me (and you know, a few other hundred people – but whatevs) about what experience compelled her to write that song.

The final thing about Alice Merton that got me, more than once, is when I keep thinking her song Jealousy was actually Florence and the Machine. I'll explain how this happened. 

At any one point, I tend to add any music I want to check out, or someone sends me, on a single playlist that I then shuffle through to find what stands out to me. When I was putting together my most recent one, I put her entire catalogue on there without much thought. 

There are over 500 tracks on this playlist at the moment and as I'm working my way through it, every time Jealousy comes on – my brain goes, "wait. what's this? Is that Florence? Is there a new Florence and the Machine song I haven't heard yet?".  

I wouldn't have thought to compare the two until I genuinely mistook her song and voice and sound as Florence's. But it didn't seem quite right either, so I'd check every time – and as you already know, it was Alice Merton. I thought I was crazy until I saw her '10 second bio' in this Rolling Stone piece that makes the connection as well.