Instead of being in a lecture hall, Selma Eriksen made her USC debut on stage during the Welcome Back Concert in August.

Born in Trondheim, Norway, Eriksen, a freshman majoring in popular music performance, said music has always been omnipresent in her life.

“I have been playing piano since I was little, just always singing,” Eriksen said. “There was always sound coming out of my mouth, and I loved covering songs.”

Eriksen said her start in songwriting came from trying to process childhood memories and experiences.

“[At] about 13, I started experiencing life in the way that it would be interesting to write about,” Eriksen said. “In middle school, feelings of jealousy or love or hate or whatever it was, that’s when I was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna pick up a pen and start writing about it.’”

Elise Eriksen, Selma’s sister, explained that growing up in their house meant being surrounded by artistic influences.

“We grew up in a very musical household, so we were always around the piano, around singers,” Elise Eriksen said. “Our grandmother was a part of a lot of theater, so the cinematic side of things comes a lot from [her], which influenced my father, which influenced me.”

Although Selma Eriksen feels that she is the most authentic version of herself on stage, she said there are differences between the artist and her personal side.

“I’m not as confident, and I don’t have as big a personality as I need to fill a stage and be performing in front of 1,000 people,” Selma Eriksen said. “It’s very interesting to notice within myself the change between the second before I walk on stage, talking to my friends and my family.”

Despite being a first-year, Selma Eriksen said there are advantages USC offers in terms of community and networking.

“It’s only my first month, and the little sleep and driving from sessions can be proof of the fact that I really need to figure it out,” Selma Eriksen said. “But that’s what is so exciting — that I get to [be] in such a musical community, and get so inspired and driven by the amount of talent that’s around me.”

Opening for headlining artist Aminé during the Welcome Back Concert was one of Selma Eriksen’s first experiences performing for such a large, high-energy crowd.

“When I was singing, I heard screaming. I saw tears and actual emotion,” Selma Eriksen said. “I feel so thankful and lucky to have done that. … I’ll be walking around campus, and people will come up and be like, ‘I loved you at your show,’ and it’s so cute.”

Louise Bjørnevik-Tho, Selma Eriksen’s best friend since childhood, explained that Selma Eriksen’s personality shines through her music.

“She reflects a lot of her sides in her music through her lyricism and through how her songs are built up,” Bjørnevik-Tho said. “I feel like she keeps it real.”

The songwriting process can start from something as simple as a word, a feeling or even a color, Selma Eriksen said.

“I’ll even go as far as to [have] the color purple [be] what I wanna create today,” Selma Eriksen said. “I like to work that way where I’m creating a world around this song, and then I work from there.”

In 2024, Selma Eriksen debuted with her single, “By Now,” which she feels the strongest connection to out of her discography. The single gained attention through Instagram and has reached nearly 3 million streams on Spotify. After the song achieved success, she said she recognized music’s power of unifying people.

“Not only was it received so well, but it was also received by a lot of Southeast Asia, which I had never interacted with on social media before,” Selma Eriksen said. “I know it’s such a cliche, but it really just shows that [music] is universal.”

Selma Eriksen explained that she measures musical success by the impact she has on people.

“My mind goes to this DM that I got one time from this girl who said that she and her boyfriend had been dating for six months, and the reason that they met was because they bonded over liking ‘By Now,’” Selma Eriksen said. “I was just like, ‘What do you mean that I was writing a silly little song about a boy not texting me back, and two people fell in love because of it?’”

Selma Eriksen said that her artistic journey is far from over, and hopes that by exploring more of herself, the same can be done with music.

“I’m wanting to learn more about myself, my artistry, every single day, and finding different ways to do that has also been a journey,” Selma Eriksen said. “I want to figure out my voice, both the sound of it and also just what I want to say.”